Marc Chemillier, Shlomo Dubnov, Ke Chen, Mikhail Malt, Gérard Assayag. A posthumous improvisation by Toots Thielemans. Toots Thielemans (1922-2016). A Century of Music across Europe and America, Royal Library of Belgium, Bruxelles., 2023.
Abstract: In jazz, the presence of the musician is of such central importance that the recordings considered to be the best were often live recordings, preferably made in small intimate clubs. The evolution of live performance technologies tends to blur this notion, first with the gigantism of concerts, and more recently, with the appearance of simulacra in rap and pop music in the form of holograms (Tupac), virtual stars (Hatsune Miku), video game avatars (Travis Scot), and the most recent example based on voice synthesis (Drake and The Weeknd). Toots Thielemans was one of those jazzmen whose presence left an indelible mark on a concert or a recording session, so strong was his musical personality and his immediately recognizable harmonica playing . We propose here to try an experiment consisting in creating a musical avatar of Toots Thielemans through AI and reflect on what it means with regard to his presence and personality.
