It stands to reason that Belgian harmonica player Toots Thielemans"s main influence was Django Reinhardt. His wispy, wistfully romantic tone immediately suggests nostalgia for another time, when early American jazz filtered through gypsy sensibilities before reaching Thielemans"s native country, and the music signified bohemian nonconformity. The Live Takes has Thielemans playing before an audience thirsty for a similar nostalgia. Renditions of "Summertime" and "Body and Soul" are reverently presented as if time had stood still--around 1935, when jazz evoked an escape from narrow, bourgeois minds. Indeed, the entire album has a similar sound and feel, with slow, gently romantic tempos prevailing. Toots Thielemans is not so much an acquired taste as a sui generis musician: he is the jazz harmonica. Whether you find his unique sound evocative or cloying, we probably won"t see his like again. --Wally Shoup