Performers: The Flemish Radio Orchestra cond. by Michel Legrand with guest soloists; jazz quartet with Legrand, piano & vocals
Program: The Three Musketeers, How Do You Keep the Music Playing?, Never Say Never Again, Dingo Howl, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Summer of ’42, Yentl; Watch What Happens, Once Upon a Summertime, Ray’s Blues, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?, Family Fugue, Le Vieux Costume, Edith, Rupture, Improvisation on The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Studio: EuroArts 2055118
Video: 16:9 anamorphic, color
No region code
Audio: DTS 5.1, DD 5.1, PCM Stereo, French
Subtitles: English
Length: 115 minutes
Rating: ****
The French musical figure has three Oscars and five Grammys on his shelf and has been involved in over 200 film and TV scores, several musicals and over 100 albums. Legrand’s versatility is shown not only in the variety of musical genres – jazz tunes, songs, film scores, symphonic works – but also in his performances on this video as conductor, pianist and singer.
It was his Columbia LP I Love Paris which launched Legrand to international fame – the arrangements still sound exciting and original. His next album, Legrand Jazz, is still one of my top ten jazz recordings – his arrangements and backing for Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Phil Woods and Ben Webster are superbly done and designed to appeal to a wide audience. Legrand’s work with Jacques Demy on three classic film musicals is legendary.
The first half of the program is orchestral, mainly concentrating on Legrand’s film scores. The only one that falls a bit flat is his James Bond movie effort. Saxist Hervé Meschinet shines as soloist on a couple of the tracks, and the last selection is a nearly quarter-hour suite of music from the Streisand movie Yentl, featuring harpist Catherine Michel. The second half presents chansons and jazz selections with Legrand at the piano along with guitar, bass and drums. The tunes mix vocals and instrumentals. I found that Family Fugue reminded me of the chamber-jazz suites of the other versatile French composer-pianist-bandleader, Claude Bolling. Legrand doesn’t have much of a voice and seems to realize that, but it is interesting to hear his interpretations of his own songs. However, he has an extremely odd scat-singing style on one of the numbers that just doesn’t work for me. The rousing closer of the jazz portion is the Umbrellas of Cherbourg theme put thru a series of dance forms, ending in a rapid-fire Roumanian/Hungarian culmination.
– John Sunier
