Customer Reviews

Jacques Loussier Trio: Bach's Goldberg Variations

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French pianist Jacques Loussier has done something worthy of highest praise: a lovingly rendered jazz reading of J.S. Bach's well-known "Goldberg Variations." Vivid, tight, always suprising, this rearticulation of Bach's material in the idiom of jazz is as much a translation as it is an interpretation.

Loussier and his colleagues Benoit Dunoyer de Segonzac on the bass and André Arpino on drums not only had the nerve to trip the fantatic in these hallowed precincts with verve and dash, but they had the gall to make it swing! Loussier's renditions of the piano lines betray a virtuoso's acquaintance with the original, the kind of intimate knowledge that allows playful departure. And the Trio's radical recastings--for example the imposition of a merengue beat below, with Latin syncopation in the upper voice--are always faithful both to the source's well-known structure and to the trio's well-rehearsed intentions.

It is SO French: on the one hand flagrantly intellectual, the cool mind dissecting Bach's thoroughly cerebral architecture, analyzing and recasting it in fine fluid form, on the other a familiar lover's labor of unmistakable admiration and knowing love, done with a touch that for all its care and preparation still manages to impart delicious spontaneities.

And yet Loussier's treatment stands on its own as a musical statement, quite aside from its obvious tribute to the ever present shade of the Kapellmeister of Dresden. My twelve-year-old twin daughters have only the briefest of acquaintance with Bach's original work, yet immediately connected with the fluent insinuations of Loussier's rendition, grinning from ear to ear at the ready audacity of it. They had earlier enjoyed the Loussier Trio's haunting jazz treatment of Erik Satie's "Gymnopédies," another successful jazz translation, but in an entirely different vein. The trio has also issued jazz treatments of Ravel's "Bolero" and Vivaldi's "Four Seasons."

Certain Bach purists will no doubt cringe at the notion of such treatment: I say let them do without! And Mrs. Grundy may not like it--but then she's still upset with Bach for fathering so many children! Bach himself could be trusted to accept this delectable homage and maybe suggest more riffs to give it added . . . what do the French say? . . . Panāche!

In an era when Pinchas Zukerman is in a war of expletives with Jeanne Lamon over the meaning of authenticity in baroque music (see the August/September 2000 issue of Strings magazine) and Rosalyn Tureck, in the liner notes to her 1999 version of Bach's Goldberg Variations, warns against "narcissitic displays" in interpreting great art, we have Dmitry Sitkovetsky orchestrating this keyboard classic for string orchestra (1995) and now Jacques Loussier doing the same for the basic jazz combo: piano, bass and drums.

Loussier's take on this great music is no less inspired and delightful than Sitkovetsky's. Unlike Loussier's fine 1999 interpretation of the Prelude No. 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, in which he opens with a faithful rendition of that great work and then coolly segues into the jazz idiom, here he comes off the blocks with the Goldberg Aria in full jazz style, and then goes into the first variation in waltz tempo, all the while being faithful to essential melodic lines.

These are delectable miniatures of the original. His bossa nova version of Variation 26 and his giving the melody lead to the bass in Variation 30 are among the many delights of this great box of bonbons. Loussier's creative talent continues to grow in the 40 years since he founded his trio.

Bach's work flattered Goldberg, and Loussier, in his own way, honors the great master. If J.S. Bach is listening, he must be amused by all the fuss. And, no doubt, thoroughly enjoying Sitkovetsky and Loussier along the way.

As usual, Jacques Loussier, adding bass and drums to Bach, adds another dimension that I'm sure Bach himself would enjoy! Combining these incomparably beautiful, meditative melodies and chords with the Loussier Trio's cool jazz bass & drums is great to hear, any place/anytime. I like to play this at work ... it keeps me motivated. But it's also good for background at cocktail parties.

This is a sensational, witty and wondrous adaptation into the universe of Goldberg Variations, and anticipating myself to purists opinions, I find very acceptable and worthy to listen, despite all the stylistic concessions it undeniable owns.

On the other hand, this evidence confirms what we have so many times stated: Bach is the oldest musician of the future and as the cosmic level of this everlasting genius and carves in relief the genius is always contemporary.

The most important aspect to remark, probably resides in the fact this "pagan version" if I may, securely became an informal invitation for many listeners who still had not crossed over to the universe of the academic music, and because of it they did it, at last.

Recommended, even for the academic purists.

Jacques Loussier has always been a genius, but this has to be his greatest triumph yet. Aria and 30 variations, each distinctly and unmistakably 'authentic' in form, melody, harmony, and mood -- and yet each a masterpiece of classic jazz interpretation. From the latin pointillism of Variation 4 to the flat-out boogie of the Aria, it's all pure music, pure enjoyment, pure love of Bach and of jazz.

The performances are perfect; the arrangements inspired; the experience unsurpassed. What more could anyone want? And to top it all off, the tempi and voicing are clearly in homage to Glenn Gould's late recording of the Variations, which has its own different kind of perfection.

Reading the reviews made by some Terrible critics of Chick Corea playing Mozart, I guess what they'd write here about this...indeed, Corea played very well.
On this work, Jacques Loussier Trio is fine and was necessary to give more perspectives to Bach works, as played today by "machine pianists", as I call frozen classical dead blind pianists. That's why this CD is so fantastic. It revives Bach. Bach is Alive. Bach is Fun, sometimes, poetic. I hate those interpretations in which the interpreter always plays Bach as a machine, as if he hadn't feeling! Bach is JOY!.
And this Joy is certainly delivered here.
Buy This CD. Five Stars on it!

My first Loussier CD and, oh, am I happy I found this trio! Everything you love about Bach you will love even more after the Loussier Trio is done with it. Soaring, happy-spirit-making music to do anything by! Do not hesitate. You will thank me.

I bought this on an impulse, having never heard of Jacques Loussier, while foraging for some new ear candy. It is like hearing the Goldberg Variations for the first time, with subtleties, textures, and moods in the variations that were, for me, undiscovered. This is delightfully fun stuff.

This is a superb recording. I didn't realize I could, and would, dance to Bach. Jacques Loussier's piano is elegantly pure but with the quiet drum and double bass, you will think that you have never heard the Goldber Variations before. Excellent buy.

I love the Goldberg Variations - in any form. In fact, I prefer them "transcribed" for the piano than in their original harpsichord guise. My point here is that, whenever played on any other instrument than the one it was written for, even a keyboard instrument and even if all the notes from the original score are played, Bach is indeed transcribed. The Goldbergs played on the organ (Bach: Goldberg Variations) or accordion (Goldberg Variations Played on the Accordion) is no more, no less transcribed than played at the piano.

And I love transcriptions: they offer a fresh way of hearing the old warhorses. What transcriptions can do for the Goldbergs is not only offer surprising and ear-catching instrumental timbres, but also clarify the many strands of Bach's multi-voicing and counterpointing. I have transcriptions for two cimbaloms (Bach - Goldberg Variations on 2 Cimbaloms - Szakaly / Farkas), string trio, string orchestra, brass band (Bach: Goldberg Variations), saxophone quartet (Bach: Goldberg Variations BWV 998), even synthesizer (New Age Bach: The Goldberg Variations). And I'm missing the versions for marimba and for harp (and am not aware that they've made a version for kazoo ensemble yet, but as soon as it comes out, I'll jump).

As expected, Jacques Loussier (joined by his usual partners Benoit Dunoyer de Segonzac, double-bass and André Arpino, drums) offers a transcription indeed, but of a different nature: its purpose is not, like the other transcriptions, to play all the notes written by Bach (or as many as feasible on the instrument), but precisely to change them. Like the vesion by John Lewis (The Chess Game Part 1), it is a series of jazz variations on the Goldberg variations, and a classic example of "Third Stream", or the mixture of Jazz improvisation on classical music themes, a term coined by Gunther Schuller in 1957.

Bach's Goldbergs are indeed particularly well-suited to that kind of exercise: not only because they are themselves a series of variations (and there is a tradition in Classical music of so mirroring an original work, as with Leopold Godowski's famous Etudes on Chopin's Etudes), but also because, in baroque style, through ornamentation, the principle of varying the variations is embedded into the very conception of the work. Another example of such variations on Bach's Goldberg variations, albeit in a completely different style (avant-garde classical), would be Goldberg's Ghost (see my review) or Robin Holloway's Gilded Goldbergs.

How one will react to Loussier's jazz version of the Goldberg variations depends, of course, on one's response to jazz in general and to Loussier's jazz in particular. Too bad Miles Davis or Ornette Coleman didn't do their own versions! Like John Lewis', Loussier's style of jazz is swing and cool, but fairly inconspicuous - the kind of "lounge" jazz you might hear in a cozy bar (or in a film by Claude Lelouch), not obtrusive or aggressive, nothing to disturb the ongoing conversations. Try variation 7 (track 8), which sounds to me like music of Michel Legrand. It is definitely easy and pleasurable listening. I personally wish it had been a little more challenging, but each will react according to personal taste.

Within the limitations of such style, I do find Loussier's arrangements a tad disappointing at times. In many variations, the arrangement is actually rather minimal, with Bach's piano part played "straight" (as written) and only double-bass pizzicatti and (usually soft) drums adding the jazz color. I can see the reason for it when Loussier does that in the first part of the aria or variation and jazzifies either the end of the first part or the beginning of the second part, as in the opening aria or in var. 11 to 13, var. 23 & 24, var. 27 (in variation 3 he even cuts the second part altogether, concluding part 1 with a jazzy improvisation), since this more or less conforms to what Bach had in mind with the very architecture of his variations (always in two parts, each part susceptible of repeat at the performer's discretion, the point of taking the repeat being for the performer to add his own ornamentation - which only recent performing practice has really taken advantage of). In fact Loussier does few repeats proper (second parts of the opening aria and var. 2, 5, 6, 10, first part of 19, both parts of 30), limiting is elaborations to the end of part 1 or beginning of part 2, which is close enough to the spirit of Bach's baroque-era practices. But even there Loussier's straying from and jazzyfication of Bach's melodic line is usually disappointingly short, before he returns to the fold and concludes the variation. A number of variations he plays in fact absolutely "straight" (e.g. as written by Bach), with only double-bass pizz. and (usually soft) drums giving the jazz coloring (var. 1, 5, 6 only concluded by a few syncopations, var. 12 with only a few added syncopations, the pyrotechnic var. 14 where Loussier lessens to some degree the pyrotechnics by playing only the upper piano part, var. 16, var. 20, 21 & 25, var. 26 were Loussier plays only the right hand, leaving Bach's bass line to the double bass, var. 29). The final aria is played bare, as written, with no accompaniment - an appropriate return to the original Bach at the end of the journey (and what heard on headphones sounded like very soft drum brushes turns out to be only the noise of the pedal mechanism). But, by playing at a fast tempo and with playful staccato, as in var. 16 and var. 19, Loussier brings out the inherent "jazzyness" of Bach's keyboard writing. In var. 28 it is the other way around: here Loussier plays the accompaniment figures in 16th and 32nd notes rather than the melody, but he radically changes Bach's color by playing at a much slower tempo than the customary one.

In some variations Loussier's jazzyfication consists mainly of added syncopation - admittedly this is the very essence of jazz, and some are very effective like that (var. 4 and var. 10, with double-bass playing Bach's bass line, var 11, var. 18, 22). In var. 20 he doesn't need to add such a syncopation: he plays only Bach's accompaniment line (which in the original score passes on constantly from right to left hand) and it is already there, something you don't hear as much when both hands are played.

Sometimes Loussier will have the variation preceded by short drum or/and double-bass intro (v8, 23, 30) or consisting of a few piano chords accompanied by double-bass pizz and/or drum beats (Aria, var. 2, 6, 9, 11, 19, 24, 27). In var. 29 it is a bridge passage between part one and two of the variation in the form of a lengthy drum improvisation. Sometimes he will change the time signature, turning a 2/4 into 3 or 4/4 (var. 2), or a 3/4 into 2/4 (var. 14). Often the piano will take over Bach's upper and middle voice, and sometimes Loussier will play the middle voice an octave lower (var. 15) which allows for greater clarity, sometimes simplifying Bach's counterpoint (24, 27). In var. 24 he changes Bach's three-part writing into, basically, a one-part, continuous melody flowing seamlessly between Bach's upper and middle voice. The result is a pretty, sentimental "lounge jazz" melody which would be ideally suited for a medley to a film romance. Loussier usually leaves the lower, bass voice to the double bass playing pizzicati (var. 1, 3, 6, 10, 12, 15, 16 2nd part, 18, 21, 23 part 1, 24, 26, 28) or doubling the lower voice played by the piano (v5, 25) - which gives it a jazz color without fundamentally altering Bach's writing. Some may find that all the better. But hearing a jazz "reinterpretation", I would have expected and wished more daringness and risk-taking. What this does, though, is substantially alter the relation between upper voices and lower voice: because of the superior decibel power of the piano, it takes prominence and the 3rd voice sounds muffled. As for the percussion, it hardly has a structural role : it seems there merely to add a "jazzy" color with a display of mostly cymbal brush-strokes.

Only in a few variations does Loussier's invention go a little further: in var 9, he changes Bach's melodic/contrapuntal writing into quasi-Debussy chordal writing: atmospheric and pretty. My favorites are, naturally, those where Loussier strays and dares more and dazzles with playful pianistic fireworks: variations 4, 8. 12, 27. Variation 19 is played relatively straight, but by playing (as in var. 28) the accompaniment figure in staccato sixteenth notes rather than the melody Loussier lends it a nice jazzy playfulness. Variation 17 and 30 really stray from the original and, sustaining pedal helping, skid into dreamy Debussy atmospheres: they are quite beautiful and I wish Loussier had done more of those. The long solo double-bass followed by piano intro to variation 30 is also quite impressive.

Loussier is an accomplished pianist, up to Bach's digital demands. His tempos are sometimes fast (var. 5), sometimes slow (fugue of var. 16, var. 28), and he tends to simplify (var. 16 1st part) or suppress (var. 16-2nd part) the ornamentation written by Bach, but his ornamentation in the 2nd part of the final aria is quite beautiful. But ultimately, I prefer John Lewis' Goldbergs (see reference above). Not that his jazz is more daring than Loussier's: on the contrary, it is in the same pretty, gentle and un-challenging style. But at least Lewis doesn't have drums and double-bass to hide behind; so he really HAS to change Bach's notes, making his Jazz slightly more inventive than Loussier's, I find.

Re-hearing these Goldbergs by Loussier has also prompted me to pull out of my shelves some of his earlier Bach, with his previous trio (Christian Garros, percussion and Pierre Michelot, double-bass): namely Play Bach # 5 (Play Bach 5) and the 1965 live concert at Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris (as often the case, a search wouldn't yield it, leading me first to think that it wasn't listed, only to find out by chance that in fact Loussier's name was mis-spelt LouIssier. It was unfindable on the French sister company because "Champs Elysées" was mis-spelt ElysEs. Thanks the Brits for getting it right! I am out of authorized product links, but it is under ASIN: B00004XQ7T). And I was reminded why I enjoy Loussier. The reviewer of another, more recent Bach disc of Loussier (ASIN B00004TK87) has written, very appropriately I think: "I prefer this 'middle period trio' to the more invasive and experimental explorations (sometimes verging on garish) of the early trio, and again prefer it to the later trio (same personnel), where the jazz explorations and improvisations have taken the backseat, becoming mere stylings at times."

Well, his reasons for prefering the "middle period trio" over the earlier one are precisely those why I prefer the earlier one: in the 1960s the jazz of Loussier and his then partners was more daring and exuberant, and the pianist had an irresistible way of slithering out of and back into Bach - or jazz. Maybe on account of too much respect, his Goldbergs are comparatively a bit tame and civilized, with the "jazz explorations and improvisations", indeed, "becoming mere stylings at times."