‘Little Things Mean a Lot”: Understanding the 'Genius' of Toots Thielemans through an Organological Examination of the Chromatic Harmonica Playing

Toots Thielemans (1922-2016) is best remembered today as one of the greatest exponents of his signature musical instrument, the chromatic harmonica, to the point of often being considered a genius in the field. While it's no exaggeration to say that he developed an uncommon, full mastery of the instrument, his achievements should not necessarily remain unexplained and wrapped in the opaque, mysterious veil of 'genius'.
In this poster, I propose to explore Toots Thielemans' jazz harmonica playing through the lens of the instrument's organological particularities. After a detailed description of the functioning, possibilities and limits of this little-known instrument, some examples of Thielemans' recordings will be examined. Using transcriptions, I will explore how his playing has evolved over the course of his career, between the need to adapt the common language of jazz to the particularities of the instrument and the ambition to make the most of the instrument's affordance to construct an idiomatic and original improvisational language.