JACQUES LOUSSIER

Plays Bach: Encore!

Cat. No: 2CD83671

For the past half-century, pianist and composer Jacques Loussier has taken the idioms of jazz and classical music to new frontiers by grafting elements of both into a single innovative sound. For nearly two decades – from the 1950s to the late 1970s – the first incarnation of Loussier’s Play Bach Trio took a fresh perspective on the works of the baroque master and introduced them to a new audience.

However, a break during the late 1980s from the rigours of performing and recording with the trio created room for one of the most prolific periods of Loussier’s recording career. The fruits of this creative period are captured on this 2 CD set. Originally recorded in the early 1990s, the set as a whole spotlights Loussier’s numerous strengths as both a jazz innovator and a classical composer.

Disc 1, features the new Loussier Trio which delivers innovative jazz renditions of J.S. Bach compositions: Little Fugue in G Minor, Concerto in F Minor, Concerto in C Minor, Partita in B-flat Major. Disc 2, recorded in Prague features Loussier’s Violin and Trumpet Concertos, original classical compositions in which he stays true to the sound of a chamber orchestra, using the string textures familiar from his immersion in the music of the baroque era, but also bringing in contemporary resonances.

Personnel:

CD1: Jacques Loussier – (piano); Vincent Charbonnier – (double bass); Andre Arpino – (drums)

CD2: Prague Kammer Orchestra; Jean Pierre Wallez – (solo violin – 1-4); Andre Arpino – (percussion – 1-4);
Guy Touvron – (solo trumpet – 6-8)

Tracks:

CD1:Johann Sebastian Bach

• 1. Little Fugue in G minor, BWV 578

Concerto F minor, BWV 1056

• 2. Allegro

• 3. Largo

• 4. Presto

Concerto in C minor, BWV 1060

• 5. Allegro

• 6. Adagio

• 7. Allegro

Pertita in B-flat major BWV 825

• 8. Andante-Allemande

• 9. Courante

• 10. Sarabande

• 11. Minuet I

• 12. Minuet II

• 13. Gigue

CD2: Jacques Loussier

Concerto for Violin and Percussion

• Prague

• L’Homme Nu

• Buenos Aires, Tango

• Tokyo

5. Tableaux Venitiens

Trumpet Concerto

• 6. Allegro

• 7. Slow

• 8. Finale