Freddy Cousaert (1937 – 19 August 1998) was a
Belgian DJ, club owner and concert promoter, who was influential in developing an audience for authentic
rhythm and blues music in Europe, and, in particular, for his role in the career of
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
.
Life
From the late 1950s, Cousaert ran a club in
Ostend that became known for playing American
R&B music which was, at the time, rarely heard in Europe.
Eric Burdon, who visited the club as a teenager, said that "We were attracted by the sounds on the jukebox... It wasn't the normal top 10 stuff. He had
Ray Charles and
Charles Brown, blues people." Cousaert regularly visited the Q Club in
London, run by Jamaican-born
Count Suckle, which was frequented by many musicians on the
British R&B scene.
[ "Marvin Gaye: From Misery to Ostend", ''DJ Premier Blog'', 2 April 2010]
Retrieved 19 February 2014 By the late 1960s, Cousaert ran the Groove
discotheque in Ostend, playing mid-tempo
soul and
ska music that later developed into what became known in Belgium as the
Popcorn
Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion.
A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...
style.
[Michel Scarpone, "History of Belgium Popcorn", first published in ''Discoveries'' magazine]
. Retrieved 6 February 2014 In the 1960s and 1970s, Cousaert also worked as a
public relations executive for
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
in Europe.
[
In 1980, American soul singer Marvin Gaye had completed a tour in Britain, had developed a serious dependence and addiction to cocaine, and was having to deal with major taxation issues with the US ]Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
. He contacted Cousaert, who persuaded him to relocate to Ostend. Gaye lived there with Cousaert and his family for several months in 1981, avoiding heavy drug use, exercising in a local gym, attending a local church, regaining his confidence and performing in concert in Ostend. With writer David Ritz, Gaye also wrote his comeback song, " Sexual Healing", while in Belgium. Cousaert was involved in Gaye signing a new contract with Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
, before he returned to the US.["Newsline...", ''Billboard'', 5 September 1998, p.92]
/ref>
Cousaert continued to organise concerts in Belgium for R&B and soul singers. He was instrumental in setting up the regular Beach Festivals in Belgium. He died in 1998, aged 61, from heart failure following a cycling accident near Bruges.[The Dead Rock Stars Club]
Retrieved 19 February 2014
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousaert, Freddy
1937 births
1998 deaths
People from Ostend
Belgian DJs
Road incident deaths in Belgium