Toots Thielemans Quotes

Well, being a jazz musician is not a rose garden!

The harmonica is a great instrument.

You can be in Tokyo or Alberta at four in the morning in your hotel and you can still practice if you feel like it. A trombone cannot do that at four in the morning.

My parents had a sidewalk cafe: every Sunday there was an accordion player and apparently I went through the motions, squeezing a shoebox. One of the regulars in 'the cafe said to my father: "I think you should get your son an accordion-that's what he's trying to do, with that shoebox." So they got me a little cardboard diatonic accordion-I still have it. I started to play the National Anthem, and things like that. It seems I was musically gifted-but my parents just never pushed in that direction.

Jazz is very much alive. Everywhere I go there's a new generation of musicians playing Jazz music.

My parents had a pub and each Sunday there was an accordionist. They have told me that when I was in my cradle, I already was imitating the gestures of the musician.

And if I have a strong point, it's that I like to believe it's not cheap or schmaltzy sentimentality.

My father bought me a little cardboard accordion, and when I was three I got this little machine.