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Pierre
Lacocque: Bandleader
Words by Aaron Weisbrod
On the back of Mississippi Heat's CD Footprints
On The Ceiling, there is a photograph of a man with
his eyes closed, playing the harmonica with such
passion, that one is almost stunned by the actual
silence of that frozen moment. Yet when he is heard
live or on record on his harmonica, the listener
is caught up by its fervent, inspiring presence.
The man behind the harmonica is Pierre Lacocque,
Mississippi Heat's band leader and song writer.
Pierre was born on October 13, 1952 in Israel of
Christian-Belgian parenthood. However, shortly after
his birth, Pierre's family moved to Germany and
France before going back to Belgium in 1957. By
the age of 6, Pierre had already lived in three
countries. A preview to his future musical career
on the road. Pierre's childhood in Brussels resonated
with the intense and impassioned Scriptural upbringing
of his father, a Protestant minister, now living
in Chicago, who became a worldfamous Old Testament
scholar. Pierre, his brother Michel (Mississippi
Heat's General Manager) and his sister Elisabeth
(who did the artwork design on the Heat's first
three CD's) went to a Jewish Orthodox School in
Brussels. After the Holocaust, Pierre's parents
and paternal grandfather (also a minister) felt
that their children and grandchildren should learn
about the suffering and plight of the Jews, as well
as about Judaism in general and its philosophical
and theological depths.
At the Athenee Maimonides (Brussels) they were the
only non-Jews ever (and since) to attend. At the
Athenee Maimonides they learned old and modern Hebrew,
all the religious rites and prayers, as well as
studied the rabbinical commentaries on the books
of the Old Testament. With the devotion to his studies,
there was little time or room for much else. The
family culture and priority was on intellectual
pursuits, not on play such as soccer or music (two
old interests of his). Serious studying, the reading
of existential philosophers and theologians, were
the only worthwhile activities condoned and encouraged
by Pierre's parents, his father in particular. But
thanks to the radio in young Pierre's room, there
was just enough opportunity to unravel the subtle
auditory endowments of Destiny. From the radio he
heard and was moved by such soulful singers as Ray
Charles, Otis Redding, and Aretha Franklin. Pierre
was careful to keep the volume down. This is where
he began to appreciate African- American music.
...
The sound of the harmonica was first introduced
to him when he lived in Alsace, France. His father
was then a minister in a small village called Neuviller
(1955-1957), not far from Albert Schweitzer's birthplace
in Gunsbach. Pierre's father had bought him a green
plastic harmonica toy. He was about three years
old at the time. He remembers blowing in and out
of it and feeling a surge of sadness that felt so
familiar. As he experimented with the toy he often
cried listening to its plaintive sounds. It was
not until he came to Chicago in 1969, however, that
he finally detected his destiny: playing the blues
on the harmonica. He had never heard the blues saxophone-like
amplified harmonica sound until then.
In 1969 Pierre's father received a full-time Old
Testament professorship at the Chicago Theological
Seminary, located on the University of Chicago's
campus. The family decided to move permanently to
the Windy City and leave Belgium for good. Pierre
was sixteen years old.
The golden era of the 1950's electric Chicago sound
was still having a vibrant impact on local bands.
Luminaries such as Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Little
Walter, Junior Wells, Elmore James, James Cotton,
Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Rogers, Jimmy Reed, and so many
others, were still dynamic forces to reckon with
in the late 1960's. Unfortunately some had died
by the time Pierre arrived in Chicago. Little Walter,
Pierre's mentor and main influence, died in 1968
following a head wound he acquired during a fight.
... Otis Spann, Muddy Waters' long-time band member
and perhaps the best blues piano player ever, had
also recently died of cancer.
On a Saturday night in the early Fall of 1969, Pierre
decided to go to a concert being held at the University
of Chicago's Ida Noyes. He had no exposure to Chicago
Blues before then, and had no expectations as to
what he was about to hear. As he listened to the
band playing, he became overwhelmed with emotion
and excitement at a sound he never heard before:
A saxophone-sounding amplified harmonica! In his
own words, " I was absolutely stunned and in
awe by the sounds I heard coming from that harmonica
player and his amplifier ... It sounded like a horn,
yet distinct and unique". The harmonica player
went by the name of Big Walter Horton, a name he
had never heard before but who changed his life
forever. What he heard that night, the music, the
mood, the style and sounds, moved his soul.
From that moment on, Blues music, and blues harmonica
in particular, became an obsession. Two days later,
on a Monday morning, Pierre bought himself his first
harmonica (or "harp" as it is called in
blues circles). Next he was buying records, instruction
books, anything to do with the blues harp. He was
talking to people, picking up new knowledge wherever
he could. Obsession led to passion and intense dedication,
and Pierre was practicing the harp six, seven hours
a day, notpaying attention to the clock (although
he is known to check the clock now to remind him
when he needs to get off the stage, because if it
was up to him he would keep on playing beyond the
scheduled sets! His band members tease him about
that).
Pierre eventually finished High School (like Paul
Butterfield, Pierre graduated from the University
of Chicago's High School, better known as "The
Lab School". The two never met, however, as
Butterfield had left the school before 1969). Pierre
then left Chicago to go to College in Montreal,
Canada. He played harp through his College years,
making a few dollars here and there. While at Stanislas
College and later, at McGill University, both located
in Montreal, Pierre got his first live experience
with a local blues group named the ALBERT FAILEY
BLUES BAND. About a year later, Pierre joined another
band: OVEN. That was in the early 1970's when he
lived for six years in that French-Canadian city
(1970-1976). OVEN gigged regularly, and eventually
won the Montreal Battle of The Bands contest in
the summer of 1976. Unfortunately, the promoter
who promised the winner $1,000 Canadian dollars
and a record contract skipped town, and was never
seen or heard from again. The news of the winand
of the shady promoter did make the Montreal newspapers
though...
Not having the ill-fated Canadian blues career anymore,
Pierre, 24 at the time, and disillusioned, came
back to Chicago. Although playing the blues on the
harp could never be more fitting as it was at this
point, it couldn't pay the bills. And it was at
this point (1976) that Pierre described his life
as going "the intellectual route". Pierre
decided to further his education in Clinical Psychology.
It was during this period that Pierre met his Social
Worker wife Vickie, and began working as a clinician
at a Mental Health center in the Pilsen neighborhood
of Chicago. For the next decade, Pierre was involved
with his psychological work and research, finishing
a doctorate at Northwestern University and publishing
professional articles and a book, until a major
insight took place in 1988. Pierre, an accomplished
36 years-old man, who had been studying Existentialism,
Theology, History of Religions, etc. began to feel
a void in his life. He began to re-evaluate his
life and look into his own heart. Eventually he
heard the answer loud and clear: He missed playing
the blues. The awareness struck him like a beautiful
horn, coming from an amp, distinct and unique, and
yet a sound he had heard before, hidden all these
years, but definitely not lost.
And this is where Pierre's passion revived, his
fire and "joie de vivre" rekindled, his
ability to take what was lost inside of him all
these years and turn it into the raw, powerful heat
that it is today. |
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