Jacques Loussier Trio - Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 (1987)

There's something ironic about the attraction jazz musicians all seem to feel for the work of J.S. Bach. It's not that jazz and classical music aren't related on the contrary, jazz itself is a fusion of the rhythmic complexity of African music and the harmonic complexity of European music it's that Bach's particular genius was for counterpoint, a technique that jazz largely ignores. You can't improvise without abandoning strict counterpoint, and yet to depart from Bach's contrapuntal structures is, often, to disembowel his music. So there's a certain tension in the air when jazz players take on Bach. All of that said, there's simply no denying the charm of Loussier's trio arrangements.