He died already on April 6th, aged 77, but I learned of it only today. Great French singer and musician but virtually unknown outside of France, I believe.

I discovered him on a trip through southern France in Summer '81, when Radio Monaco played what later turned out to have been the complete Live at Mogador set (3 LPs). It was soon clear I wanted that music but had no idea who the guys were. Fortunately my portable radio was one of those radio-plus-cassette combos, so I taped over one cassette whatever I could catch off the broadcast. Then I went straight to the next record shop, played the guy there the music from the tape and said, "I want that!". The guy at the record shop just said, "Ah, that's Jacques Higelin!" and so I got my copy of "Higelin à Mogador", one of the truly great European live albums of the 70s. The music has aged extremely well and nowhere sounds dusted. Still a regular on my sound system, although mostly from the CD now (how I got the CD is a different story ...).

Later I got a couple more albums but in my book, Mogador is the best. If you can get hold of a copy (or maybe a youtube stream) of Higelin à Mogador and you don't know the album yet, check it out!

I also love le Live a Mogador ! Classic Higelin.
I had the chance to see him live a few times since the 1990s. It was always great shows with a lot of energy and improvisation. You never knew how long could last a song or a show.

I love his rock period from 1974 -1978 :BBH75, Irradie ,Alertez les Bebes et No man's land. He wasn't born a rocker but he decided to become one for few years and he was great at it. Excellent musician, fun guy, talented lyricist and very generous performer

[youtu.be]

Rockandroll,
Mops



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-04-17 12:16 by rollmops.

Quote
rollmops
I love his rock period from 1974 -1978 :BBH75, Irradie ,Alertez les Bebes et No man's land. He wasn't born a rocker but he decided to become one for few years and he was great at it.

Yeah, the material on Mogador is drawn from his 74-79 studio albums. It's a pity that there doesn't seem to be another live album from the latter half of the 70s.

Is it known what was the cause of his death or his illness? I did a (tiny little) bit of googling which didn't yield much.

There are other live albums from the 80s and later. But no one is rock n roll as Le Mogador. That is true.

The album No Man's Land was recording in le Château d'Hérouville where lot of people such as Pink Floyd recorded. Very well produced to my ears.

He was 77 years old.

That is a great story doity.
Looked up a few (new to me) charisma and talent evident,
and the French language beautiful.

The studio albums sound at times a bit sterile to me but the Mogador live album (in fact 3 LPs, or 2 CDs) delivers all the goods. Great songs, great playing, great sound.

Like with many other people/groups that were great in the 70s, his later work is getting more streamlined.

I regret never having seen him in concert but I think he never toured outside of France.

He surely went as far as Quebec and surely not so much in the non French speaking countries.

OK, Quebec sounds reasonable (la francophonie...). In Italy, Holland and the German-speaking area he was completely unknown, I'd say. If I hadn't caught by chance that Radio Monaco broadcast I would have never heard of him.