Michel Legrand at Shelly's Manne Hole

The recording sessions for this album, held on three consecutive February days in 1975, were comfortable, happy and exciting. The magical flow of good feelings to and from Lena and her musicians became a musical embrace happily captured on tape. As conducted and guided by the redoubtable Michel Legrand, the band assembied by co-producer Norman Schwartz joined with Lena in inspiring and sustaining a creative ambiance rarely encountered in this age of piecemeal, assembly-line records.
The music on this recording was deftly and freely shaped to fit the very special talents of a superb singer…

Born in 1931, Michel Legrand, who is best-known as a film score composer, was in his late teens and early '20s in the decade following World War II as he divided his time between classical studies and playing jazz piano in Paris nightclubs. Obviously, he remembers the era well, and on this album he has arranged a series of songs from the period, with a few dating back to the 1930s, though he may have known them from hit versions in the '50s, such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes."…

Shelly Manne made a countless number of records from the 1940s into the '80s but is best-known as a good-humored bandleader who never hogged the spotlight. Originally a saxophonist, Manne switched to drums when he was 18 and started working almost immediately. He was with Joe Marsala's band (making his recording debut in 1941), played briefly in the big bands of Will Bradley, Raymond Scott, and Les Brown and was on drums for Coleman Hawkins's classic "The Man I Love" session of late 1943. Manne worked on and off with Stan Kenton during 1946-1952, also touring with Jazz at the Philharmonic (1948-1949), and gigging with Woody Herman (1949). After leaving Kenton, Manne moved to Los Angeles where he became the most in-demand of all jazz drummers…