Track Listing

1. Aria
2. Variation 1
3. Variation 2
4. Variation 3
5. Variation 4
6. Variation 5
7. Variation 6
8. Variation 7
9. Variation 8
10. Variation 9
11. Variation 10
12. Variation 11
13. Variation 12
14. Variation 13
15. Variation 14
16. Variation 15
17. Variation 16
18. Variation 17
19. Variation 18
20. Variation 19
21. Variation 20
22. Variation 21
23. Variation 22
24. Variation 23
25. Variation 24
26. Variation 25
27. Variation 26
28. Variation 27
29. Variation 28
30. Variation 29
31. Variation 30
32. Aria

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16361 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
French pianist Jacques Loussier has seemingly forged an entire career out of arranging classical compositions for his jazz trio. He's done a disc of Satie and Vivaldi works, even recording Ravel's Bolero. So, trying Bach's Goldberg Variations, full of jazzy time signatures and loaded with improv possibilities, makes perfect sense for the pianist. And Loussier delivers what may be his most exciting outing to date. Rather than expand upon Bach's original miniatures, Loussier maintains their integrity, keeps each piece short, but varies their rhythms (thanks in part to the great bass playing of Benoit Dunoyer de Segonzac). On a handful of variations--a dizzyingly fast Five, a Latin-infused Variation Eight, and a punchy 14--he really lets loose. Since the Swingle Singers tackled Bach in the 1960s, many a jazz musician has arranged the music of the composer. This disc is one of the most compelling. Want an even wilder set of Goldbergs? Try jazz pianist Uri Caine's instrumentally omnivorous, jaw-dropping set. --Jason Verlinde

Customer Reviews

Digging Bach
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? . . . Panâche!

Nice Narcissism
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.

Totally enjoyed this
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.