Michel Legrand

He studied with Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Conservatoire and started as a jazz and chanson arranger. With Jacques Demy he made The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which has no spoken line at all, and The Young Girls of Rochefort. Later he worked in Hollywood (The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of '42) without leaving jazz behind. He wrote more than two hundred film and television scores.

Style

Long, singable melodies, jazz harmonies and unexpected key changes.

Awards

3 Oscars: the song The Windmills of Your Mind (The Thomas Crown Affair), Summer of '42 and Yentl. 5 Grammys.

Essential films

• The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
• The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
• The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
• Summer of '42 (1971)
• Yentl (1983)

Listen

• Les Parapluies de Cherbourg · The Umbrellas of CherbourgSpotifyYouTube
• The Windmills of Your Mind · The Thomas Crown AffairSpotifyYouTube
• Summer of '42 · Summer of '42SpotifyYouTube

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