Jazzing Up J. S. Bach

Richey Recommends 'The Jacques Loussier Trio'

Yesterday was the 88th birthday of French pianist Jacques Loussier (pronounced LOO-see-ay). I didn’t finish this post in time to post yesterday, but here’s a belated Joyeux Anniversaire, Jacques!

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Hold on a minute

Before you throw tomatoes or accuse me of sacrilege, give me a second to explain. Below is a YouTube video of Jacques Loussier playing the piano and the famous J. S. Bach “Air on a G String” movement from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 (BWV 1068) in the famous St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach finished his career and is buried. Most people know this particular tune, so it provides a great introduction to hear what Loussier and the two other musicians in his piano trio do to reinterpret the music of Bach. Many a bridesmaid have processed into wedding spaces to this instrumental music, but not likely in this style:

It is mesmerizing to watch the amazingly talented Loussier very simply dance with Bach’s melodies in such a way as to maintain the original character without altering it into something that Bach himself would not have recognized were he listening to it today.

The Time-Tested Genius of Bach

What makes Jacques Loussier’s work so fascinating is how it uses the lens of jazz music to show how well-crafted the music of Bach was. It shows how it can be reinterpreted in a jazz style and not lose vitality but grab the listener in just as powerful a way. Additionally, many of the movements of the French Baroque dance suites that composers like Bach wrote in were dance music. I find that the jazz interpretations of Loussier and others help bring modern listeners closer to being able to see that. We will never listen to a small chamber orchestra playing a Gavotte or Gigue and think, “what lovely, dancelike music.” But you listen to this, and you are that much closer to being able to appreciate it as it would have been heard and understood in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Hear More Jacques Loussier!

I’ve added ten tracks to a Spotify playlist just for you that will give you a little more taste of what Jacque Loussier does. It’s not all Bach. There’s some Handel, Debussy, and Erik Satie as well. Listen for yourself and tell me it doesn’t just mesmerize you and leave you wanting more. (My favorites are the Partita in E Major and the piano trio version of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor)

The decades of work of Jacques Loussier, Pierre Michelot, and Christian Garros have inspired others to do similar projects with the western classical art music of Bach, Handel, Schumann, and others—that’s for another day.

Conclusion

I heartily recommend listening to these in their original iterations as well. Still, I hope this jazzification of classical music only bolsters your appreciation of how the compositions of Bach, Handel, and others have not only withstood the test of time but continue to shine in stylistic reinterpretations such as these.