Toots Thielemans I hear him." During an interview in 1988, he recalled, "I guess I was born at the right time to live and adapt and be touched by the evolution in the jazz language." In 1949 he joined a jam session in Paris with Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Max Roach and others. He first heard the faster bebop style of jazz from records by Parker and Dizzy Gillespie after they had reached Belgium after the war. They became his musical "prophets." As his small collection of jazz records grew, the music of Benny Goodman and Lester Young began to
Jazz Fest Wien Square. Apart from jazz, soul, blues, rock and pop musicians and a diversity of world and fusion musicians and many genres of jazz participate, usually about 50 artists annually. At the very first festival in 1991 were artists such as Jan Garbarek, Oscar Peterson, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Manhattan Transfer, Dizzy Gillespie, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, John Zorn, Elvin Jones, Gilberto Gil, Miles Davis, George Benson, Carlos Santana, Charlie Haden, Elvin Jones and Joe Zawinul etc. The 2006 festival saw the likes of Michiel Borstlap, Madeleine Peyroux, Chick Corea, Richard Galliano, Candy Dulfer, the Neville Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Randy Newman