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Inetta Visor

Inetta Visor has blessed MISSISSIPPI HEAT with her voice since 2001. Her powerful, Etta James-like voice on Footprints On The Ceiling, Glad You’re Mine, and One Eye Open with the Heat is a testament to this blessing. Inetta was born February 4,1955 on the South Side of Chicago. She graduated from Simeon Vocational High School in 1972, and studied electronics at the Omega Institute, and worked as a radio engineer for then Chicago Alderman Roman Pucinski from 1975 to 1983. Ever since a child, Inetta had always had a passion for singing. It was a rare moment when she was found not singing or humming a song to herself. Her favorites at the time were Rock ‘N Roll tunes by such bands as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. One day she decided to try out for an audition she heard announced by a WVON radio DJ for Rock ‘N Roll choir DUBBER RUCKlE. Apparently Inetta was a natural, and she was selected to sing with this choir. She sang her first professional gig with them in 1971, and continued to hone her singing skills on and off the stage whenever she could, as she continued to work as a radio engineer to pay the bills. In 1979 she began to sing with a Rhythm and Blues choir TWT (THE WHOLE TRUTH) founded by a former Dubber Ruckie member. With TWT Inetta sang throughout the week at various clubs with this 12-piece or more band. Even though some nights she only came back with very little (as low as $15.00!), she gathered great experience on stage. In 1984, Inetta left TWT and put together her own choir (SISTERS WITH VOICES). Not soon after putting out an ad for her choir, she received a phone call from a man named Marc Pulido interested in her services. Pulido told her he was with a band by the name of SKYLINE, and many of their gigs were on the North Side of Chicago. He offered them to work with him. Every one in Inetta’s group (but herself) refused to participate due to the racial implications of playing on the North Side. Inetta optimistically took this offer and sang back-up until this band disbanded in 1986 (due to difficulties in obtaining a record deal). Inetta eventually began working at a South Side daycare center, after she left her radio engineer job in 1983. Her goal was to eventually work as a recording engineer, to better pay the bills. But at that time it was difficult for a female to get this type of position. However, out of the blue she got a phone call in 1993 from her former band member acquaintance Marc Pulido. After seven years he had not forgotten her voice. Pulido was now with a band named TAINTED BLUE. She joined that band as a back-up singer, and a few months later was their lead singer. Pulido eventually left TAINTED BLUE to found his own group World Class Noise, a 12 piece group, which Inetta did back-up vocals for as well (she is on 6 of their CDs). She sang with TAINTED BLUE until they broke up in 1997. Inetta then took work with the Illinois Student Assistance Program (State of Illinois) in 1989 for more stability as she continued to press her musical career. In 2000 she was recommended by longtime acquaintance Theresa Davis to well-established (since 1991) Chicago Blues band MISSISSIPPI HEAT, who already had several CDs out, their most recent being Handyman (2000) winning Best Blues CD of the Year by Real Blues Magazine. Theresa Davis, who had sung for the Emotions, had recommended Inetta, as she herself did not see blues as her musical form, and therefore did not see the Heat as an ideal match for her. MISSISSIPPI HEAT at this point were looking for a replacement for their then singer Katherine Davis leaving the band to promote her new Jazz CD. Inetta auditioned for them at Koko Taylor’s club on Wabash. As it turned out Katherine Davis stayed a while longer than anticipated. In 2001 Inetta decided to give Michel Lacocque (Pierre’s brother and band manager) a call to offer her services to MISSISSIPPI HEAT once again. Just as she was about to pick up the phone, while looking at the business card, she received a call from no one other than Michel himself! The rest is history. Since she joined the band, they have recorded three albums and a DVD with Inetta, all of which have received awards. Inetta also won the Best Blues Singer competition at the House Of Blues (Chicago) on July 10, 2003.

Pierre Lacocque

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 world famous 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. Pierre Lacocque: BandleaderFrom 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, not paying 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 win and 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.

Kenny Smith

Kenny Smith was raised in the heart of the Chicago blues scene. While other babies listened to nursery rhymes, Kenny listened to the blues, and the blues in Kenny’s house were played by America’s finest. His father, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, is one of the best-known living blues drummers. Willie played in Muddy Waters’ band for some 30 years. So, it’s only natural that Kenny would grow up with a drumstick in his hand, and a back beat in his head. Muddy Waters and his band were like family to Kenny. They encouraged his music, and were his mentors. In a recent article about Kenny’s drumming capabilities Robert Margolin said: “…Kenny … plays in the moment and provides a great drum part in any musical situation. He listens and creates in an instant. Kenny is certainly already one of the best drummers out there. Trust me on that. I’ve been on bandstands with some of the best…and the worst.” While Kenny acknowledges that his father taught him 99% of what he knows, he has also studied with such great drummers as Odie Payne, Fred Below, Earl Phillips, S. P. Leary, Francis Clay and Art Blakey. Kenny has performed with an impressive list of blues legends, that includes Pinetop Perkins, Big Bill Morganfield, Homesick James, Honeyboy Edwards, Henry Townsend, Rusty Zinn, Fingers Taylor, Mississippi Heat, and The Cashbox Kings – just to name a few. Besides playing and recording with Mississippi Heat since 1997, he has played on more than 50 albums with people like Jody Williams, Big Jack Johnson, Aron Burton, Lurrie Bell, Dave Myers, Kim Wilson, Paul deLay, Junior Wells, and the Legendary Blues Band. Kenny reports: “I am seriously developing my piano playing and my vocals. The harp is just a hobby, but the drums are my heart and soul. If there comes a time when I feel the blues is dying, I will make a Kenny Smith CD to carry on the tradition, to keep the blues alive. I grew up with the blues all around me, from the very day I was born, so the traditional blues will always be a big part of me. I can play different styles of music but I learned it all from the blues.”

Reaching out to my fan base from Robert A Wolf

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