Michel Legrand - RIP

[Big Beat Steve]

20 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I love Legrand's instrumental version of this album.  In the US, it was released on a United Artists LP.  It is part of the aforementioned Demy box set on CD, but I don't know if it has ever had a decent stand-alone release.

TTK, are you referring to Legrand Jazz or to the Demoiselles?

I guess it's the Demoiselles and maybe the strictly instrumental version IS way more bearable - but to me much of the singing just came across as rather contrived and unconvincing, maybe because it is evident the actors - and actresses, in particular - just were no singers, including Deneuve and her much too early departed sister (I see only Danielle Darrieux did her own singing). To me somehow their "moves" just didn't match the (overdubbed) singing (not even by the yardsticks of typical musicals, which admittedly I am no huge fan of either) - maybe - again - because this film must have been a one-off excursion into musical territory for most of the actors/actresses.

[Dave James]

It's not jazz, but I've always been a sucker for the song and the film.

 

[Larry Kart]

Too bad IMO that he hooked at times with the rather talentless and, in some cases, dishonest lyric-writing team of Mariiyn and Alan Bergman.

[Dan Gould]

16 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Too bad IMO that he hooked at times with the rather talentless and, in some cases, dishonest lyric-writing team of Mariiyn and Alan Bergman.

OK this begs for substantial "fleshing out" on both descriptions.

[medjuck]

HE arrived on the scene at a great time:  t he beginning of the new wave in film and the blossoming of the Miles Davis Sextet. He  used Miles, Trane, Chambers and Evans together on 4 cuts of Legrand Jazz. I've always remembered his credit on Godard's "Bande a'part"  that read : "For the last time (?) on the screen Music by Michel Legrand"

Edited January 28, 2019 by medjuck

[Big Beat Steve]

20 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I've always remembered his credit on Godard's "Bande a'part"  that read : "For the last time (?) on the screen Music by Michel Legrand"

I've watched that movie several times (for other period-related aspects than the music score, admittedly) but never noticed that statement. Will have to pull out my video copy again ...

[medjuck]

IIRC it was in the opening credits where the director credit was "Jean-Luc Cinema Godard".  You may be seeing later prints with different sub-titles nowadays. I saw it when it first came out in 1964 but pretty sure that this is not one of my acid-flashbacks. 

[Larry Kart]

4 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

OK this begs for substantial "fleshing out" on both descriptions.

4 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

OK this begs for substantial "fleshing out" on both descriptions.

4 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

OK this begs for substantial "fleshing out" on both descriptions.

Opinions about the merits of the Bergmans as lyricists vary. Speaking only for myself, any team that can come up with, for example, the nagging sonic baggage of:

What are you doing the rest of your life
North and South and 
East and West of your life
I have only one request of your life
That you spend it all with me
All the seasons and the times of your days
Are the nickels and the dimes of your days
Let the reasons and the rhymes of your days
All begin and end with me

I want to see your face in every kind of light
In fields of gold and forests of the night
And when you stand 
Before the candles on a cake
Oh, let me be the one to hear
The silent wish you make

Those tomorrows waiting deep in your eyes
In a world of love you keep in your eyes
I'll awaken what's asleep in your eyes
It may take a kiss or two

Through all of my life
Summer, winter, spring and fall of my life
All I ever will recall of my life
Is all my life with you
Through all of my life
Summer, winter, spring and fall of my life
All I ever will recall of my life
Is all my life with you

 

deserve to rest forever on a ledge in Purgatory. By the time we get to "request," I want to scream. As for "All the seasons and the times of your days/
 

Are the nickels and the dimes of your days" -- there my head wants to explode.

 

But, then, others clearly feel otherwise. about the Bergmans' gifts.

 

 

As for the dishonesty, for some damn reason I can't cut and paste the several posts from the singers/songwriters blog Songbirds that deal with this, but it has to do with the Bergmans' relationship to the late composer/lyricist Lew Spence ("That Face"/"Nice and Easy," et al). Spence, an older man, was an early mentor of and sometime partner with Alan. Spence wrote "That Face" after he saw and fell in love with actress Phyllis Kirk in a studio commissary. (He later dated Kirk.) Spence had a problem completing the lyric, and Alan helped him do so. Later on, Alan claimed that he had written it all himself and that it was inspired by the face of Marilyn Keith, his future wife. Something similar happened with "Nice and Easy." In both cases, Spence got his fair share of the royalties, but the Bergmans have always said that "That Face" was Alan's work and inspired by Marilyn's punim and that "Nice and Easy" was theirs. Those in the songwriting community who knew differently regard the Bergmans with disdain over  this.

 

 

OK -- here's this from author Bill Reed's blog:

 

In yesterday's L.A. Times, an article about the admittedly not-untalented lyric writing duo of Marilyn and Alan Bergman contains the following quote 

"A cash-starved Alan wrote 'That Face' as an engagement gift for 
Marilyn,"

While just last month, in an obit for Lew [Spence] in the Times, there is another version of the event in question: 

"One night while dining at Frascasti's Restaurant in Beverly Hills with Bob Carroll (I Love Lucy'), Phyllis Kirk walked in and immediately, Lew fell in love. He went over to her and said, in
true Lew style, 'You are beautiful!' She patted the seat next to her and invited him to sit down. The very next morning he got up and wrote the entire melody and the main lyric to 'That Face' as a tribute to her beauty."

Yet. . .when the song was published, and subsequently recorded by Fred Astaire, Alan Bergman took full credit for the lyric. But Lew kept his own counsel, apparently (sweetheart that he was) not wanting to destroy the illusion of Alan's "engagement gift." 

Perhaps he should have quit while still ahead. For just a few short years later, the same thing happened with the song "Nice 'n Easy." Only this time BOTH Bergmans took sole credit for the lyric, while---again---Lew was accorded only a "music" credit. Finally, that ripped it. Not long afterward, Lew severed all ties with the couple. 

Of course, there are always three sides to every story---yours, mine and the truth. Don't ask me why, but I tend to believe Spence's "side" in regard to both of these occurences. 

The schism between Lew Spence and the Bergmans is well-known in the songwriting community. It's too bad that the L.A. Times sent a writer to profile the Bergmans who was so unfamiliar with the subject matter being written about that she could only traffic in the received wisdom of Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Lew's "side" of the story should have at least been alluded to. 

[Teasing the Korean]

10 hours ago, Big Beat Steve said:

TTK, are you referring to Legrand Jazz or to the Demoiselles?

I guess it's the Demoiselles...

Yes, Demoiselles.  Try to find that instrumental version if you can.  

[Shrdlu]

Very sad news.

Just the other day, I was listening to Tamba 4's album "Samba Blim", where they play "Watch What Happens". That is an electric tune.

Much respect.

[Teasing the Korean]

16 hours ago, Larry Kart said:

As for the dishonesty, for some damn reason I can't cut and paste the several posts from the singers/songwriters blog Songbirds that deal with this, but it has to do with the Bergmans' relationship to the late composer/lyricist Lew Spence ("That Face"/"Nice and Easy," et al). Spence, an older man, was an early mentor of and sometime partner with Alan. Spence wrote "That Face" after he saw and fell in love with actress Phyllis Kirk in a studio commissary. (He later dated Kirk.) Spence had a problem completing the lyric, and Alan helped him do so. Later on, Alan claimed that he had written it all himself and that it was inspired by the face of Marilyn Keith, his future wife. Something similar happened with "Nice and Easy." In both cases, Spence got his fair share of the royalties, but the Bergmans have always said that "That Face" was Alan's work and inspired by Marilyn's punim and that "Nice and Easy" was theirs. Those in the songwriting community who knew differently regard the Bergmans with disdain over  this.

 

 

OK -- here's this from author Bill Reed's blog:

 

In yesterday's L.A. Times, an article about the admittedly not-untalented lyric writing duo of Marilyn and Alan Bergman contains the following quote 

"A cash-starved Alan wrote 'That Face' as an engagement gift for 
Marilyn,"

While just last month, in an obit for Lew [Spence] in the Times, there is another version of the event in question: 

"One night while dining at Frascasti's Restaurant in Beverly Hills with Bob Carroll (I Love Lucy'), Phyllis Kirk walked in and immediately, Lew fell in love. He went over to her and said, in
true Lew style, 'You are beautiful!' She patted the seat next to her and invited him to sit down. The very next morning he got up and wrote the entire melody and the main lyric to 'That Face' as a tribute to her beauty."

Yet. . .when the song was published, and subsequently recorded by Fred Astaire, Alan Bergman took full credit for the lyric. But Lew kept his own counsel, apparently (sweetheart that he was) not wanting to destroy the illusion of Alan's "engagement gift." 

Perhaps he should have quit while still ahead. For just a few short years later, the same thing happened with the song "Nice 'n Easy." Only this time BOTH Bergmans took sole credit for the lyric, while---again---Lew was accorded only a "music" credit. Finally, that ripped it. Not long afterward, Lew severed all ties with the couple. 

Of course, there are always three sides to every story---yours, mine and the truth. Don't ask me why, but I tend to believe Spence's "side" in regard to both of these occurences. 

The schism between Lew Spence and the Bergmans is well-known in the songwriting community. It's too bad that the L.A. Times sent a writer to profile the Bergmans who was so unfamiliar with the subject matter being written about that she could only traffic in the received wisdom of Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Lew's "side" of the story should have at least been alluded to. 

That is interesting.  I never knew this.  

I always thought the Bergmans nicely captured the adult ennui of the so-called silent generation, those who were a little too young for WWII and a little too old for the 60s counterculture.  The people who would buy a Moog album at the checkout of the A&P. Bergman lyrics remind me of a woman who wears heavy eye makeup to conceal the fact that she's been crying because her husband is having an affair with his young secretary.

Here is a Legrand Bergman tune that I really like, and Jack nails it.

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by Teasing the Korean

[Larry Kart]

TTK: Just to be clear, we're talking about two different and probablyt unrelated things: The q

[Teasing the Korean]

19 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

TTK: Just to be clear, we're talking about two different and probablyt unrelated things: The q

Not sure what you mean.  I was interested to get the back story regarding the alleged plagiarism, but I still like some of their tunes, including the Jack Jones tune I posted, regardless of who wrote them.

[Larry Kart]

Sorry -- incomplete post. The perhaps or somewhat unrelated things are 1) the quality of the Bergmans' lyrics 2) their behavior toward Lew Spence 3) the nature and quality of Legrand's music -- which I like and would like, if possibe, to detach from the Bergmans' lyrics, just I would liike to detach Jobim's music from Gene Lees' lyrics.

[Teasing the Korean]

6 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Sorry -- incomplete post. The perhaps or somewhat unrelated things are 1) the quality of the Bergmans' lyrics 2) their behavior toward Lew Spence 3) the nature and quality of Legrand's music -- which I like and would like, if possibe, to detach from the Bergmans' lyrics, just I would liike to detach Jobim's music from Gene Lees' lyrics.

Funny, I was almost going to write, "Well, at least Legrand didn't work with Gene Lees."  (Or did he ever?)

Plus, all of Legrand's music is available in instrumental versions, but I realize that is not the same thing as getting a lyric you don't like out of your head.  

[Dan Gould]

Well I just have to say that I read their Wiki page, and they get a million negative stars from me for "The Way We Were".

Not sure how to judge them for writing the lyrics to the tv show 'Good Times'. 

[Larry Kart]

16 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Funny, I was almost going to write, "Well, at least Legrand didn't work with Gene Lees."  (Or did he ever?)

Plus, all of Legrand's music is available in instrumental versions, but I realize that is not the same thing as getting a lyric you don't like out of your head.  

Legrand's music in the French films that he wrote some of it for -- now we're talking. I'm particularly fond of "Donkey Skin."

 

D

 

[Teasing the Korean]

12 minutes ago, Larry Kart said:

Legrand's music in the French films that he wrote some of it for -- now we're talking. I'm particularly fond of "Donkey Skin."

We have the Demy DVD box set and we watched that for the first time a few months back.  Yes, the music is great, as is the film. 

[sgcim]

On 1/27/2019 at 1:03 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

I may own more albums by Legrand than any other artist.

As someone who loves jazz, film music, and EZ/mood music/space-age bachelor, and the Now Sound, I sometimes think that even some seasoned listeners don't really have a handle on the vastness of Legrand's skills and contributions.  Some of my jazz friends think Legrand was a jazz dabbler.  Film music fans in the US often consider Legrand second- or third-tier, because he never composed a Williams/Goldsmith kind of score for a Spielberg blockbuster.  Legrand was a brilliant composer, arranger, pianist, songwriter, even singer, in numerous styles and genres. Along with Bacharach, Jobim, and Mancini, he epitomizes for me the 1960s, especially the international jet-set aesthetic.  Maybe sgcim would agree, as I know he shares my love of film music. 

Agreed. The guy used to go to bed reading orchestral scores, the way regular people would read books.

[JSngry]

7 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Not sure how to judge them for writing the lyrics to the tv show 'Good Times'. 

No judgement on them for doing it, but have always wondered who hired them to do it. That's where I might - might - have some judgement, or at least opinion.

[Teasing the Korean]

On January 28, 2019 at 9:44 PM, Dave Garrett said:

There's also a companion disc of sorts to the Cinema box set that focuses on the French New Wave:

Le Cinéma De Michel Legrand Nouvelle Vague

Listening now.  Great stuff on here!

[Teasing the Korean]

Here's another Legrand tune with Bergman lyrics, beautifully sung by Jack:

 

[medjuck]

I've encountered the  Bergmans a couple of times. Once they sang at a mutual friend's birthday party   and last   year  they were present at a Pat Metheny  concert at a small venue in  Santa Barbara.  Tierney Sutton guested on one song for which they had written lyrics.  Metheny seemed thrilled that they had done so.