Plays Bach

Pianist Jacques Loussier and his trio mix Bach and jazz together on eleven vibrant selections of Jacques Loussier Plays Bach, Loussier's debut album for Telarc Jazz. A world-class, multifaceted pianist, he's been blending the two musical forms longer and better than any other musician for decades.

What Loussier has done here is so elegant and finessed, you almost forget how difficult it is to accomplish. Take music you already love, whose every rhythmic nuance is drilled into your head, and rearrange the rhythm section into jazz phrasings, improvise on the melody, and keep the best passages in the original form.

It seems so impossible as to be unthinkable, yet Loussier pulls it off as if it were obvious, and in a sense it is. But not since Walter/Wendy Carlos has anyone done it with such flair and respect.