Ballade de Polly Maggoo

Côte d’Azur, hôtel luxueux, roulette, craps, bijoux, robe de soirée, malchance, veine, voiture de sport, fauché, enfer, réalité, amour, drogue, risques, Michel Legrand, carpe diem, millionnaire, inconscience, clochard, rêve.

Tous ces mots font références à La baie des anges, filmée en 1963 par Jacques Demy. Jeanne Moreau et Claude Mann, une sorte d’alternative à Belmondo, y jouent un couple qui tombe dans l’enfer du jeu. De casinos en hôtels, ils vivent au grès de leur chance et nous emportent au fond du gouffre à leurs côtés. L’assistant-réalisateur est un certain Costa-Gravas.

Il s’agit de notre “Classique” du vendredi dont voici la scène finale (qui ne révèle rien de très important si ce n’est un très beau plan composé de miroirs).

Bell 2308 029 – United States - 1972

Varese Sarabande STV 81163  – United States - 1984

DRG Records DRG 6104  – United States - 1981

Warner Bros. BS 2947  – United States - 1976

MCA 2091 – United States – 1976

El Teatro Fernán Gómez y el Circo Price, entre otras salas serán sedes de las XXVI edición del Festival de Jazz de Madrid

24-10-2009 Ayto de Madrid La inauguración oficial del festival tendrá lugar el 4 de noviembre, en el Teatro Fernán Gómez con el concierto de Joe Lovano Nonet El Teatro Fernán González ofrecerá 12 conciertos de artistas como Jimmy Cobb, Richard Bona, Brad Mehldau, Chastang, Larry Willis, Polo Orti, o Cassandra Wilson, entre otros El Teatro Circo Price acogerá los conciertos de Kike Perdomo Quintet & Eric Marienthal y Marcus Miller (12 de noviembre), y Madeline Peyroux (13 de noviembre) Se integran en la programación el Festival de Jazz San Juan Evangelista con las actuaciones de Ron Carter, Dave Liebman, o Javi Colina, entre otros, y el Festival de Jazz de Ciudad Lineal con las de Kenny Barron, Nils Petter Molvaer y John Scofield El programa se completa con ‘Jazz con sabor a club’, con más de 200 conciertos en 15 salas, y el ciclo ‘Música & Cine’, que proyectará sus cintas en el Fernán Gómez, Instituto Francés, Centro Cultural Nicolás Salmerón y La boca del Lobo Joe Lovano Nonet El próximo 4 de noviembre comienza una nueva edición del Festival de Jazz de Madrid con un concierto inaugural a cargo del saxofonista Joe Lovano en el Teatro Fernán Gómez acompañado de ocho instrumentos más. El certamen madrileño, que celebra en esta ocasión su vigésimo sexta edición, está consolidado ya como referente fundamental de la oferta jazzística de la ciudad de Madrid. Este año cuenta con un total de 17 conciertos en su programa central que se desarrollarán en cuatro salas: el Teatro Fernán Gómez que absorbe la mayor parte del programa central con 12 conciertos; el Teatro Circo Price con dos conciertos; la Fundación Carlos de Amberes con un único concierto; y el Centro Cultural Nicolás Salmerón que acogerá dos recitales gratuitos. La delegada de Las Artes Alicia Moreno, junto al director del festival Javier Estrella y al director de Actividades Culturales de Las Artes, Manuel Lagos, ha dado cuenta de los detalles de este programa, en un acto que ha contado además con la actuación de la cantante Edith Salazar y de Zenet. El jazz vocal, llegará al Fernán Gómez de la mano de artistas como Richard Bona, Diane Schuur o Cassandra Wilson. Mientras que los recitales más instrumentales contarán con virtuosos como los guitarristas W. Muthspiel, S. Grigoryan y R. Towner; y los pianistas Brad Mehldau, Larry Willis, y Polo Ortí. En su escenario estarán también las nuevas promesas del jazz en una nueva edición de la Muestra de Grupos Jóvenes de la AMEMM, que tendrá lugar el 15 de noviembre. Otra de las grandes citas con el jazz tendrá lugar en el escenario de la plaza de Colón. Será el caso del concierto Kind of blue, un homenaje en el 50 aniversario de la famosa grabación de Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers y Jimmy Cobb, y que éste último recordará, el 6 de noviembre. La pista central del Teatro Circo Price acogerá dos de las grandes citas del festival. La primera vendrá de la mano de los virtuosos del saxofón los Kike Perdomo y Eric Marienthal. Ambos inaugurarán una “sesión doble” el 12 de noviembre, que se cerrará con el clarinetista y bajista Marcus Miller, que presentará su concierto Tutu revisited. Por su parte la voz y la guitarra acústica de Madeleine Peyroux, visitará el festival, el 13 de noviembre, con la presentación de su último trabajo, Bare bones. La Fundación Carlos de Amberes, repite, por segundo año consecutivo, como sede del festival, con el concierto del Roy Hargrove Quintet, el viernes 6 de noviembre. Completan el programa central los conciertos gratuitos de Patricia Kraus y Edith Salazar, los días 27 y 28 de noviembre, respectivamente, que tendrán lugar en el Centro Cultural Nicolás Salmerón. Más propuestas Un año más destaca la programación del colegio San Juan Evangelista y del Festival de Jazz de Ciudad Lineal. El primero contará con un total de siete conciertos en los que participarán entre otros Dave Liebman & Ellery Eskellin, Ron Carter, Dave Douglas, Tomasz Stanko, y, Raynald Colom, Jerry González y Javi Colina, entre otros artistas. Ciudad Lineal, por su parte, incluirá las actuaciones de Kenny Barron Trío, Nils Petter Molvaer y John Scofield. Con sabor a club Además las salas de música en vivo han querido sumarse de nuevo a las actividades del Festival de Jazz con una programación especial, de más de 200 conciertos que se desarrollará en un total de 15 salas. En clave de cine También se podrá disfrutar en esta vigésimo sexta edición del festival de la aproximación al jazz desde la mirada del cine. El programa Música y cine contará con un total de 15 películas. En esta ocasión el ciclo Música y cine se desarrollará en torno a tres programas fundamentales. La música de Jurgen Kneiper para Win Wenders, repasará a través de cuatro películas, la fructífera relación establecida entre estos dos artistas germanos. Por su parte el programa 1959-2009, 50 años de música en la Nouvelle Vague, recordará la trayectoria de tres compositores de cine de la época: Michel Legrand, Pierre Jansen y Antoine Duhamel. Para concluir el apartado de cine, el programa 20 años de Lets get lost, rendirá un homenaje al trompetista Chet Baker con la proyección de la película Lets get lost de Bruce Weber.

Infochannel.Running news on air

Bell 1310 – United States – 1974

Les demoiselles de Rochefort, Jacques Demy’s 1967 musical, charms the viewer with bright (and I mean BRIGHT) costumes that recall the technicolor eye candy of Vincente Minelli’s musical classics, albeit updated to 1960s France.

However, Rochefort has a completely different feel than An American In Paris or Singin’ In The Rain. Many of the actors are neither trained dancers nor singers, as demonstrated by the lack of drawn-out dance numbers starring the likes of Catherine Deneuve or Michel Piccoli (although he does break out a few moves at the end, much to my enjoyment). Michel Legrand’s score differs from the traditional (as seen in previous Demy/Legrand collaborations, such as Les parapluies de Cherbourg),  but is nonetheless vibrant and memorable. Good luck in getting the twin’s theme song out of your head after watching this. Despite the catchiness and beauty of Legrand’s score and the star-power of the cast, the attributes I find myself recalling in Rochefort are the vivid colors popping up in every scene, from flowers to unnamed extras. This exquisite use of color is also present in Cherbourg, but in Rochefort, the sheer joy of color is not diluted by a bleak and hopeless plot. In the final scenes, the hues of the costumes are noticeably purposefully chosen by Demy. As the camera zooms out on lovers dancing together in twos, one observes the coordination of the clothes in each pair. It is here the union of love and color occurs, a union that Demy continued to celebrate throughout his career.

NOTE: The last few screencaps contain spoilers.

Director: Jacques Demy

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Danielle Darrieux, Michel Piccoli, Gene Kelly, Jacques Perrin, Grover Dale, George Chakiris

Music: Michel Legrand

Costumes: Marie-Claude Fouquet, Jacqueline Moreau

Maxence (Jacques Perrin) and the lovely Josette (Genevieve Thenier)

The robes are volumnious and sheer, with a black leotard worn underneath.

Solange (Dorleac) and Monsieur Dame (Michel Piccoli)

The lovely Françoise died in an auto accident shortly before the British premiere of this film.

Gene Kelly once again plays An American In Paris (or Rochefort, to be exact).

“Won’t we look a bit like whores?”

Could these costumes perhaps be an homage to Cyd Charisse in Minelli’s The Band Wagon?

I hope you didn’t think Solange was not going to have a matching robe. Of course she does!

BUY (REGION 1)

BUY (REGION 2)

Só mesmo uma mulher como Agnès Varda para conseguir fazer de um momento extremamente banal aos olhos masculinos, um acontecimento transcendental de um filme: o ato de experimentar artefatos em uma loja de roupas. Boa parte dos cineastas faria desse momento da protagonista de Cléo das 5 às 7 (1962) um mero exercício de futilidade. Agnès Varda, que sempre retrata as mulheres de uma forma nada usual, logicamente não fez. Cléo tem o universo inteiro nos chapéus que a encanta e a câmera de Varda segue girando, quase como um carrossel silencioso que busca a imagem orgulhosa de Cléo entre vidros e espelhos. Mais que filmar, Varda parece abraçar a personagem. Curioso que a grande crítica de Truffaut ao longa anterior da belga, La Pointe Courte, de 1954, era exatamente a falta de tato na mise-en-scène. Ao contrário dos nomes mais populares da Nouvelle Vague, Varda não era cinéfila, mas em Cléo das 5 às 7 dá uma aula de mise-en-scène, o que dizer do momento em que os músicos chegam na casa da protagonista para ensaiar. Michel Legrand em pessoa, o gênio da mise-en-musique, começa a entortar Cléo, depois puxa uma valsinha e o laço entre o que filma e o que está sendo filmado é incrível. Varda tem total domínio da situação e, ainda por cima, completa a sequência com o êxtase de Cléo cantando todas as suas lágrimas. Decupagem extremamente cuidadosa sem que a espontaniedade da cena se perca, muito pelo contrário. Para completar, Cléo das 5 às 7 termina às 6 e 30. Os últimos trinta minutos ficam por nossa conta.

Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)

This film is the NFT’s current reprint du jour and I’d never seen it before, although I’ve enjoyed what I’ve previously seen of Jacques Demy. It was the follow-up to his biggest hit Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, and its reputation is essentially Parapluies-only-not-as-good. I can see what people mean but I’m not sure it’s altogether fair as the two have different objectives.

With Parapluies, the swelling music elevates a fairly mundane story (of first love dissolving in disappointment and rancour) to the stuff of tragedy. Demoiselles is a great deal more expensive, with more stars, and even better songs. Demy plays puppeteer with a cast of would-be lovers, finally pairing them all off in a happy ending, but self-consciously (and affectionately) sending up the sort of story that he’s telling. Think A Midsummer Night’s Dream and its countless imitators.

As you watch the film, it feels barely relevant that the script is far from rigorous, because the content is in the visuals and the music. It’s a beautiful, breezy summer and the sunshine really brings out the pastel colours of both this little seaside town and the gorgeous costumes. Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorléac’s twins are usually seen in matching outfits, one in yellow and one in pink. Gene Kelly’s pink polo shirt and lilac blazer, however, may over-egg the pudding a little.

Michel Legrand’s vivacious, jazzed-up soundtrack really steals the show. I have been humming the song which introduces the twins, ‘Nous sommes deux soeurs jumettes’, constantly in the 36 hours since I left the cinema. It’s one of those killer tunes that really puts a smile on your face (and it rhymes ‘érudites’ with ‘frites’).

But although this film is much lighter than Parapluies, the music still pulls off the feat of being simultaneously feelgood and heartbreaking. Even when it’s at its most boisterous and rousing, it’s tinged with real melancholy. The effect is that as we watch the characters drift in and out their amours, we sense that love is something which will inflict great pain and is nevertheless to be pursued at all costs. You swoon as you are punched in the stomach. A musician could probably explain why this is, I imagine it’s something to do with minor chords.

The opening credits rather advertise the artificiality of what we are about to see. A convoy of lorries and workers in white overalls are moving through grim-looking surroundings on the edge of town. Their lorries arrive on a platform at the edge of a river, and an enormous crane mechanism lifts the platform and carries it across. On the platform a group of youngsters perform a slow-motion, synchronised dance number. A birds’ eye view shot sees the crane lift them over the brown water.

As they enter town a convoy of soldiers are leaving on the same road. A panoramic view of the town square is filled with more dancing and high-kicks as the girls pair off with sailors. We have been planted into Demy World; and his films do indeed feel like a theme park. Not only are they musicals, but characters from one will reappear in another. Over dinner, a family discuss characters from Parapluies. We hear snatches of dialogue from passers-by.

A fair is coming to town and people are hanging up gaily coloured bunting. The camera surveys them, then enters an upper-storey window where Deneuve and Dorléac are concluding a ballet class for young girls. Then we get that fabulous song, in which the sisters express their longing to quit the small town for the bright lights of Paris.

In this day and age, one forgets how luminous Deneuve was in the mid-60s. Demy usually casts her as an ordinary girl with extraordinary beauty. Personally I prefer her in more twisted roles (Tristana, Replusion) but it’s each to their own. She and her real-life sister Dorléac have a yin-yang quality; the blonde and the brunette, the dancer and the pianist/composer. Dorléac’s beauty is less immediately striking (whose wouldn’t be?) and her character compensates by being cerebral where Deneuve is flighty. She died in a car crash shortly after filming finished.

The twins’ mother Yvonne is serving up the chips and beers in her café; a piece of prime real estate in the town square, a unit with glass walls and gold pillars. Josette the waitress helps out; Yvonne’s father sits in the corner and makes model aeroplanes, occasionally breaking off to bark that he needs more glue. We meet Etienne and Bill, who are running one of the fair stalls, and Maxence the sailor (a peroxide blonde Jacques Perrin), who describes himself as a ‘painter/poet’ and has been looking for his ‘feminine ideal’. When he enters the regulars ask, “Have you found her yet?”

As passers-by somersault along the streets, Deneuve interacts with them on the way to see her on-off boyfriend Guillaume, who runs an art gallery. He’s creating a Pollock-esuqe work by shooting at bags of paint dangling in front of a blank canvas. He shows her a portrait, a little like blue-period Picasso, which a local ‘painter-poet’ has submitted. It’s called ‘Feminine Ideal’ and it’s a perfect likeness of Deneuve. She is touched by it, he is disdainful. They quarrel and break up. Back at the café, the boys from the fair give us a swaggering song-and-dance number about how they love the freedom of life on the road.

The next location is the music shop of Simon Dame (played by a suede-suited Michel Piccoli as a gentle, bashful chap). It’s a celestial white with neo-classical pillars and instruments hanging from the ceiling. He sells some sheet music to a group of nuns before Dorléac pays a visit. Could M. Dame perhaps put in a good word when his friend, the famous American composer Andy Miller, arrives in Paris for his forthcoming concert? She plays him some of her latest concerto; strings and cymbals join in. It’s a dramatic, Romantic piece which moves Dame to confess that he has moved to Rochefort because he met the love of his life here. She ran off to Mexico with another man and he wants to live alone amongst his memories.

Dorléac is collecting her little brother Boubou from school. He throws a tantrum and her belongings are scattered to the floor. A handsome stranger (the beaming Gene Kelly) rushes to help her and as their eyes meet, her concerto is reprised. It’s the cheesiest thing you’ve ever seen and most of the audience roared with laughter. Dorléac is (understandably) embarrassed and rushes away, leaving Gene Kelly to express joy at his coup de foudre via the medium of dance. Though he has a mere bit part, Kelly’s improvised routines properly show up the other dancers. He rolls up her score and hits boys on the head with it, then spirals off down the road, lifting a Nureyevish leg over the water hydrants.

Etienne and Bill are in trouble; their dancers/on-off girlfriends are quitting the stall on the eve of the fair to run off with two sailors. They could never love the boys because they don’t have blue eyes (there is much discussion of the importance of blue eyes in this film). Their carefree song is reprised, this time delivered in unsmiling and bitter fashion.

Maxence chats to an old man called Dutrouz; he hates the military and foresees trouble (“it’s like ’39″). In Parapluies, Algeria hangs over everyone’s lives and is the catalyst that separates the lovers- here there are soldiers about, and commented on, but their purpose is much more vague and accepted. No trace of ‘68 in the air as there was in Godard’s films of the time. Yvonne sings of her lost love; she pretended she was moving to Mexico, and he left town for good. The reason? She couldn’t bear to have the silly name Madame Dame. Amusingly, Boubou is scolded for trying to dance on the tables.

The portrait of Deneuve fades into her face as Etienne and Bill pay a visit to the twins, who greet them sardonically as “Jules et Jim”. The girls are haughty but admit the boys, who ask if they might replace their dancers by performing a song on their stall. Needless to say, a torch song about virile Hamburg sailors does not go down well. In another song, they ask what sort of music the boys are looking for? Mozart, Stravinsky, Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong or Michel Legrand? (Cheeky!).

Things take an oddly Brechtian turn at the café as Yvonne reads the newspaper and sings a jaunty tune about an axe murderer who chopped up a woman and left her remains in a basket. Upbeat, strident jazz accompanies the pompiers‘ efforts to disperse the crowds and wash the bloodstains from the pavement. Later on, we learn that the killer was Dutrouz and the cast react with glib amusement. This segment jars a little and looks forward to the full-on weirdness of Peau d’Ane (my favourite Demy film).

The plot teases the lovers a little- Dorléac meets Maxence and Deneuve meets Gene Kelly. She’s been buying spectacular costumes for the fair (red sequinned dresses and elbow-length gloves), which characteristically, Dorleac worries “will make us look like whores”. Kelly visits Piccoli and tells him about his recent love-at-first-sight experience.

On the day of the fair the town square is packed. There are ballerinas and basketball players on the diverse stages. The crowd scenes are well handled, the camera moving from stage to stage and picking out things and people in the crowd on its way. The boys are in white denim and trying to flog motorbikes. Indeed, a number of the stalls are sponsored by well-known corporates, bringing to mind Parapluies’ climax at a Shell station. Is Demy saying something about the early stages of globalisation, or were these companies paying for the film to be made? Or a bit of both? 

The sisters’ song does, of course, go down a bomb. Afterwards, they are backstage with the boys and draw a curtain across to undress. The boys pounce upon this moment of vulnerability to make a hesitant declaration; we love you and we want to sleep with you. Drearily reminiscent of adolescent courtship. The sisters brush them off with a song about how useless men are, only ever wanting transient flings. Where is Mr. Right? The boys wander out to dance across an empty square, littered with balloons and streamers. They look a bit Saturday Night Fever in the white denim and black t-shirts.

The next morning comes the finale. The boys are giving the twins a lift to Paris. Yvonne meets Piccoli and Dorléac meets Andy Miller. Deneuve turns up to mind the café, in which Maxence has left his bag. Grandad calls her out the back and they miss each other by seconds. Josette wants to see Paris and takes Dorléac’s vacant place in the lorry. Guillaume tells Deneuve her painter has gone to Paris and she is determined to find him. Just as we think they’ll have to wait for a sequel, the final shot is of Maxence trying to hitch a ride on the road out of town. The lads stop their lorry to let him on. FIN.

The best way I can describe Les Demoiselles de Rochefort is as a great big gloopy dessert of a film, filled with fresh cream and runny caramel and chocolate sauce. You wouldn’t want it every night, but I savoured it and as the film hurtled to its conclusion I was genuinely crestfallen to realise it was ending, and that I was going to be banished into a monochrome world where there are no happy endings and nobody sings or tapdances down the street to the accompaniment of a fantastic jazz score.

The run at the NFT will continue til the 27th of August; I strongly recommend paying a visit and I think it would be a perfect film for one of those Dates you sometimes hear the Young People talking about.

I’m afraid of everything – birds, storms, lifts, needles – and now, this great fear of death…

– Cléo

Based on the recommendation of Jimmy, one of the co-hosts of the Scene Unseen podcast, I watched writer/director Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7 on The Auteurs. This is a Criterion presentation. At first, the way the action flowed in real time bothered me, but the ending is some wonderful that I could forgive it.

Florence (Corinne Marchand) is a famous singer living in France by the stage name of Cléo Victoire. In the beginning of the film, she visits a psychic, Madame Irma (Loye Payen) to tell her about the results of a biopsy she had done two days prior. Cléo wants to know if she has cancer.

The whole movie is about the time that the audience follows Cléo wherever she goes after visiting the psychic and before she gets the results from Dr. Valineau (Robert Postec).

She goes on with her day, trying push her looming fate out of her mind, but she can’t. Her friends cannot keep her busy. She is preoccupied with pending results.

The movie is not everyone’s cup of tea. There tinges of melodrama that is understandable with a star diva-ing out. Other than that, this is a charming, romantic and ultimately optimistic perspective.

Judgment: If you wants to slice of Paris life, watch this film.

Rating: ****1/2

A vida sem uma trilha sonora não tem a menor graça (tico d’godoy)

Boa reflexão, mas eu arremataria que com uma boa trilha sonora a vida, além de ter graça, ganha uma outra significação. Algo que o artista nos revela e do que nos apropriamos em nosso dia a dia sob a forma de emoções. Eis a chave do encantamento.
É com essa compreensão que o maestro e compositor Michel Legrand e sua esposa harpista Catherine Michel serão saudados na apresentação em São Paulo, no próximo dia 22.
A banda responsável por abrir o show tem o nome de TRINCHEIRA’S JAZZ e como aparece no site da banda, fazem “MPB, Jazz, som de primeira, arranjos bacanas e nada de milhões de improvisos com 15 minutos, um ou outro bem distribuídos durante o som”.
O grupo paulistano é formado por Henrique Pereira (baixo), Janete D’Alonso (piano) Percio Sápia (bateria) Débora De Aquino (sax) e Tico d’Godoy´(sax). Prometem fazer o trabalho de sempre, mesmo emocionados pela responsabilidade com que encaram a missão. A verdade é que este momento renderá emoções ao grupo e à platéia, que entrará em contato com músicos competentes que vivem a música, como pode ser visto no vídeo abaixo.
O evento faz parte do projeto Sala do Professor Buchanann’s, conduzido por Daniel Daiben (ver post abaixo) e será transmitido ao vivo pela Rádio Eldorado FM21:00 às 21:30 – CLAM FOREVER (Trincheira), ao vivo pela rádio
21:40 às 22:40 – MICHEL LEGRAND, ao vivo pela rádio
22H50 AS 23H40 – MICHEL LEGRAND, para quem estiver no Bourbon
BOURBON STREET – Rua dos Chanés, 127 – Moema, São Paulo – SP

“

Aos apreciadores da música de qualidade e aos que querem fazer algo diferente num final de tarde de domingo, ai vai a dica!!

O SESC em parceria com a Embaixada da França apresenta, em sua edição 2009 da Festa da Música, o compositor e pianista francês Michel Legrand. O evento será domingo, 21 de junho, às 17hs no gramado em frente à Torre de TV.

Michel Legrand é consagrado mundialmente pelas trilhas sonoras que compôs para o cinema e que o fizeram vencedor de vários prêmios Oscar. Sua apresentação terá a participação especial da sua mulher, a harpista Catherine Michel, e da cantora brasileira Patty Ascher, convidada especial. Os artistas serão acompanhados pela Orquestra Camerata SESC.

O repertório do espetáculo contempla o jazz e canções conhecidas do cinema como, Summer Knows, Yentl, Le Moulin de Mon Coeur, What Are You Doing For The Rest of Your Life? e How Do You Keep The Music Playing – essa última em dueto com Patty Ascher. 
 

Festa da Música apresenta Michel Legrand
Local: Torre de TV (Eixo Monumental)
Data: 21/06/2009
Entrada Franca
Informações: 0800-617617

As I mentioned in my last post, my father died in February of 1974. In 1975, André Gagnon released his album Neiges. I had heard “Wow”, the single from the album, on the radio and really liked it. It was an instrumental, it had a little Latin, salsa kind of feel, and it fit perfectly into the disco frenzy that was in full swing at the time; it was generally just a bright little spot on the musical landscape.

What really caught my attention, though, was the arrangement. I’ve always loved piano music, and I’ve always loved orchestral music, especially when combined with modern instruments like guitar, bass, and drums. This little piece, clocking in at only three-and-a-quarter minutes, managed to cover all my bases: Latin percussion, funky wah-wah guitar, wildly energetic bass line, and a piano crescendo with full strings. There was nothing else like it on the radio at the time.

I must have talked about the song quite a bit, because my mother gave me the album for Christmas that year. It was, looking back on it now, one of the best gifts I’ve ever received, because it opened my musical world up and let in this incredibly gifted composer and performer. I was an immediate fan, and I would continue purchasing his records for years to come.

Neiges was my introduction to André Gagnon. I quickly discovered that there was much more to him than just little Latin-flavored disco numbers. Much of the music had a classical feel, and the French sensibility nearly leapt out of the grooves. [Yes, dear reader, there was, at one time, this little item known as the vinyl LP, which used a needle running through grooves to produce sound. It worked really rather well...]

I don’t know… There’s just something about French composers. Take Claude Debussy, for example. I cannot listen to “Claire de Lune” without being moved. Even the electronic version by Isao Tomita is stunning&#8212a compelling whirlwind of sonic landscapes that almost defies categorization. [Note to self: There's an album I wouldn't mind getting my hands on again. Tomita's Snowflakes Are Dancing.]

Michel Legrand is another example. He wrote the music for “Windmills of Your Mind” (from The Thomas Crown Affair), “The Summer Knows” (from Summer of ‘42) and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” (from The Happy Ending), among countless others, many for motion pictures, and many, including those I listed above, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. His songs are haunting, poignant, and almost ethereal.

Such is the case with André Gagnon as well. He is Québecois rather than European, but the French sensibility is still there. The haunting melodies, the emotional chord changes, the sometimes melancholy arrangements… they’re all present and accounted for. What can I say? His compositions touch my soul.

While Neiges was just one of many of his albums I would purchase, it remains almost the definitive André Gagnon record for me, partly because it was the first one I owned, but also because of the sheer diversity of the music contained within it.

Not only was there the salsa/disco “Wow” that I mentioned, but there was also a samba (“Ta samba”), a Beethoven-inspired childhood recollection (“Dédéthoven”), a back-and-forth between a classical violinist and renowned folk fiddler Jean Carignan (“Petit concerto pour Carignan et orchestre”), and two longer, multi-movement pieces (“Flashback” and “Neiges”, clocking at seven-and-a-half and ten minutes respectively).

[Note: In French, only the first word of a title (and any proper name within it) is capitalized. I have stuck to that convention here.]

This last type of piece, which I suppose can be categorized as a type of concerto, was a signature style of Gagnon’s and would appear in some form or other on many of his albums. My particular favorite of these was a piece entitled “Le Saint-Laurent”, a twelve-minute ode to the Saint Lawrence River, which appeared on Le Saint-Laurent, the album he would release the year after Neiges.

[It's interesting to note that this piece was exposed to a wider audience when André Gagnon appeared as a guest on Perry Como's French-Canadian Christmas in 1981. He played part of "Le Saint-Laurent" while Dorothy Hamill skated. I find this oddly funny now.]

Those two albums mean more to me than just about any other music I’ve encountered. I suppose it’s because I came to possess them in the two years following my father’s death that they have become so important. They pretty much define my musical experience of the time, and they set the tone for many emotional moments to come, as this incredible music became more and more entwined in my life as the years went on.

I was fortunate enough to see André Gagnon in concert here in Halifax on a number of occasions. I’m saddened that I can’t remember the years he played here, or how many times he visited, but I do remember the experience vividly, and I remember that he sometimes played solo, sometimes with his band, and sometimes with a full orchestra. I also remember meeting him briefly after one show and getting his autograph, which I still have in my little personal archives.

There’s so much more I could say about André Gagnon. And I know that I will. But for now, I think I’ll end this by saying just how grateful I am to him for all the beautiful music he’s brought into my life, and how important his work has been to me over the past thirty-five years.

Just as with his music, there are no words…

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave the light on.

–Eric

BELO HORIZONTE SHOW
Michel Legrand se apresenta no Teatro Sesi BH
Vencedor de três Oscars, 11 Grammys e inúmeras indicações, Michel Legrand
se apresenta no dia 16 de junho no Teatro Sesi BH (Rua Padre Marinho, 60, Santa
Efigênia) em homenagem ao Ano da França no Brasil. Nascido em 1932, em Paris,
o pianista, arranjador e compositor construiu sua carreira de sucesso compondo
para o cinema. São dele as trilhas sonoras de “Lola”, “Um Homem, Uma Mulher”,
“Prêt-à-Porter”, entre outras. A convidada internacional é Catherine Michel
e a convidada nacional é Patty Ascher.
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Mais informações: teatrosesibh@fiemg.com.br / (31) 3241-7132.

DESTAQUES SORTIMENTOS.COM
MAIS ACONTECE BELO HORIZONTE

Regia: Jacques Demy

Interpreti: Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac , Gene Kelly, Michel Piccoli, George Chakiris,

Paese: U.S.A. 1967

La naturalezza con cui si vive l’amore scoperto, ritrovato o perduto rappresenta il “ritornello” che caratterizza per intero la pellicola: l’emozione è vissuta non con la morbosità del lirismo amoroso, ma attraverso un sentimento di leggera malinconia venato da una pacatezza che sembra costantemente riflettersi anche nell’utilizzo della musica, ma, specialmente, nel modo di colorare il quadro, nei toni “pastellosi” che illuminano, o meglio rende dire, ovattano la bella cittadina di Rochefort e i suoi abitanti.

Al centro della storia vi sono due sorelle: Delphine, insegnante di danza, e Solange, compositrice, rispettivamente interpretate da Catherine Deneuve e Françoise Dorléac – sorelle anche fuori dal set – che sognano di trovare l’uomo ideale e di trasferirsi a Parigi per avere l’opportunità di una vita più movimentata rispetto a quella offerta da Rochefort. Altra protagonista è la madre delle due gemelle, proprietaria di café nel centro cittadino, dove avrà l’occasione di realizzare svariati incontri, tra i quali, quello con un marinaio artista e poeta che, come le sue figlie, sogna la donna ideale, già dipinta in un quadro, la quale somiglia in modo impressionante a Delphine. Tra le vicende delle tre donne s’intreccia anche quella di Monsieur Dame (Michel Piccoli) un misterioso signore proprietario di un negozio di musica che si è appena trasferito a Rochefort al fine di ritrovare l’amore perduto dieci anni prima a causa del proprio nome.

Il secondo musical di Demy s’inserisce nella scia de Les Parapluies de Cherbourg e al contempo se ne distacca per il buon umore, immergendosi così nel clima di spensieratezza “pop” degli anni ’60 non ancora toccati dal Maggio e lontani dal cinema qualunquisticamente definito “impegnato” (termine, a mio avviso, dal significato quantomeno effimero poiché un film, nel momento che trasmette un messaggio personale quale che sia, è già a suo modo “impegnato”) che nel periodo stava assumendo sempre più rilievo nella produzione dei “colleghi” della Nouvelle Vague. Nella pellicola si ritrova, semmai, la tradizione del musical americano nella scelta della spettacolarizzazione, in particolar modo nelle coreografie e nei motivetti orecchiabili cantati dai protagonisti, nonché nel chiaro omaggio alla figura di Gene Kelly (che nella pellicola presta il volto a Andy Miller) indimenticato protagonista del genere.

Tuttavia l’anima stessa della pellicola rimane, come è giusto che sia, permeata da un gusto tutto europeo per l’intimità che essa è capace di creare con lo spettatore, dove la commedia musicale è intrecciata a quella sentimentale e vuole, prima di tutto, trasportarci in un’atmosfera sognante. Ad influenzare questo clima incide non poco la scelta della fotografia e dei giochi cromatici presenti nel maquillage dei protagonisti e delle città, in grado di rendere l’atmosfera profondamente favoleggiante. Ipnotizzato, poi, dalle note di Michel Legrand, spesso molto simili tra loro, lo spettatore sedotto precipita su una nuvola, come sembra simboleggiare la splendida chiusura a iride di un azzurro cielo, dove a dominare è un clima di spensieratezza che, grazie al favoloso tocco di Jacquot de Nantes, ha però la profondità che solo l’autentica felicità sa avere.

Monia

Sole – “Pawn In The Game Pt. 1″ ["Selling Live Water", Anticon, 2003; producer: Alias]

samples

Michel Legrand – “Theme From ‘The Go-Between’” ["Themes & Variations", Bell Records, 1972]

fabio

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Michel Legrand Trio – Parisian Blue – 1991

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Desde los 10 a los 21 años estudió en el Conservatorio de Música de París y luego estudió siete años con Nadia Boulanger.
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Sus inclinaciones musicales lo llevaron siempre a escribir canciones (siendo él mismo un cantante).
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Luego del éxito de su primer álbum Amo a París, trabajó con varios grandes del jazz como Miles Davis y John Coltrane en su siguiente álbum Legrand jazz.

Cuando comenzó a trabajar en música para filmes, tuvo un gran éxito, ya que no sólo componía canciones pegadizas sino que componía material orquestal de un fuerte sentido lírico.

Muchas de su música son para películas francesas (como las del director Jean-Luc Godard) pero también produjo para un buen número de películas estadounidenses, como The Thomas Crown affair (con su conocido tema The windmills of your mind, ‘los molinos de viento de tu mente’), Verano del ‘42 y Yentl.

Temas

01 – What are you doing the rest od your life.mp3

02 – The summer of ‘42.mp3

03 – You must believe in spring.mp3

04 – Once upon a summertime.mp3

05 – Golden sun.mp3

06 – Ask yourself why.mp3

07 – Brians song.mp3

08 – His eyes-her eyes.mp3

09 – Iwas born in love with you.mp3

10 – I will wait for you.mp3

11 – After the rain.mp3

12 – Parisian blue.mp3

13 – I will say goodbye.mp3

Link

RBerdi_MichelLegrandTrio-ParisianBlue-91.rar

BREEZY’S SONG Performed by SHELBY FLINT
ROCKIN’CHAIR
I WILL REMEMBER YOU
ALLEGRETTO VIVACE
GOING DOWN TO BORROW
BREAKFAST TIME
OUT OF DANGER
ALONE IN THE HOUSE
WALKING ON THE BEACH
A WHOLE YEAR

http://www.4shared.com/file/58262023/e94b6d6e/Michel_Legrand_Breezy_by_Kachimondo.html