Michel Legrand

One of the most acclaimed film composers of his generation, Michel Legrand was also a sophisticated jazz pianist and songwriter whose lyrical sound evoked the romance, style, and cool élan of Paris. A classical piano prodigy, Legrand emerged in the 1950s with a series of successful mood albums that led to his landmark 1958 recording Legrand Jazz with Miles Davis, Ben Webster, Bill Evans, and others. He quickly moved into film composing, his swinging arrangements helping to define the sound of the French New Wave on films like Jean-Luc Godard's My Life to Live and Agnes Varda's...