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Bluesette was written by harmonica player Toots Thielemans. It became an international hit in the 1960’s and was original recorded with him whistling the melody along with a guitarist. This is a great 3/4 tune to add to your repertoire.
Want some great jazz improv exercises to practice over this jazz standard? Check out 2 Jazz Improvisation Exercises Over Bluesette.
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Hi, Brent – I’m 72, been playing the Hammond B3 for 59 years. I know a bit about the recording presented here; it was actually done in 1962 but not released until ’64. In addition, it was indeed “recorded with him whistling the melody along with a guitarist” but the guitarist in this case was himself – he was doubling his guitar lines with whistling, something he was known for. (Try it – it’s hard as hell, much harder than singing scat along with your lines – in fact, it’s so hard it’s frustrating, since you have to have great whistling chops, and almost no-one does.) Anyway, I just thought I’d set the record straight: Toots was both the guitarist and the whistler on the cut, and it was a single-pass real-time recording – no double-tracking, punching in or other tricks. Toots did it live.