During a successful five-decade career, composer and arranger Michel Legrand made his brand of lush French romanticism into a highly marketable commodity, and Legrand’s film writing remains his major contribution to popular music. Best known as the composer of quality scores for several French and Hollywood movies, such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Thomas Crown Affair, the many-faceted Legrand was also a talented classical pianist, jazz performer, and even on occasion, a whispery crooner. An international recording and concert favourite, Legrand wrote hit songs and emotive ballads such as “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” and “The Windmills of Your Mind.” The latter was commissioned for the soundtrack of The Thomas Crown Affair, and Legrand won an Academy Award in 1968. The song later became a huge hit for pop singer Dusty Springfield.
The son of French film composer and bandleader Raymond Legrand, Michel was born in Paris on February 24, 1931. After studying at the Paris Conservatory with Nadia BOULANGER, he launched a career as a bandleader and sometime singer. He was composer/arranger for his father and popular French performers including Juliette Greco, as well as for the visiting jazz icon Dizzy GILLESPIE. From 1954 to 1955, he conducted for Maurice CHEVALIER’S shows in Paris and New York. In the late 1950s, he began composing musical scores for several key French New Wave directors, such as A Woman Is A Woman for Jean-Luc Godard, My Life to Live for Agnes Varda, Cleo from 5 to 7 for Claude Lelouch, and most prominently, Lola for Jacques Demi.
Legrand’s crowning achievement as a film composer was his memorable heart-on-the-sleeve score for the classic 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. According to one French critic, in this beloved international valentine to lost love, Legrand and director Demi invented “a new genre: neither a musical comedy, nor an opera—simply, a movie that is just sung.” The unapologetically romantic score yielded the hit song “I Will Wait for You.” In 1967, Legrand and Demi collaborated on a less-successful sequel, The Young Girls of Rochefort.
In the mid-1950s, Legrand crossed the Atlantic to New York City and applied his lush Gallic flavour to American popular music. I Love Paris, his 1954 album debut, featured the haunting trumpet of Miles DAVIS. For the 1958 album Legrand Jazz, he arranged and conducted classic jazz tunes for three different all-star ensembles, including a memorable collaboration between Miles Davis, John COLTRANE, and pianist Bill EVANS. During his infrequent forays into mainstream jazz in the 1980s and 1990s, Legrand played (and sometimes sang) with small combos.
Legrand experienced no language barrier during his transition to Hollywood, composing occasionally haunting scores for movies such as Summer of ’42 (1971), Atlantic City (1980), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and the TV movie Brian’s Song (1970). He won a second Oscar for his music in 1983 for Barbra STREISAND’S Yentl. Other well-known film music included Never Say Never Again, in which Sean Connery once again played James Bond.
In 1991, Legrand once more collaborated with Miles Davis to produce the jazz-based score of Dingo, in which Davis performed shortly before his death. In all, Legrand composed the music for more than a hundred motion pictures. In 1988, he directed, co-wrote, and composed the score for the semiautobiographical film Five Days in June. Legrand also contributed music to many television productions.
Michael R. Ross
SEE ALSO:
FILM MUSIC; FILM MUSICALS; POPULAR MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Legrand, Michel, with George Mendoza. Michel’s Mixed-up Musical Bird (Indianopolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
After the Rain; At Shelly’s Marine Hole; Legrand Jazz; Michel Legrand Recorded Live at Jimmy’s.