Director
Dieter Hans

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's gently swinging arrangements of Bach (very familiar to British TV audiences of recent decades as the music for Hamlet cigars' adverts) made him an international celebrity in the early 1960s, and he has continued to mingle styles ever since.

This performance was recorded recently at the Subway Jazz Club, Cologne. Loussier brings his deceptively easy-sounding arrangements to Robert Schumann's popular piano set Kinderszenen - a delight for both classical and jazz fans, and that rare feat of a 'crossover' artist who manages not to detract from any of his influences, but show both in a new light.