Michel Legrand in 2008 Photo: John Turner / Creative Commons

Sebastian writes:

The Sevenoaks Summer Festival has quite a coup for 6 July. As part of the 85 concerts which Michel Legrand, the legendary French composer, pianist, songwriter is performing in his 85th year, he is appearing in his ‘UK trio’ with Geoff Gascoyne and Seb De Krom, which was originally formed for Legrand’s Ronnie Scott’s debut in 2011.

I reviewed it, and remember vividly as he performed – just a few feet away some of his classic songs:

-Watch What Happens
-Les Moulins de Mon Coeur/The Windmills of Your Mind
-Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
-Chanson de Maxence/You must believe in Spring
-L’Eté 42/ The Summer Knows
-What Are You Doing For The Rest of Your Life?

The Legrand career is worth telling

+ He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11, and left with the highest prize at the age of 18

+ He had five years as a favoured presence in the Nadia Boulanger “class of piano accompaniment”, from which other alumni include Aaron Copland, Philip Glass. Astor Piazzola

+ His 1958 album Legrand Jazz had a line-up of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Ben Webster

+ He worked with Miles again at the end of the trumpeter’s life, scoring the film Dingo

+ He was due to write a piano concerto for Bill Evans, commissioned by Gil Evans

+ He made albums with eg Stan Getz (communication 72) Ray Brown and Shelly Manne (at Shelly’s Manne-Hole)

+ He has written the music scores for over 200 films, working with directors like Godard, Lelouch, Robert Altman, Jacques Demy…

+ Won three Oscars (out of 13 nominations) and five Grammys  (pp)





LINK: Bookings for Michel Legrand at Sevenoaks on 6 July