Michel Legrand: Oscar-winning French composer and jazz pianist

Michel Legrand was the French composer with more than 200 credits, the most famous for his jazzy movie operas. His melodiously romantic music for The Thomas Crown case, Summer of '42 and Yentl earned him Oscars.

Legrand was born in the suburbs of Paris in 1932. He was only three years old when his father, Raymond, a well-known conductor and composer, left the family.

Legrand found solace in a grand piano, telling the story of Toronto Star in 2009: "It was one of the few things my father forgot to take when he left." He added, "I sat down and put my hands on the piano and I started playing trying to recreate a song heard at the beginning. radio. It became my only friend, my only love and, very quickly, my mother realized that it was all I could do in my life. "

His pianist skills earned him a place at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine, despite a minimum age of 14 years. As a student, he was known for his clbadical abilities but was attracted to jazz after hearing trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie perform live.

In his late teens, just after the Second World War, Legrand became a jazz piano virtuoso. Soon, he orchestrated for Edith Piaf. In 1954, at age 23, he recorded a jazz album, I like Paris, which has sold to hundreds of thousands of copies.

Legrand then directed a series of successful jazz albums, including trumpet player Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane.

In the early 1960s, he composed for several French directors of new wave films, including Jean-Luc Godard. In 1964, Legrand attracted worldwide attention with Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The film was his first collaboration with director Jacques Demy.

He earned Legrand an Oscar nomination for the "I Will Wait for You" ballad. He worked again with Demy The young girls of Rochefort (1967) for which they shared an Oscar nomination for the score.

The following year, Legrand produces music for The Thomas Crown case, with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. The theme song "Windmills of Your Mind" earned him his first Oscar alongside the songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

Although some critics have sniffed Legrand's style, calling it easy-listening music, there was no doubt he was in a tricky commercial area. When Barbara Streisand made her debut as a director in 1983 with Yentlshe told Legrand the music of the film.

"Dad, can you hear me?" Won the record and earned Legrand his third and final Oscar.

He then directed and co-wrote the film Five days in June (1989), a semi-autobiographical drama about the romantic and musical exploits of a young musician in Normandy during the Second World War.

Legrand's marriages with model Christine Bouchard and producer-actress Isaebell Rondon resulted in a divorce. In 2014, he married actress Macha Meril.

He won five Grammy Awards and, in 1990, was inducted into the Hall of Fame and Composers.

Michel Legrand, French composer, born on February 24, 1932, died on January 26, 2019

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