MICHEL LEGRAND’S DATE WITH ALISON MOYET

Derby Evening Telegraph
ainment/Michel-LeGrand-s-date-Alison-Moyet/article -675678-detail/article.html
Feb 6 2009
UK

MICHEL Legrand has had bad night. Nocturnal noises at his London hotel
have kept the veteran composer awake through most of the small hours
but he’s far too polite to cancel our morning chat.

He shrugs off the lack of sleep in typically Gallic fashion and begins
to reminisce about a musical career spanning more than half a century.

Born in Paris in 1932, of Armenian descent, Michel has composed more
than 200 film and television scores, several musicals and recorded
more than 100 albums.

He studied music at the Paris Conservatoire from 1943-50, beginning
at the age of 11 in Nazi-occupied territory.

"I was very young. We had nothing to eat, no heat when we were cold
in winter but we had our music and we carried on working," he says
nonchalantly.

"When I finished my classical studies I was 20 and needed to make
my living so I became an accompanist for singers in Paris. I was
accompanying lousy singers, singing out of tune but slowly it was
better singers, my own orchestrations and then a chance to make
records."

Those jazz-influenced records became some of the biggest instrumental
hits of the post-war years and gave Michel a chance to write film
scores.

"In 1959 in Paris the New Wave of cinema started," he says. "New
directors with new ideas who wanted new technicians, new cameramen, new
composers. I had done a lot of instrumental albums these film-makers
liked and they asked me to do their film music – which I did for the
next 10 years."

But it was the 1965 international hit The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
that Michel conceived with director Jacques Demy that opened doors
in Hollywood.

A sung-through musical with no dialogue starring Catherine Deneuve,
it was as revolutionary in the 60s as Moulin Rouge was this decade.

"Jacques and I loved musical films," says Michel. "But we didn’t want
to copy Americans and wanted something different and French.

"It was hard to find a producer and we did it with almost no money
but it was a big success. They said it wouldn’t work but we were
stubborn and did it in spite of everything else.

"After that I told the French directors ‘don’t call me anymore,
I’m going to Hollywood’. I scored a little comedy first and then The
Thomas Crown Affair- an extraordinary opportunity and the film was
a big success and won me my first Oscar."

The Steve McQueen film also contained the song Windmills of Your Mind
which remains one of the most popular in the Legrand repertoire. It
started a run of 13 Oscar, five Grammy and one Emmy nominations.

"It’s all a nice bit of sugar but it doesn’t make me write better or
worse," says Michel.

Now, at the age of 76, he’s bringing British audiences a taste of
his music with the help of one-time Alison Moyet.

"I knew Alison’s work very well so it was a pleasure to do a tour
with her and I came to London to organise it and orchestrate it and
now we are going to do these concerts together. It’s only my music
that she will sing on this tour but it suits her really well."

The concert is one of the highlights of the Four-Four Time Festival
in Buxton (see panel). "It’s a new adventure for me and I love an
adventure," says Michel.

But before he embarks on the tour, he will need a few better nights’
sleep.

"When someone tries to smoke in a hotel these days it starts off all
the sirens and there was a chain smoker who set off alarms all night
long," he says. "Tonight has to be better – I will arrange it."

Michel Legrand (with special guest Alison Moyet) WHERE: Buxton
Opera House.

WHEN: Tuesday, February 17 at 7.30pm.

TICKETS: £30 and £35.

CALL: 0845 127 2190.
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