André Brasseur

André Brasseur ( born December 11, 1939 in Ham -sur -Sambre, Belgium) is a Belgian keyboard player. It belongs next to Franz Lambert and Klaus Wunderlich of the most famous European representatives of the Party organ sounds in the 1960s and 1970s.

Biography

Even with 6 years of André Brasseur took the decision to become a musician. At the Music Academy of Tamines he enjoyed a classical education at the cello. In 1959, he even won the first prize of the Academy of Music for his cello. In the early 1960s he moved to the piano, founded with two colleagues, a jazz trio and performed at several jazz festivals.

In 1962 he was called up for military service. Here he met his main instrument - the Hammond organ. With its up to the seven-member military band he played well-known standards like "On the Sunny Side of the Street " became already the first original compositions. Highlights were to make music, the annual participation at the Jazz Festival in Comblain -la-Tour, where he got the opportunity, among other things with Benny Goodman. In the following years he wrote for a Belgian television program entitled " Special 230 ", which was very well known.

In 1965 he achieved his great breakthrough. His instrumental " Early Bird " ( nickname of the first commercial communications satellite Intelsat I) rose to number one in the Belgian charts. Overall, the title remained four months in the charts and sold around the world ten million times. In other countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and even the United States, the piece was a huge success. In television commercials was " Early Bird " as the theme song for the "Lufthansa cocktail" of Berentzen. In the late 1970s sounded " Early Bird " as a theme song of the show hosted by Hanni Vanhaiden TV game show " Micro Macro".

Another chart success, he held, with l' Atlantide / Studio 17. The song was ranked number 16 in Belgium and stayed a month in the charts. Other known titles that could be heard frequently in the German radio were, Speedy N ° 1 (especially in hr3 in the popular radio show " Hit Parade International"), Racing Time, The Kid, Holiday and Whistling Boogie. Radio Luxembourg used in the 1970s, a section of the title " Special 230 " as the jingle before the traffic announcements, the Bayerische Rundfunk entitled " Quello " as the theme song of the weekly charts show " The hit of the week ".

In the 1970s he was a member of " Blues Workshop", the band of the famous Belgian blues guitarist Roland Van Campenhout, whose tours have taken him to the Far East. 1990 and 1992 he played with the Vaya Con Dios albums " Nights Owls " and " Time Flies " the keyboards. Today André Brasseur appears under the name " Brasseur and combo " on.