Michel Legrand at Shelly's Manne Hole

Decca Records France presents this wonderful high-resolution digital transfer of Michel Legrand's 1964 album, Chante et s'accompagne. French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist Michel Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many songs.

In 1968, Michel Legrand was already a renowned composer. Four years earlier, his composition for the "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" brought him fame, while the film left Cannes with a Golden Palm and even an Oscar nomination. This success therefore made him settle in Los Angeles where he rubs shoulders with Quincy Jones or Henry Mancini ("The pink Panther", "Diamonds on Sofa").

Recorded in 1956 Bonjour Paris is Michel Legrand's first musical homage to the French capital. It's an exciting and precocious work, free of clichés. A breath of fresh air.

A beautifull collection of Michel Legrand's all-time classics, sung by the wonderfull velvet voice of Kiri Te Kanawa, the worldwide famous soprano from New Zealand and the Maori country. Te Kanawa's voice has a vibrant but mellow quality that is ample in size without being overly heavy or forced. Music critics have consistently praised the freshness and warmth of her voice.

Michel Legrand has made his fame and fortune from writing for films, but he has done significant work in jazz on an occasional basis. In 1957, he arranged a set of Dixieland and swing standards for a French orchestra (recorded on Philips), in 1958 he used three different all-star groups for the classic Legrand Jazz (with such sidemen as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Phil Woods, Herbie Mann, Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Art Farmer, and others), in 1968 he recorded a strictly jazz set with a trio and Legrand has written for albums led by Stan Getz (1971), Sarah Vaughan (1972), and on several occasions, Phil Woods. Several of his songs (such as "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," "Watch What Happens," and "The Summer Knows") have been recorded many times by jazz musicians.

For a CD that opens with "Isn't It Romantic," this is a relatively sparser, more aggressive Evans album. Compared to "Waltz for Debbie," for example, you won't hear as much of the soaring notes and atmospheric, delicate harmonies for which he is so famous. That said, it is still a fabulous CD, and just shows a different side of Evans…….

The CD will feature all the favourite hits Natalie has performed with Monsieur Legrand all over France the past few years. It will be Natalie's first full non-operatic recording and will feature French soprano Patricia Petibon and Natalie's very own husband, Laurent Naouri!

At the dawn of the 60’s, well before pop’s ascensionnotes along with its given extravagances, a few turbulent arrangers and other exceptionally gifted orchestrators were already attempting out of the ordinary musical experiences, amusing themselves by using major orchestras in a fully-fledged laboratory capacity. They would do so by using stereophonic effects, exotic percussion and alternatively played instruments to give their compositions strange colours and audacious perspectives. Michel Legrand, a rapidly rising young composer at this time and breaking with the most complex writing techniques, was part of this generation of untamed conductors with very big ideas within which included a wide array of personalities from Esquival, Les Baxter and Lalo Schifrin to Quincy Jones.