Michel Legrand

With a portfolio ranging from iconic film scores to jazz standards and even a piano concerto, the versatile Frenchman is hailed by Mervyn Cooke

- by Mervyn Cooke

What Americans call safe music bores me,’ declared Michel Legrand in a 2005 interview, in which he reflected on the high profile he had achieved as one of the world’s leading film composers. ‘If you’re expecting music that has no surprises,’ he continued, ‘then it’s no use calling me.’

It was a fitting summary of a remarkable compositional career in which Legrand’s stylistic versatility embraced not only an unusually wide variety of film-scoring styles, but also jazz, pop songs, musical theatre and concert works. As well as his seemingly effortless skills as a tunesmith, he was just as capable of writing sophisticated orchestral music, and in doing so exploited the technical dexterity he had learned as a student at the Paris Conservatoire. He attended this prestigious institution from eleven to 17, studying with (among others) Nadia Boulanger, developing his performing talents as a multi-instrumentalist and ultimately graduating with the first prize in composition. In his twilight years as an octogenarian, the indefatigable Legrand returned to his classical roots by composing concertos for piano, cello and harp, as well as a ballet score. He recorded his Piano Concerto himself in 2016 – one critic described its first movement as ‘a little like the Ravel G major on speed’.

Born in 1932, Legrand was the son of the bandleader and composer Raymond Legrand – who had studied with Fauré – and, not surprisingly, he had jazz firmly in his bloodstream from an early age.

Inspired by the playing of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s big band on their visit to Paris in 1947, Legrand initially devoted himself to a career as a jazz pianist, composer and arranger. In 1954, he became music director for the famed singer Maurice Chevalier and this provided him with the opportunity to visit New York.

At this time he also made his first album,