The French composer and pianist Jacques Loussier, a great architect of the rapprochement between jazz and classical music, died Tuesday, March 5 in the evening at the age of 84, told his wife AFP Elizabeth.
France Musique
March 6, 2019
Unclassifiable artist famous especially for his jazz adaptations of Johann Sebastian Bach, when Jacques Loussier directed the trio "Play Bach", founded in 1959 with the bassist Pierre Michelot (disappeared in 2005) and the drummer Christian Garros (died in 1988), he has led an international career with 3,000 concerts and more than 7 million albums sold.
But this artist on the sidelines of the traditional jazz circuits has also distinguished himself as a member of music hall orchestras, and composer of more than a hundred pieces for film and television, including the famous credits of the cult series Thierry La Fronde.
"Jacques Loussier had this idea of genius at the time to adapt Bach in jazz, and he was successful all over the world.The music of Johann Sebastian Bach swings a lot and it is maybe our first jazzman", told AFP Pascal Anquetil, a journalist at Jazz Magazine.
In addition to the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, he had also adapted other great masters of classical music such as Vivaldi, Ravel, Satie, Debussy and Schumann.
His last album, "My personal favorites", was released in 2014 at Telarc, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Jacques Loussier, born in October 1934 in Angers, had also created a recording studio in Miraval, in the south of France, where worked Pink Floyd and The Cure. [AFP dispatch]
France Musique pays tribute to him from Wednesday, March 6th, in the Open Jazz shows at 6pm, and Banzzai at 7pm.
LOUSSIER, Jacques
Born: 10/26/1934, Angers, Pays de la Loire, France
Died: 3/5/2018,
Jacques Loussier’s western – composer:
Geronimo und die Räuber (TV) - 1966