"I feel at home wherever I am so long as I have paper to write on and a piano to play!" Michel Legrand is not only a master of the sound bite, he is also the maestro of the film soundtrack, having composed scores for some 200 movies which have marked generations of cinema-goers worldwide. Legrand is perhaps best known for the musicals he made with French director Jacques Demy (the unforgettable Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort and Peau d'Âne), but he also shone in Hollywood, composing soundtracks for The Thomas Crown Affair and Summer of ‘42, for which he won an Oscar.

Legrand has won countless awards in the course of his career, the humble young pianist from Bécon-les-Bruyères going on to build up a star-studded address book that resembles the Who’s Who of the film world. Over the past fifty years and more, the versatile French composer has worked with a host of influential directors, penning scores for everyone from Jean-Luc Godard and Louis Malle to Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood and Costa-Gavras. The latter, now president of the Cinémathèque française in Paris, has played an active role in preparing the Legrand celebrations there this month, arranging for part of the composer’s extensive film catalogue to be screened with special sessions featuring a running commentary by the maestro himself. Fans will also be treated to a one-off concert at the Salle Pleyel on 27 February where Legrand will take to the stage to conduct the Orchestre National d’Ile de France playing a selection of his film classics. The eclectic line-up of singers due to join him on this occasion includes Patrick Fiori, Liane Foly, Dany Brillant and the Belgian ‘chanteuse’ Maurane.

Legrand was invited to kick off the month-long celebrations in Paris with an introductory piano concert at the Cinémathèque française on February 4th where he performed in front of an audience largely made up of his "extended family" including French film-makers Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Bertrand Tavernier. Legrand put on an entertaining show, switching between masterly solos and delightful duets with his sister, the singer Christiane Legrand, and his harpist friend Catherine Michel. At one point, Legrand senior even got Legrand junior up on stage with him and father and son put on a stunning display of swing vocals much to the audience’s delight.

Throughout his recital Legrand paid extensive tribute to his first love, jazz, supported by a masterly rhythm section consisting of Thomas Bramerie on double bass and his old friend, jazz virtuoso André Ceccarelli, on drums. The show revolved around the inevitable Legrand film classics such as Yentl and La Piscine, but also turned the spotlight on lesser-known works such as Dingo. Taking to the microphone, a visibly moved Legrand explained that "This is the last piece I wrote with Miles, who played on my own jazz album. I guess this is my way of bringing things full circle!"

Legrand made countless jazz recordings in the course of his career but the album Legrand jazz, made during a visit to the U.S. in 1958 with an all-star line-up that included Ben Webster, Donald Byrd, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers and Miles Davis was his masterpiece. Legrand’s inventive re-arrangements of jazz standards was universally acclaimed as outstanding.

At his final concert at the Salle Pleyel on February 28th Legrand will undoubtedly draw on his seminal 1958 album as well as the big band classic he recorded in the 1980s with the likes of Gerry Mulligan, Jon Faddis, Ron Carter and Phil Woods. The Michel Legrand Big Band assembled for the occasion looks set to include some mighty big names as well as a number of talented soloists such as French guitarist Sylvain Luc. The Salle Pleyel concert promises to be more than a grand retrospective, too. Rumour has it that a future Michel Legrand Big Band jazz album could soon be underway.

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 Listen to an extract from Les Moulins de mon cœur

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