Play Bach 5 - Jacques Loussier

 

Play Bach 5

Jacques Loussier Trio

Play Bach 5

Arrangements  by Jacques Loussier

London Records STEREO PS 524

1967

Jacques Loussier - Piano

Christian Garros - Percussion

Pierre Michelot - Contrebasse

From the back covers: Portrait - Jacques Loussier is a powerful-looking man: stiff, chestnut hair growing into a thin edge of a beard, a tormented nose, a flu, virile mouth, dark eyes which grow round as if surprised when he tells a story.

While he is very much of his time, Jacques Loussier just as equally rejects certain aspects of modern life. What makes him a contemporary is first of all his music, his loving way of handling it, his desire to have it always new, his intense need for constant activity – "to live each moment two hundred percent," as he says. Yet, he is full of an aggressive regret, a painful nostalgia for open spaces, for the calm of unspoiled countryside. "Have you ever seen a stag" Impossible, hm?" However, it's one of the most beautiful things one can see, a stag in the woods," says Loussier, making that round-eyed, astonished expression. It is then that something "medieval" in him emerges (no doubt accentuated by his beard), A Rabelaisian quality of gruff gaiety, truculence, and an ever-present poetry, immediate, almost torrential. Material success? He pokes fun at it a bit, for at present his biggest dream is to be able to fly down to Toulon at the drop of a hat whenever he wants to sail his boat. More than likely, the calmness of nature will always draw him, but it is certain that he will never stop making the music he loves. Also certain: we will hear his name more and more.

His Life In Brief - Jacques Loussier was born October 26th, 1934 in Angers, France, where he spent his first fifteen years, a healthy, vigorous child who took up any and all sports – "normally rowdy," Loussier adds. Around the age of thirteen, thanks to the harmonica, he was smitten with an intense love for music. Later he abandoned his secondary schooling to enter the Conservatory of Paris, where he studied piano with Yves Nat. But his temperament could not adapt itself easily to Conservatory methods of study, and at eighteen he left before finishing the course of study.

Thus begins a career which is on the move in every respect: he has visited thirty-two countries, among others, Cuba, Israel, Brazil, Iran, Canada, Lebanon, and the United States. He began by playing in a gypsy orchestra to earn the money. Next he played piano for many well-known French singers, Catherine Sauvage, Jacqueline Francois, Suzy Delair, Leo Ferre and finally Charles Aznavour, building a reputation as a remarkable pianist and accompanist. But evidently, this was not sufficient for him, and in 1960 he decided to go on his own, starting out by creating orchestrations for the young ye-ye (French term for "Beatles generation") singers. At the same time, he began to make a name for himself as composer, writing and playing each night the music for a play by Durenmatt, "Frank V."

His first "play-back," recorded with Pierre Michelot and Christian Garros, achieved considerable success around the world, and his "play-back" No. 4 won the award for Top French Disc of 1963. Nowadays he continues to give all his concerts with Michelot and Garros. He has written film scores for two movies, "La vie a l'enfers" and Pas perdus."And his television appearances are many. 

And Jacques Loussier is only thirty-three.

Toccata No. 4 in C Major

1st Mvt. :Allegro

2nd Mvt. : Adagio

3rd Mvt. : Fugue

Sicilienne in G Minor

Chorale No. 1 in E Flat

Theme from Passacaglia in C Minor