Prelude No1 in C Major (1959)The French pianist Jacques Loussier, who died on Thursday aged 84, was a one-trick pony, but it was a great trick and one he spent nearly 60 years fruitfully exploring. Loussier also wrote dozens of film soundtracks and TV themes throughout the 1960s and 70s, including the main jingle for one of France’s biggest networks, France 3. One of his best known is the theme to Thierry La Fronde, a swashbuckling mid-60s historical drama series. It features three varied pieces of incidental music by Loussier, which lurch from spy-movie big band jazz to free improvisation and Victorian romanticism. Here Loussier is joined by American singer Bobby McFerrin, another musician inspired by Loussier, to perform an improvisation based on the most famous of Bach’s Schübler Chorales in E Flat Major (BWV 645).

Source: The Guardian March 07, 2019 17:26 UTC