Michel Legrand Anthology (15 CD)

[king ubu]

Just stumbled over this on amazon.fr - 40€ only

http://www.amazon.fr/Anthology-coffret-15-Michel-Legrand/dp/B00F570JN6/

Coffret 15 CD + livret 72 pages accompagné de photos rares et inédites.

CD 1 : I Love Paris / Legrand in Rio

CD 2 : Legrand Jazz / Michel Legrand big band plays Richard Rodgers

CD 3 : Hommage à George Gershwin

CD 4 : Stan Getz, Communications '72 / Bud Shank plays Michel Legrand

CD 5 : Arrangements et chansons originales

CD 6 : Michel Legrand chante et s'accompagne / Sérénades du XXème siècle

CD 7 : Michel Legrand & Jacques Demy

CD 8 : Jazzic in Classic (album inédit, pour harpe et orchestre symphonique)

CD 9 : Ouvrages symphoniques

CD 10 : Interprètes internationaux

CD 11 : Spectacles musicaux

CD 12 : Dessins animés

CD 13 : Hommage à Alain Delon

CD 14 : Michel Legrand & Joseph Losey

CD 15 : Films américains

Guess this should make a fine companion piece to the

Too bad though they didn't include the pretty good "Live at Shelly's Manne-Hole", a 1968 live album with Ray Brown and Manne, and a Verve release, so it would have been available/eligible, I assume.

[crisp]

Is Bud Shank plays Michel Legrand one of those World Pacific albums that Shank hated? I'd love a boxed set of those.

Can any Legrandologists here say if this Anthology box is worth getting?

PS: more info here:

Autumn 2013 marks Legrand's great return to the music scene: two concerts with Natalie Dessay at The Olympia in Paris (October 28th and 29th) followed by a tour through France and Europe, and also his first memoirs, Rien n'est grave dans les aigus, to be published by the Cherche-Midi Editeur. To tie in with these events, Universal Classics & Jazz France has undertaken the most ambitious, abundantly prolific and extravagant record-project ever devoted to Michel Legrand: a 15CD boxed-set which brings together every face and aspect of every domain on the Legrand continent; in other words, songs, jazz, original film-soundtracks, symphonic works, musicals… Some of these CDs operate on the principle of pairing two original vinyl albums — c.f. the historic Legrand Jazz album together with his tribute to Richard Rodgers — while other discs are anthological and correspond to precise themes: international artists who have performed his work; arrangements and original songs; music for animated films… Here and there you can also find surprising guest-appearances, all by artists associated with the great Legrand: Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Louis Armstrong, Yves Montand, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Jessye Norman… and also Alain Delon, singing his previously-unreleased French version of Windmills of your Mind. The classical side of Michel Legrand is also featured in this set through compositions carried by such wonderful soloists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Maurice André or the divine harpist Catherine Michel, here on an original album — especially recorded for this set — of jazz standards re-orchestrated "classically" by Michel Legrand for a harp and symphony orchestra. The music here, steering a course between swing, lyricism and musical comedy, is an invitation on a journey through the universe of a musical giant, a creator who continues to vaporize frontiers in his love for music in the plural.

I'm always up for a bit of frontier vapourising. How about you?

Edited October 27, 2013 by crisp

[AllenLowe]

that's is trop Legrand. If Google has served me correctly.

[jazzbo]

I think google supplied you with the right word, and I'm in agreement.

[king ubu]

Not surprised by these reactions, but for folks who bought the recent Demy/Legrand Intégrale, this might be a perfect companion piece.

I'm quite sure I'll get it!

[brownie]

Saw the box in record stores this week! Not really sure I want all of it!

But I may change my mind...

Too bad they did not include 'After the Rain' with Joe Wilder, Zoot Sims... Miss the album since I sold my vinyls.

[king ubu]

Saw the box in record stores this week! Not really sure I want all of it!

But I may change my mind...

Too bad they did not include 'After the Rain' with Joe Wilder, Zoot Sims... Miss the album since I sold my vinyls.

That's a gorgeous one ... and yes, since in Europe Universal is distributing what used to be Fantasy material, they maybe could have found a way to sneak it in.

It's around as OJCCD though, that's how I've got it:

http://www.amazon.fr/After-Rain-Michel-Legrand/dp/B000000YZW/

[AllenLowe]

well, it's like the title of the new Les Baxter box: More of Les.

[king ubu]

Ah well ... guess this is the only way Universal sees fit to do anything with their Legrand holdings ... I'd be in for single releases à la "Jazz in Paris", too - but they're not going to happen, so I'll gladly take the more is less box then

[Teasing the Korean]

I've had my eye on this. It appears to be somewhat of a mixed bag: A few of his schmaltzy Columbia LPs, various stuff from the 60s and 70s.

That said, it has:

"Legrand Jazz," which I'm guessing anyone here with a remote interest already owns;

The Richard Rodgers album, from the early 60s, much jazzier than the Columbia easy listening records, and a real gem;

The Bud Shank album, which is pretty good;

"Communication 72," with Stan Getz, which is great.

I can only guess at the contents of discs 8 through 15.

[king ubu]

I've got "Legrand" and "Communication" (which was reissued as part of the Jazz in Paris series) but haven't heard the Rodges and Shank ones yet.

And I think I can deal wiht some of that Columbia stuff, too...

Btw, Legrand just made an album with Natalie Dessay ... guess I gotta check out that one soon, too!

[crisp]

I'm wondering if this is one of those Universal Europe pseudo-PD boxes, like the Complete Masters sets they did. The presence of both Sony and Universal material is odd.

[king ubu]

Not sure if it's of any comfort, but it's an EmArcy release, Universal France if you will:

http://www.universalmusic.fr/michel-legrand/actu/le-coffret-evenement-anthology-de-michel-legrand/

Now I have no clue if they pay any royalties - but I guess they don't (and I guess the Japanese yadda yadda yadday ... this is getting tiresome) as the laws say they needn't. However, this is coming from the "source" I guess they make use of about as good sources are possible to obtain.

So yeah, it's PD, at least partly (not all of it is older than 50 years!), but no, it's not from LonehillFreshsoundGambitRLRAvidJSPRetrievalChronologicalHepJazzlipsProperAmericanJazzClassicsPollWinnersRecrords or whomever you want - and yeah, those great labels doing their own transfers of 78s are doing the same, just in case you forgot ... granted stealing others' transfers isn't okay yet I'm not sure who actually does and who doesn't and I'm not one to support any of those all-too-shady practices, but I'm also no supporter of Disney and multimillionaires to extend copyright just for the sake of their bank accounts getting even fatter ... so, bottom line: this set is perfeclty kosher in my book, in each an every respect.

[crisp]

Sure, but my point was that EmArcy is a division of Universal Europe, which has been releasing PD-type sets of material it doesn't own in the Complete Masters series -- example here.

I have a few of those sets and they are excellent, fwiw, among the few PD sets that I would buy (Vocalion's are the other).

[king ubu]

Then I'm not sure what your point is at all, sorry.

They play by the rules - and this box is quite certainly not all PD material (i.e. "Communications '72" was recorded in 1971). And it does happen now and then that majors share their stuff amongst each other (surely not for free, I reckon), the inclusion of some Columbia material is certainly not unprecedented (though come to think of it, that may be PD material, too - which would indeed beg the question what sources they're using ... I'd hope they'd still pay Sony some to get good material to work from).