Michel Legrand is, quite simply, one of France’s great gifts to the world. Since 1965, when he received three Academy Award Nominations for his score adaptation and the song ‘I Will Wait For You’ from ‘THE UMBRELLA OF CHERBOURG’, Michel Legrand has become one of the foremost names in contemporary music. He has been nominated sixteen time and been the winner of no fewer than three Oscars. The first being in 1968 for best song in ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’, from the film ‘THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR’. His second, for the best original dramatic score for ‘The Summer of ‘42’ and in 1984 for the best original song score for Barbra Striesand’s motion picture ‘YENTL’, called by Time Magazine ‘the most romantic, coherent and sophisticated original movie score since ‘GIGI’.
Michel Legrand is also a conductor of renown and a virtuoso Jazz Pianist. He has conducted and appeared with Orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras in Vancouver, Montreal, Atlanta, Denver and New Orleans. He has made well over 100 albums and collaborated with such stars as Maurice Chevalier, Miles Davies, Kiri Te Kanewa, Sarah Vaughn, Stan Getz and Lena Horne. His songs have been sung by everyone who is anyone – including such legends as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. Among the most famous films he scored are Billie Holiday’s life story. ‘LADY SINGS THE BLUES’, the lush and romantic ‘THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT’ – the James Bond film ‘NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN’ – ‘THE GO BETWEEN’ – ‘THE THREE MUSKETEERS’ – and more recently ‘FIVE DAYS IN JUNE’.
What makes this latter film unique is that it is the story of the young Michel Legrand’s life during the German occupation of Paris and marks his debut as a film director. The fact that he also wrote, produced and scored the film makes it a remarkable achievement as well as being a film enjoying an enormous and well deserved popularity.
Michel Legrand lived in a 17th Century mill, outside of Paris. He loved the sea, cruising his own small boat and piloting his own plane. He enjoyed horse riding and was an avid tennis and chess player. The fact is, that if he did nothing else but arrange or sing or perform or conduct any one of these separate gifts would have given him immediate and enduring fame, but his extraordinary talent as a composer has elevated him to the status where the word genius drifts in and out of the conversation, and rightly so,
It should also be mentioned that he was a modest and decent man, charming and affable with a great gift for fun and friendship.
Born in 1932, Michel’s career spanned 73 years before his death on the 26th of January 2019 at 86 years of age, but his memory shall long continue in the timeless melodies he penned and left behind for us to enjoy.
HAL SHAPER
Original Soundtracks produced by Hal Shaper and Michel Legrand.
Licensed from Hal Shaper Limited (HSL) London.
Track List:
01. The Surrey With The Fringe On Top
02. There's A Boat That's Leavin' Soon For New York
