Jacques Loussier
"Play Bach No. 1" (Vinyl)

The first time I encountered a jazz combo pirating classical music was only a few years ago with the Minneapolis-based the Bad Plus.  While they initially cut their teeth on covering Nirvana and Pink Floyd tunes, complex classical works by Stravinsky and Ligeti began creeping into some of their recordings.  I thought this was a marvelous idea.

As it turns out, Mr. Plus was not the first guy to think of this.  I'm not that naive, of course, but I had never heard of Mr. Jacques Loussier and his career-spanning fascination with jazzing up the compositions of J.S. Bach.

I must admit to a certain confusion.  If you type the album title into an image search there are fifteen different releases of this music.  I found this UK Decca at a shop in Minneapolis.  It was released in 1965, and, unlike this photo, contains organ preludes and fugues.

Unlike the Bad Plus, there's less cross pollination of the source material.  Monsieur Loussier will play a bit of Bach, and then the combo will break in with a little bit of jazz.

I will be keeping my eyes out for more of these records - there are many to find.  (There are five albums in his "Play Bach" series alone.)