Jacques Loussier – Play Bach

Play Bach is a series of jazzy interpretations of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach by Jacques Lousier, Christian Garros and Pierre Michelot. Lousier, who was trained as a classical pianist, made a living of commercial music when he (as described on Allmusic.com):

hit upon the idea of performing the classical piano works of Johann Sebastian Bach in a quasi-jazz style. Together with Pierre Michelot and Christian Garros, the trio had enormous international success with the wider public. The concept, the low-key detached style, and possibly the huge commercial success, failed to endear the group to the hardcore jazz audience. In the mainstream, his interpretation of Bach is better known as the long-running music accompanying the award winning Benson & Hedges film and television advertisements of the 60s and 70s.

The album series was recorded in Paris, France in 1959/1960 and lasted five issues with various released dates, and with different artwork. Decca released the first issue in 1959. The series shown here was released in the early 1970s.

The 1970s Decca series uses the outline and solid styles of Alexandra (Berthold, 1896). Some of the editions show some restraint by pairing Alexandra with the more modest breithalbfett style of Folio for track listings. Other issues, see for instance the cover of the No. 3 edition, try and sport as much Alexandra as possible, up to hand-filled outlines on the back cover.