Jacques Loussier Trio

I’m a jazz listener, and today I want to tell You about some of my favorite CDs. It seems that I love every track by Dave Brubeck, Ben Webster, Duke Ellington and Lois Armstrong… Among these giants I want to pick out a bit less known Jacques Loussier trio. They are playing classical music in jazz interpretations. At first listening the thought was “how did they managed to find these jazz sound in the notes everybody is so accustomed to?” Can’t believe my own ears! My father is a violin player, of course I played these CDs to him and his fellow musicians – they unanimously pointed out – “The guys are playing exactly the old classical notes! Nothing is added by themselves” But somehow, by means of pauses (never had an idea of a so powerful pause before), some stresses, by substitution of some notes with a percussion and cymbals it appears to sound as Jazz. And a great one! It is true that within Bach's originals, there is plenty of jazz material, and every bit of it is shown out. Bach himself would have been pleased with the performance!

75 years old French pianist / composer Jacques Loussier reveald his musical ability at an early age, starting to play at the age of ten and entering the Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris at 16. Loussier's main professor there was Yves Nat, who in turn as a student was encouraged by Faure, Saint-Saens, and Debussy. Loussier brilliantly continued this distinguished tradition, graduating at the top of his class. His road to successes was long. It seems, that he was preoccupied with the idea to alloy jazz and classic from the start of his carrier. At the Amazon You may see several CDs named “Plays Bach No…” with different numbers (they are listed as unavailable now) – these is his early recordings. I had a chance to listen these CDs – and the recent ones are much more interesting.

Buying CDs and books is often a little story in itself. Here is my Jacques Loussier acquaintance story. Those ancient days people went to special shops to by CDs, the best one in Moscow was called “The Purple Legion”, it offered a great number of jazz and classical CDs. I was heading to the checkout counter when my eyes just stopped on the “Jacques Loussier plays Bach” title. No long thoughtfulness, no track listening, I somehow new that it is here for me. And it was! At home I was bewildered by the sound – a liquid bass and energetic percussion. Well, no surprise, “Telarc” is a label with a guaranteed Hi-End class sound. The surprise was their fantastic construction build out of the material. No more words – You should click the Amazon just to listen to the previews. I played it every single day not less than for a month without single exception! My father commented on it: “And we were told to seek patriotism in this music!” – It was time of the communist ideology fall. I practiced such sheer intuition purchasing practice with books and CDs from time to time, an interesting experience, and the rate of successful outcome is much higher than static average! When You do not know what to choose an intuition may be a help!

And one more thing: do not buy mp3 version, do not deprive yourself of a pleasure to have a real sound. Jazz, classics, rock, any good music may be killed by poor sound. The air, the impression, the energy of sound disappears, a kind of special touch is gone. I was not a jazz listener all my life, there were a lot of great pop before, I grew up with ABBA, Boney-M, Arabesque and so on. When I bought KEF-Reference series speaker systems and Musical Fidelity amplifiers I discovered new instruments at my old well known CDs! On some CDs what I reckoned to be a guitar appeared to sound as a double bass!

Now my opinion on the Amazon offer of the Jacques Loussier trio CDs:

Number one. The Best of Play Bach. The one I own is an old one with a black cover; I checked the song lists – it is exactly the same CD.

Number two: Bach: The Brandenburgs. If you will want to listen to more Bach in jazz – it is also a top quality play. The Take Bach album is very close to it, but I’m not sure, that the original material is different. I have this Take Bach album an also like it. There is a new double CD Jacques Loussier Plays Bach – I did not have a chance to listen to it, but I liked the preview samples. Jacques Loussier Trio: Bach’s Goldberg Variations is good, but may be not that impressive as the The Best of Play Bach

Number three: Impressions on Chopin’s Nocturnes A great solo piano play by Jacques Loussier. May be I should call the best solo piano CDs in my collection.

Numbers four & five: Allegretto from Symphony No. 7, Theme and Variations – at first sight I was indented not to buy this album. 11 tracks with the same musical fragment plunged me into doubts. But when I started to listen my doubts were forced out with the astonishment – how differently they sounded! There are lyric and solemn sounding tracks, old style jazz, and modern style tracks – how could they think all that out of a one minute fragment? in previews the Amazon gives as solo fragments instead of overal tracks impressions. The Baroque Favorites is also a great album, may be it should be number three, but all this is very relative anyway.

There are good CDs, but I can’t say, that all the tracks are that perfect on them:

Jacques Loussier Trio: Mozart Piano Concerto 20/23. A fascinating beginning- an absolute masterpiece, but later on it does not sound all that interesting . Vivaldi: The Four Seasons – the winter is great of course, but the whole material loses the comparison with Bach music. I think that not all classical music is suitable for jazz interpretation in the degree the music of Bach is. I was at their first concert in Moscow. What a great drum solo did they make out of the summer sunder storm! The same with the Ravel: bolero - it is not all that smooth like Bach albums. Please forgive me, but I can’t say I liked Satie: Gymnopedies Gnossiennes / Jacques Loussier Trio and Plays Debussy.

It leaves me with a conclusion, that Bach is one of the best jazzmen ever! But You’d better go and check out Yourself.

Many people even not  acquainted with jazz like these music.  Say if You want to entertain Your guests and do not know their musical preferences  - jazz interpretations may be a good choice.  Be sure, everybody will like it. It’s “tested” on my friends (not a single jazz lover among them) but somebody will comment : “a nice music you have!”