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Interview with André Labonté About Marcel Messervier

Black and white photograph of Marcel Messervier. He is wearing a striped jacket and a patterned tie. Two people in suits and ties are standing behind him.

Audio: André Labonté interviewed by Camille Brochu.

Archives of the Musée de l’accordéon, 1995.

1995

Photograph: Marcel Messervier.

Archives of the Musée de l’accordéon.

Collection: Carrefour mondial de l’accordéon.

Photo credit: Gilles Gagné

1989

Interviewer: But in terms of music, whose tunes did you play at parties? Did you play music by Gérald Lajoie?

André Labonté: No, it was mainly tunes by Marcel [Messervier].

Interviewer: So, Marcel’s music was what you played at dance parties?

André Labonté: He was our idol. He’s still our idol.

Interviewer: He was a big influence?

André Labonté: He was the best we had. Now, [Raynald] Ouellet is a capable musician.

Interviewer: Did you also learn tunes, pieces of music, by listening to albums? Or to the radio?

André Labonté: Mostly cassettes.

Interviewer: Whose cassettes?

André Labonté: Marcel [Messervier]’s. I wasn’t familiar with Gérard Lajoie.

Interviewer: You weren’t familiar with his music?

André Labonté: He was a guy from [inaudible]. We’d never been [inaudible]. We really liked how Marcel played, so we tried to emulate him. And we loved it!