Summer of '42, Yentl, The Thomas Crown Affair. Do these film titles sound familiar? Their original music was composed by Michel Legrand, and these are only the works that he won Oscars for. He can also boast five Grammy Awards as a composer, arranger and performer, but what might be an even more important distinction for him is the fact that of the multitude of songs he has penned, many have become classics for generations of jazz musicians (You Must Believe in Spring, What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, Watch What Happens, The Summer Knows). His musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was the first such work to have every bit of dialogue sung.
Legrand says that even from childhood he had the desire to be completely surrounded by music and to not miss out on anything in life. This is why he was neither able nor willing to select a single career as an instrumentalist, conductor, singer, composer or arranger: with complete earnestness, seriousness and devotion, he pursued all of them simultaneously. As a jazz musician, he worked with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ben Webster, Ray Brown, and Shelly Manne, along with many other legends. Accompanying the 84-year-old master to Müpa Budapest are two dear colleagues on double bass and drums: Pierre Boussaguet has also worked with Ray Brown, and their one-off two-bass line-up, Two Bass Hits, was successful around the world. François Laizeau played in the group Magma and with Tania Maria and Kenny Wheeler. Legrand is compiling his programme with the Hungarian audience specifically in mind, and has chosen a special guest to invite up the stage with him to sing a few numbers: in his view, Nikoletta Szőke "has a beautiful voice, and really knows how to swing.”


Presented by: Müpa Budapest