Sky Arts - Jacques Loussier Plays Bach and More

Director
Director: Andreas Morell

Performers
Jacques Loussier (piano)
Bennoit Dunoyer de Segonzac (bass)
André Arpino (percussion)

Programme
JS Bach: Fugue No. 5; Gavotte; Pastorale; Air on a G String; Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Claude Debussy: Arabesque; L'isle joyeuse
Eric Satie: Gymnopédie No. 1
Maurice Ravel: Boléro

Born in 1934 in north-west France, Jacques Loussier seemed set on a career as a concert pianist when he entered Paris Conservatoire at 16. But Loussier loved be-bop as much as baroque, and cool-jazz as much as classical, and developed a unique blend of the two - this in an era when words such as 'fusion' and 'crossover' were more familiar to nuclear physicists and people on rural station platforms than music marketeers.

Loussier founded the Play Bach Trio, which used Bach's compositions as the basis for jazz improvisation. The trio immediately caught the public imagination. In their live appearances, tours and concerts, plus a succession of recordings built on the cornerstone of four albums made between 1960 and 1963, Loussier's group achieved the breakthrough to popular commercial success enjoyed by only a select few jazz musicians, selling over six million albums in fifteen years. Loussier's gently swinging arrangements of Bach (very familiar to British TV audiences of recent decades as the music for the Hamlet cigars adverts) made him an international celebrity in the early 1960s, and he has continued to mingle styles ever since.

On July 28th 2004, the 254th anniversary of Bach's death, the Jacques Loussier Trio performed this special concert at the famous St. Thomas Church of Leipzig - the city where Bach composed many of his most famous works.