It was Friday!!

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations and a trip down to Norfolk took me beyond range for uploading!

This is Robin Sunflower in his kaleidescopic jacket on harmonica with John Ellis on keyboards and you can just about make out Ted above his cymbals. Unknowingly Robin took the jacket off while I was sketching him but was quite happy to put it back on for me to finish!!

Robin has been inspired by "Toots" Thielemans, who was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1922. He played accordion at the age of 3 and started playing harmonica as a hobby. His first idol was Django Reinhardt and very early he was influenced by Charlie Parker. He got his nickname "Toots" after Toots Mondello and Toots Camarata. First international break through was when he joined Benny Goodman on an European Concert tour in 1950. Immigrating to the USA in 1952, he became a member of the Charlie Parker's All Stars in Philadelphia and worked for 6 years with the George Shearing Quintet.

Toots originated a new sound by whistling and playing the guitar in unisono which he did for commercials. The best known is "Old Spice". In 1962 he composed " Bluesette". You can hear him as harmonica soloist on many filmscores such as, Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, Cinderella Liberty, Turks Fruit, Jean de Florette... You can also hear him as a soloist on the TV theme of Sesame Street.

Toots said - "I feel best in that little space between a smile and a tear"