Jacques Bailhé‘s latest release is an interpretation of JS Bach’s Chaconne from partita no.2. An exciting arrangement for solo piano of one of the most timeless pieces of JS Bach. Underrated and deserving.
Multi-instrumentalist and arranger Jacques Bailhé is based in Los Angeles. After years of touring on the bass with Big Lost, producing hundreds of tracks for film and commercials, including work with Dolly Parton for her Theme Park, playing a drum solo behind a fire-breathing Thai stripper, giving sitar lessons in India and Nepal, and chanting Buddhist prayers in Thailand (his words not ours), Bailhé seems to have found the missing piece rediscovering Bach’s music in his latest release.
Grandson of award-winning pianist and arranger George Bailhé, the pianist gene runs deep in the Bailhé family, and it is very easy to see in Farewell My Love. A faithful recreation of one of JS Bach’s infamously challenging compositions sees Jacques perform in top-notch form, hardly skipping a single note on the almost-10-minutes-long marathon. The outstanding piece is performed immaculately and the choppy rhythms, synonymous with Bach’s compositions is wholly intact.
A beautiful recreation of an essential of Bach’s classical canon.