You Can't Keep a Good Cowboy Down contains some of Morricone's most important themes, themes that God knows are not just simply background music for spaghetti Westerns. With an amazing feeling for musical images, with a loving rearranging of the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic source, Thomas demonstrates how one can treat the material both freely and at the same time with respect. When Jens sent him a copy of the recording, Ennio Morricone reacted enthusiastically to the music. He wrote back, "The quality of your piano playing and improvisation is remarkable. Your fantasy and technique is on the highest level". Eight pieces are recorded in solo, at times accompanied by the ticking pendulum of a metronome. On four compositions Jens Thomas is accompanied by two important players in the Italian jazz scene: the Sardinian trumpeter Paolo Fresu and the accordion virtuoso Antonello Salis. (See here)

France's supreme comedian Pierre Richard, was born on August 16,1934 in Valenciennes, Nord, France

Certainly one of France's supreme farceurs in the classic tradition, comedian Pierre Richard was born to an uppercrust family with an embarrassing riches of middle names as he was christened Pierre Richard Maurice Charles Leopold Defays. Working and building up his trade at the Paris Music Hall in the early years, he appeared in small movie roles thoughout most of the 60s. In the 70s, however, he aimed his genius directly towards film and succeeded beyond the wildest expectations. Directing and co-writing many of his slapstick vehicles, his characters often have taken on an hilariously guileless persona and, coupled with his innate gift for klutzy physical comedy, have become an audience favorite for nearly four decades. His superior work in The Daydreamer (1970) and The Troubles of Alfred (1972)was immediately recognized and this led to the international crossover hit The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1973) in which Richard played a naive, innocent concert musician plucked by chance to become a superspy on a top secret mission. A potent association in the 1960s and 1970s with actor/producer/director Yves Robert and the 1980s with writer/director Francis Veber and actor Gerard Depardieu produced several comedy classics: Alexander (1967), The Return of the Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1974), The Goat (1981), Les Comperes (1983) and The Fugitives (1986). Many of Richard's classic comedies, including The Toy (1976), have spawned Hollywood remakes and imitations, though most pale compared to the originals.
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