Blues and Jazz
One of the most famous jazz instruments, the saxophone, was invented by a Belgian: Adolphe Sax.
Some known Belgian blues artists are Elmore D (who sings in English and Walloon dialect), and the Flemish Roland van Campenhout (also known as Roland).
In the 1930s, the Belgian gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt became one of the first important jazz musicians to be born in Europe, and one of the most important jazz guitarists of all time. In 1949 Toots Thielemans joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. He moved to the US in 1952 where he was a member of Charlie Parker's All-Stars. Toots Thielemans is often credited by jazz aficionados and jazz critics of being the greatest jazz harmonica player of the century. His music has been used in films like Midnight Cowboy and Turkish Delight, and television series such as Sesame Street and Baantjer. Other wellknown Belgian artists are Aka Moon, Bobby Jaspar, Bert Joris, Philip Catherine, Steve Houben, Octurn and René Thomas
Read more about this topic: Music Of Belgium
Famous quotes containing the words blues and/or jazz:
“As one delves deeper and deeper into Etiquette, disquieting thoughts come. That old Is- It-Worth-It Blues starts up again softly, perhaps, but plainly. Those who have mastered etiquette, who are entirely, impeccably right, would seem to arrive at a point of exquisite dullness. The letters and the conversations of the correct, as quoted by Mrs. Post, seem scarcely worth the striving for. The rules for finding topics of conversation fall damply on the spirit.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons.”
—Imamu Amiri Baraka (b. 1934)