Customer Reviews

Baroque Favorites: Jazz Improvisations

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wally Shoup has pretty much nailed it in his review. I just want to add that it is remarkable how consistent Loussier has remained over a span of more than four decades.

Last night I played "Baroque Favorites" back-to-back with a reissue LP of his 1959 debut. I was struck by the similarity of sound and style between the two. I don't know if it's intentional, but with the latest bass player Loussier has nearly recreated the sound of the original trio. At the same time, the playing is more refined and subtle. "Play Bach" was very much a hit in 1959, but "Baroque Favorites" shows the concept is still fresh and that it is possible to grow without abandoning old ideas.

At first, like reviewer Dan Cohen, I thought that Loussier's treatment of other composers wasn't as strong as his Bach work. I've changed my mind, however. There's a smoother integration of Jazz and Baroque here than in "The Bach Book." The music has fewer non-Baroque parts grafted onto it, and the bass and drum solos are shorter and fit better. I also like the selection of pieces and their sequence, and I agree with Shoup about the Pachelbel Canon in D Major. I had hesitated to buy "Favorites" because of the inclusion of this Top 40 chestnut, but fortunately Loussier gives it a fresh spin.

Loussier is at his best when he plays Bach. His rendition of Vivaldi's Four seasons is also excellent, and he is quite efficient in handling his Baroque favorites on this CD, but something is missing.
Loussier made his career on Bach because (and he said so himself) Bach makes the most Jazz-effective classical compositions. Perhaps these baroque compositions didn't go through Loussier's jazz-converter as well or as brilliantly as those others. Perhaps Loussier just coughed this CD without too much effort.
In any case - I bought it, and I am quite pleased I did (and this is the best bottom line possible...)

It had been a long time since I heard Jacques Loussier. Most of it devoted to the baroque music he so beautifully paraphrases in this album. Although his Bach is great, the disscovery of his Haendel is one of the great plusses of this opus. The French baroque musicians almost forgotten today, whose work I discovered recently, sound great when played as jazz.
A trully enjoyable musical experience to anyone who likes jazz and wants to hear more baroque music.

Jacques Loussier has evolved only faintly in the more than 40 years he has Played Bach. This version displays a mellow style only vaguely aged. The trio's current bass player, Benoit Dunoyer De Segonzac, has a particularly tantalizing way of interpreting the Baroques. In this effort Loussier has successfully recreated the pop Pachelbel Cannon in D into another hit. I particularly like the Handel tracks at open, midway and close. (and would too purchase Loussier's Water Music & Royal Fireworks CD). And this would have to be the coolest version of Albinoni's also popular Adagio. As expected, Telarc's crew of sound engineers and hifi techno gurus have created a flawless recoding. Buy it! You won't be disappointed.

I stumbled on this remarkable ensemble several years ago, while cruising through Paris' Virgin Megastore. I wanted something to remember my visit to France, and as a jazz lover, I started flipping through the "Jazz" section. There was a recording by a group I'd never heard of -- but it played Bach. How wrong could I go? When I listened to the CD after I got home. I'd never heard Bach treated this way, except by Dave Brubeck. The respect, the reverence the extraordinary bass lines all converged to render music worthy of a listener's undivided attention. I was thrilled to eventually see Loussier's music stateside, especially since someone walked off with my original French recording after a party. Never mind, I now have a Jacques Loussier collection, and I keep a wary eye on who goes near the CD player.

This has beautiful and pleasant Baroque chestnuts that should appeal to everyone. It may be more-of-the-same, given the Loussier treatment, but one could certainly do worse. There are some who don't care too much for Classical music but they almost always like Pachelbel's Canon. There are some who don't like screeching, unstructured jazz, but they like a little rhythm. This would be an ideal album for them. Anyway, there's really nothing not to like. The Pachelbel and Albinoni are quite beautifully done. It's a pleasure to listen to.

Many jazz musicians have gained fame by taking popular standards and improvising on them (think of John Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things," for example). French pianist Jacques Loussier has made a nice living taking classical pieces and arranging them for jazz trio. Two of his recent releases for Telarc have focused on French Impressionism; but here he goes back to the Baroque era where he first started with his Play Bach Trio decades ago--but this release features no Bach. Instead, we have works by Handel, Marais, Scarlatti, Pachelbel (yikes!-but Loussier does a nice job with it, believe it or not), Marcello, and Albinoni.

The great thing about this CD is that the music sounds more like jazz than it sounds like Baroque, especially when Loussier does things such as play Marais in 5/4 time or play Handel with a Latin beat. The sound quality is typical of Telarc's sound for this trio--punchy, powerful, very clean, a bit overbearing at times, but lots of fun as long as you do not listen as an audiophile (or a Baroque purist, for that matter) might.

When I first heard individual cuts from this CD I was intriqued by the synthesis of jazz and classical styles. I was also pursuaded initially by the reviews from Loussier's fans who contextualized this album as a gem within his larger body of work. Unfortunately, upon hearing the cuts all the way through, I found it to be another classic crossover compromise. Loussier is neither a good jazz pianist nor a respectable classical pianist. Combining the genres does not make him any better.