You can be in Tokyo or Alberta at four in the morning in your hotel and you can still practice if you feel like it. A trombone cannot do that at four in the morning.

He performed for the occasion and left the stage standing among his friends. In 1984 he recorded the final album of Billy Eckstine (I Am A Singer) featuring very beautiful ballads and standards arranged and conducted by Angelo DiPippo. 1979)
With Dizzy Gillespie:
Digital at Montreux 1980 (Pablo 1980)
With Urbie Green:
The Fox (CTI 1976)
With Oscar Peterson:
Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival 1980 (1980 Pablo Records)
With Billy Joel:
"Leave a Tender Moment Alone" (1984 Columbia Records).

Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century. In 2009 he became NEA Jazz Master the highest honour for a jazz musician in the United States.