Jacques Loussier

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

Whereabouts in France were you born?

Presenter0:10

Angie? On the Loire. On the Loire, yes. Do you come from a musical family?

Jacques Loussier0:14

No, no, not at all.

Presenter0:15

Uh

Jacques Loussier0:15

I'm not good musician in my family, but I always love to hear music and to play to play records too. Mhm. When did you start learning the piano? I I was ten, this is forty four, during the war.

Presenter0:26

Do you know what

Jacques Loussier0:28

When did you decide that music was to be your profession?

Jacques Loussier0:31

Uh I decided I was thirteen years old because

Jacques Loussier0:34

I had a big difficulty in music and I have to get over it and if not to leave it, you know. There was for me just two d directions and I chose the first one because I loved the music at that time and I wanted to play piano very well and that was a very hard and difficult that was a shopping place as impossible to play too hard, you know.

Presenter0:57

Will you tell us you went to the Conservatoire at Paris?

Presenter1:00

What did you study apart from piano?

Jacques Loussier1:02

Nothing else. Just study piano uh with Ivanat.

Presenter1:03

Play piano.

Jacques Loussier1:06

In the conservatoire.

Presenter1:07

When you left the Conservatoire, was the

Presenter1:10

Were there engagements, was there workabout for you?

Jacques Loussier1:13

No, it's just a question of manning, actually.

Jacques Loussier1:16

What did you do? Well, I left the conservatory because I saw that it was ridiculous to go until the end and to be with twenty people having the same prize, the same degree, you know. Twenty prize winners. Twenty prize. Each year. This is ridiculous. After three years, it's sixty people waiting for a job, you know. Yes. And they have no no job at all, nothing to do. So I decided to play piano and the only way was to to get a job as a pianist. And it's quite hard to find a job. And I start

Jacques Loussier1:45

To play in a Gypsies Orchestra.

Presenter1:48

In a nightclub.

Jacques Loussier1:49

In a nightclub, yes. And I did so many things with the piano. I was also uh playing accompaniment for a ballet lesson, you know. Clinging, clinging, clinging, cling. And then, uh jazz. Also jazz, also.

Jacques Loussier2:04

I started in every direction, completely different, because I was also very uh wild about any kind of music, you know, South American music.

Presenter2:13

You wanted to explore all kinds of things.

Jacques Loussier2:13

To explore all kinds of things.

Presenter2:16

Did you stay in Paris, or did you travel?

Jacques Loussier2:17

No, I travel a lot. I was in Cuba one year after I've been in Turkey, I've been in Israel, I've been with a lot of funny stories who makes life happy. Yes, getting experience. Getting experience.

Presenter2:30

Thanks for watching.

Jacques Loussier2:32

The

Presenter2:32

All this was broken up by army service in Algeria, wasn't it?

Jacques Loussier2:35

Yes, in Algeria.

Presenter2:37

How long did that go on?

Jacques Loussier2:38

Well

Presenter2:40

Yeah.

Jacques Loussier2:40

Twenty-eight moments. This of course was right away from music. Yes, completely right away because uh no possibility to Of a piano.

Presenter2:47

So, Monsieur Lussier, you had two and a half years in the French army. Um then what? Back to the merry round of Gypsies and dance music and the music.

Jacques Loussier2:56

No, no, no, I just came back to accompaniment for singer. Yes. And same times I start to work for myself in orchestration.

Presenter3:07

At the Conservatoire Hedu specialized in playing Bach.

Jacques Loussier3:10

No, I wasn't specialized, but I loved to play bar always. Since the beginning, that was my favorite uh composer.

Presenter3:17

When did you begin to play him in your own fashion?

Jacques Loussier3:20

Well, I tried to play a few bars since two or three years before fifty nine. How do you describe this fashion of yours of of playing bars? Well, it is very, very, very simple, in fact.

Jacques Loussier3:32

I play Barre improvising, as Barr himself did with other composers in his time.

Jacques Loussier3:40

When did you have the idea of forming um a tria?

Jacques Loussier3:45

Because, you know, there is a propagation of sound.

Jacques Loussier3:48

Uh first of all you had the opsy corn in the old time and then the piano.

Jacques Loussier3:53

Piano became to be a new sound. And then I think for up to that is a trio because you have this is a completely different sound.

Presenter4:02

Uh

Jacques Loussier4:02

And they give a new idea. Have you had the same two musicians with you since the beginning? Since the beginning, yes, it's two musicians.

Presenter4:07

Two two jasmine.

Jacques Loussier4:08

Yeah, we just met for the first record, in the recording session and I always keep the same musician because for me they are the best one.

Presenter4:17

That first record, play back, was it an instant success?

Jacques Loussier4:20

Yes, but I was very surprised myself because I didn't

Jacques Loussier4:24

want to do a success because it's bad politic to want to do a success. But you didn't start giving concerts with the trio after the first playback.

Presenter4:31

Note that

Jacques Loussier4:33

I see the possibility with playing bar in that uh improvisation still, you know. I started to do concert because I certainly saw that I can uh make the trio expansive more, have more possibility to develop uh part of that arrangement I did for playback number one, you know.

Jacques Loussier4:56

How many countries has the trio played in uh? No, I don't know.

Jacques Loussier5:01

Yeah.

Jacques Loussier5:01

No idea.