Winner of three Oscars over the course of his career, Michel Legrand was one of the greatest soundtrack composers. The Frenchman wrote more than 200 scores, including for “Yentl”, “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “Summer Of ’42” and “Les parapluies de Cherbourg”. His songs, such as “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” have also made the pianist known to pop listeners, and the Frenchman celebrated his first number one album in the American charts in 1954 with “I Love Paris”. . He was just 22 years old then.
Michel Legrand has played and recorded with many jazz greats including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Aretha Franklin, Stan Getz, Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. The now 83-year-old has always toured the world, and on November 3, 2015 he finally made a guest appearance in Germany, at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Legrand and band perform soundtrack classics and jazz tunes there. ROLLING STONE spoke to Legrand on the phone.
An archive piece from November 2015:
Michel Legrand: “The jazz giants are dead”
ROLLING STONE: On the eve of our conversation (October 13, 2015) you performed in Paris at a concert by your friend Charles Aznavour: “Toi mon frére”, a memorial event in honor of the victims of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide of 1915. See yourself as political Musician?
Michael Legrand: That was an important concert for me. And it is significant that the Turkish government also describes the genocide of the Armenians as such. I am of Armenian descent, my grandfather’s family was wiped out then. Please let’s talk about something different, something positive.
ROLLING STONE: In November you are coming to Berlin for a concert…
Legrand: Yes! I’ve never performed here. This will be a special concert for me. There were three terrible wars in which France and Germany were adversaries within a century. Also thanks to the unification in the European Union, the friendship between these countries has grown.
ROLLING STONE: Which of your pieces will you play?
Legrand: I do not know that yet. I will decide that as soon as I arrive in Berlin.
ROLLING STONE: They had popularized chansons and jazz as the soundtrack for Hollywood films. The scores of today’s productions all sound the same: bombast with drum rolls and strings aiming into emptiness.
Legrand: That’s correct. Hollywood was more open in the 1970s and 1980s, definitely better scores were recorded in those decades. It was a great era. Great films that required great soundtracks. The music for today’s films offers you nothing. Nothing to enjoy. Nothing new, nothing important. Nothing challenging. A sad time.
ROLLING STONE: You also wrote for works that were not necessarily expected of you. For the James Bond film “Never Say Never” (1983) or for the sci-fi film “Predator 2” (1990).
Legrand (laughs): As a film composer, you have to be able to score any kind of story. Happy, sad, action-heavy, everything.
ROLLING STONE: How intensively do you talk to the film producers before your work?
Legrand: I don’t listen to what the producers ask me to do. Their ideas are usually not that good. I only listen to myself.
ROLLING STONE: How often do you have to say no to requests from Hollywood these days?
Legrand: I’ve had to say no many, many times. In a musical, the music is created parallel to the action. When it comes to the film, however, I would like to have some insights in advance.
ROLLING STONE: But French music has not become popular again in the dream factory to this day.
Legrand: Of the older guard of French soundtrack composers, there’s only me.
ROLLING STONE: With “Birdman” and “Whiplash” two films recently received Oscar nominations in which jazz plays a role.
Legrand: “Whiplash” was very interesting, I liked it. But I don’t think the drum professor did the right thing in the film. You can’t force the learning of jazz like that, you can’t treat the student like that. But the film is beautifully made and the success is good for jazz.
ROLLING STONE: How does your approach to composing scores differ from non-soundtracks?
Legrand: I make no distinctions. The music for films must be able to stand on its own, like a classical piece. You still have to keep an eye on what’s happening on the screen. I want to serve the plot, the actors.
ROLLING STONE: In 1954 you celebrated your first number one album in the American charts with “I Love Paris”.
Legrand: I was 22 at the time. At the time, I had no idea that my career would continue so well. I was just happy.
ROLLING STONE: One of your most famous songs, which also won you an Oscar, was “Windmills Of Your Mind” from the 1968 film Unbelievable Thomas Crown…
Legrand: Oh, I wouldn’t favor it at all. You like your different kids for different reasons.
ROLLING STONE: Does it bother you that this song or others are called “easy listening”?
Legrand: People think or say what they want. Why should that bother me? I don’t work out such categories. I like my music, I like my life.
ROLLING STONE: You always emphasize that you still want to learn more about jazz. what?
Legrand: My curiosity knows no bounds, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do what I do. Composing comes first for me, then come the arrangements. I want to create something. I’m a student, not a professor.
ROLLING STONE: Do you still sit down at the piano and learn songs these days?
Legrand: No, because I no longer want to play the music of other composers. I want to compose classical pieces that I learn and then conduct. Recently I’m working on two different ones, a concerto for cello, already performed in France, and one for piano, which I play myself. It will be premiered with orchestra in Philadelphia in May 2016.
ROLLING STONE: You’ve worked with Miles Davis, Coltrane, Stan Getz… what was the most important lesson you learned from the collaborations?
Legrand: Well, my imagination is already big. But once Miles started playing I had to think 30, 40, no 50 different steps ahead of what he was going to do next. And he always, always played something that I hadn’t heard from him before. He and the others you mentioned were geniuses. What an extraordinary pleasure it was to play with them. i miss them all The giants are dead. There are many outstanding young jazz musicians today. But I’m still waiting to meet new geniuses.
ROLLING STONE: Maybe the younger ones have turned to electronics, working with computers…
Legrand: Yes / Yes. But that’s bullshit. I hate computers, I hate these machines. Music comes from the heart, not a machine. How I hate the sound of it. I will never work with a computer.
ROLLING STONE: In which direction could jazz develop, how will it sound in ten years?
Legrand: I do not know that. But there will always be jazz, just as there will always be good musicians.