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With his imposing six-foot-six, 270-pound presence and raw Howlin' Wolf-like vocals, Beau Jocque is the most sensational zydeco band leader in Southern Louisiana today. Part of a new breed of Louisiana-based rural bands who play zydeco music with a modern edge, Jocque & his Zydeco Hi-Rollers have become, in just a few short years, the biggest draw on the South Louisiana/East Texas dancehall circuit, and the most exciting of several young bands pushing the limits of the music's traditional boundaries. A relative newcomer to the zydeco scene, Beau Jocque (aka Andrus Espre) only began to play music in 1987, after an industrial accident left him partially paralyzed. For 10 months he recuperated and, with little to do, took up his father's Cajun button accordion. Says Jocque, "After I figured I might be able to play this thing, my wife and I went out to see all the local zydeco groups to analyze what made them work. It was the hypnotic playing of Boozoo Chavis and the frenzied effect he had on Southern Louisiana dancers which most profoundly inspired Jocque. And Jocque, who'd grown up listening to ZZ Top and James Brown, had some notions of his own -- "A little bit of Carlos Santana, a little Stevie Ray Vaughan, some funk from Sly and the Family Stone, blues licks from a few different artists, plus my own style." Fat, pumped-up basslines, rock 'n roll guitar leads, '70s funk, and the influences of reggae and rap on zydeco's already heavy mix of Cajun-Creole and R&B, have made Beau Jocque the undisputed champion of zydeco's "new direction." The combination of Jocque's burly charisma and the Hi-Rollers' ferocious groove make them one of the crawfish circuit's hottest draws and the reason today's zydeco dances are packed with young Creole couples.
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