When
Jacques Loussier gave the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach the jazz treatment (as others, notably the Modern Jazz Quartet, had before him), it worked really well. The tumbling flow of Bach's contrapuntal lines, the square rhythms that just beg to be played with a swing feel -- everything about Bach that makes his music the farthest thing from jazz seems to make jazz adaptations inevitable. The French composer
Claude Debussy is a less obvious choice, and on this album you see why. Debussy was a much more impressionistic composer, and his music doesn't have either the rhythmic vitality or the sense of driving tonal logic that fuels the music of Bach. That makes it harder to fit his compositions into a jazz context. That
Loussier succeeds as much as he does is a compliment to his sensitivity as a pianist and to his trio's ability to work with him intuitively.
Loussier's renditions of "Prelude a l'Apres-Midi d'un Faune" and "Reverie" sound a lot like
Bill Evans at his most ethereal; things pick up a bit on "L'Isle Joyeuse," but even that relatively energetic track is pretty well lacking in swing. The final result is music that doesn't sound much like jazz, but is quite enjoyable anyway. ~ Rick Anderson