[Harp-L] Toots, Burt Bacharach, Tommy Morgan

[Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>]

   Was reading Burt Bacharach's new autobiography and was pleasantly
surprised to see Toots Thielemans mentioned as an inspiration to the
composer:

"It's just a number (age), although I do find myself checking on people
like Toots Thielemans, the great harmonica player.  He's ninety and he's
had a stroke but he's still playing in Antwerp and three nights later he's
in Tokyo.  Nobody ever said you have to stop making music at a certain time
in your life and I can tell you from experience, doctors don't know about
this, either.  They really don't."

   The only other reference in the book to our instrument was a detailed
account of Whitney Houston's firing from the Oscars in 2000.  Bacharach had
planned to use Houston in a duet with Dionne Warwick "together with a great
harmonica player".  Wondering who the "great harmonica player" was, I went
to YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zobKopuUQZ00).  Although the
image is pretty grainy, about 9:45 in, it  looks like Tommy Morgan to me.
Who certainly is a "great harmonica player."  And a nice compliment to
Tommy; considering the number of session players Bacharach has worked with
over six decades and Burt's reputation as a perfectionist.

Mick Zaklan