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Michel Legrand

It is difficult to pin the multi-talented Michel Legrand down into one single category. This amazingly versatile French singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, conductor and producer has enjoyed a whirlwind career, excelling in an impressively broad range of domains from film soundtracks and French 'chanson' to jazz and classical music. An international star, who has won as much respect in the States as he has in Europe, Legrand is an insatiable musician whose creativity and ambition appear to know no bounds.

Michel Legrand was born in Bécon-les-Bruyères, in the Paris suburbs, on 24 February 1932. His mother, Marcelle der Mikaelian, married Raymond Legrand, a French musician renowned for hits such as "Irma la douce." Michel spent a rather solitary childhood, growing up with his sister, Christiane. He revealed a prodigious musical talent at an early age, playing the piano when he was just four years old. As a child, he was fascinated about the life of composer Franz Schubert. Michel eventually went on to train at the Paris Conservatoire in 1942. He spent seven years there, studying under renowned teachers such as Nadia Boulanger, Henri Challan, Noël Gallon and Lucette Descaves. The young prodigy went on to win numerous awards for his skills in counterpoint, piano, fugue and 'solfège' (an award he received on 6 June 1944).

In the immediate post-war years, Michel Legrand discovered a new passion: jazz. The moment that triggered off this musical conversion was when he attended a concert by Dizzy Gillespie " and left, totally blown away by what he had seen! By the time he graduated from the Conservatoire in 1949, Legrand had mastered a dozen instruments. And he found himself launched straight into the world of French 'chanson,' thanks to introductions from his father (with whom he had renewed ties by this point). The gifted teenager was soon working as an accompanist to many of the major French stars of the day including Henri Salvador, Juliette Gréco, Zizi Jeanmaire and Catherine Sauvage.

In 1954, Legrand stepped from the accompanying shadows centre stage when the American record label Columbia-EMI commissioned him to make an album of English adaptations of French classics. The album "I Love Paris" went on to sell a staggering 8 million copies, turning Legrand into an overnight star both at home and abroad. It was at this point that legendary French 'chanson' star Maurice Chevalier approached Legrand and offered him a post as his musical director. Legrand accepted and, in Chevalier's company, flew across the Atlantic, discovering the States in the course of numerous tours.

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Building a Jazz Library

Michel Legrand: Hollywood Hitmaker And Jazz Genius

Read "Michel Legrand: Hollywood Hitmaker And Jazz Genius" reviewed by Chris May


For many jazz fans, Michel Legrand is celebrated, if he is celebrated at all, for one album only: the masterpiece Legrand Jazz (Columbia, 1958). But Legrand's jazz legacy is more extensive than that, including other historic recordings, with large and small ensembles, under his own name and by Stan Getz and Phil Woods, whose Images (RCA, 1975) is regarded by some listeners as Woods' most perfect album. Legrand began his career in Paris in the early 1950s, ...

1
Album Review

Michel Legrand: Legrand Jazz

Read "Legrand Jazz" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


Michel LeGrand is best known for his long and fruitful career in movie soundtracks, but as a young man in 1958 he was featured in an arranger's showcase with a collection of jazz masters, including Ben Webster, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and Miles Davis. Columbia Records in 1958 had an unparalleled roster to offer the young French phenom; the label also had the studio chops to make the result an audiophile treasure sixty years later (Impex Records reissued ...

513
Live Review

Michel Legrand At Birdland

Read "Michel Legrand At Birdland" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Michel Legrand Birdland New York City February 26-March 2, 2008

Legendary French master composer and pianist Michel Legrand recently played Birdland in New York City with his trio. Well, it wasn't really his trio: on bass was the great Ron Carter (Miles Davis' second great quartet) and, a la batterie, the redoubtable Lewis Nash. Legrand, who has played duets with Oscar Peterson, said how honored he was to play with great American jazz ...

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Video / DVD

Caterina Valente and Michel Legrand in Concert, 1972

Caterina Valente and Michel Legrand in Concert, 1972

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Caterina Valente is one of the most prolific and exceptional all-around entertainers in the second half of the last century. An Italian who was born in France in 1931, Valente grew up in a musical family. She played guitar, was well versed in jazz, danced and spoke six languages and sang in 11, which helped her become one of the most recorded global vocalists and most in-demand performers in Europe. Michel Legrand, of course, was one of the finest composer-pianists ...

TV / Film

Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967

Young Girls of Rochefort, 1967

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

What better way to start the new year than watching a pristine print of The Young Girls of Rochefort? Directed by Jacques Demy, the music was composed by Michel Legrand to Demy's lyrics, and the choreography was by Norman Maen. It was a followup to Demy and Legrand's Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). The film-musical takes place in Rochefort, an actual town along the west coast of France. During the summer of '66, a caravan of trucks arrives in the town ...

Video / DVD

Five Michel Legrand Duets

Five Michel Legrand Duets

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

For some reason, I felt like hearing the music of Michel Legrand yesterday, but I couldn't figure out why. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that with snow falling here, the ending scene from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (above) were likely projecting on the walls of my mind. Movies aside, here are five fabulous duet performances with Michel Legrand... Here's Legrand and Tony Bennett in 1982... Here's Legrand and Kuh Ledesma, a wonderful Filipina pop ...

Video / DVD

Once Upon a Summertime

Once Upon a Summertime

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

One of the most difficult songs to sing well is Once Upon Summertime. Written in 1954 by Michel Legrand, French music producer Eddie Barclay and French songwriter Eddy Marnay, the slow waltz originally was entitled La Valse des Lilas (or The Lilac Waltz). In the late 1950s, the song was given English lyrics by Johnny Mercer to make the melody accessible to singers in the American and English markets. Blossom Dearie was first to record the song with Mercer's words ...

Obituary

Michel Legrand (1932-2019)

Michel Legrand (1932-2019)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Michel Legrand, a French pianist who began writing arrangements for jazz musicians in the early 1950s before becoming one of the new sophisticated sentimentalists of American film in the 1960s and beyond as a composer, arranger and conductor, died on January 26. He was 86. Legraand's jazz recordings began with Dizzy Gillespie and the Paris Operatic Strings in Paris in 1953 and then Blossom Dearie and Les Blue Stars mid-decade. His jazz turning point came in June 1958 when he ...

Obituary

Michel Legrand, 1932-2019

Michel Legrand, 1932-2019

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Michel Legrand, the pianist, arranger and prolific composer of film scores, died today at his home in France. He was 86. Dozens of Legrand’s melodies became popular hits, among them “The Windmills OfYour Mind,” “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” and “Watch What Happens.” The wide range of performers who collaborated with him includes such diverse stars as Miles Davis, Barbara Streisand and Kiri Te Kanawa. Early on, Legrand was the piano accompanist for Sarah Vaughan and ...

5

Recording

Trumpeter/Composer - Glenn Makos Quartet: "The Michel Legrand Project" - Release Date: April 3 on Stop Time Records

Trumpeter/Composer - Glenn Makos Quartet: "The Michel Legrand Project" - Release Date: April 3 on Stop Time Records

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

New York based trumpeter and composer Glenn Makos' newest release The Michel Legrand Project with his quartet reimagines the music of Michel Legrand as Legrand celebrates his 85th birthday in 2017. The genesis of the project was the result of a kitchen renovation. “With all of the construction noise in my house, I had a difficult time writing for seventeen people what was then my current project composing for big band. I've always admired Legrand's music and one morning last ...

Recording

Legrand Plays Richard Rodgers

Legrand Plays Richard Rodgers

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In the 1950s, everyone in jazz and pop was sweet on Richard Rodgers. Many of the composer's highly melodic songs were easy to sing and leverage for swinging interpretations. Whether they were written with Lorenz Hart or Oscar Hammerstein II, Rodgers' love songs sounded hip without trying, becoming perfect vessels into which musicians could add their own ingredients. While there were many small-group and vocal albums of Rodgers' music in the 1950s and '60s, only three big bands recorded instrumental ...

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Recording

Melissa Errico's "Legrand Affair" Set for 10/18; Epic Collaboration with Michel Legrand & Phil Ramone

Melissa Errico's "Legrand Affair" Set for 10/18; Epic Collaboration with Michel Legrand & Phil Ramone

Source: Seth Cohen PR

An Epic, Cinematic Legrand Affair is Readied, as Melissa Errico's Eagerly-Awaited Collaboration with Michel Legrand and Phil Ramone Gets October 18th Release on Ghostlight Records Imagine a Passionate Kiss Backed by a 100-Piece Orchestra—Errico Delivers an 'Enormous, Intimate, Sensual' CD, Years in the Making Few projects convey the sense of scale, ambition and passion as Melissa Errico's 'Legrand Affair.' Literally years in the making, this improbable endeavor has become a reality, and is confirmed for October 18th release on Ghostlight ...

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Performance / Tour

French Jazz Pianist Michel Legrand at Regattabar in Cambridge on April 6

French Jazz Pianist Michel Legrand at Regattabar in Cambridge on April 6

Source: MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts

French composer, singer and pianist Michel Legrand is performing with his trio at the Regattabar Jazz Club at the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts on Wednesday, April 6, 2011. Tickets are$38.00 and can be purchased online. Legrand won five Grammy Awards for his compositions and was nominated 27 times during his illustrious career. Among them were the sound tracks to the Thomas Crowne Affair, the Summer of 42, Yentl and Never Say Never. He is performing at Regattabar ...

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