Cat No 3382662

This is Michel Legrand’s tribute to his close friend & musical collaborator, Claude Nougaro, who died in March 2004. They worked together in the late 50’s & early 60’s, with Legrand providing the music for the poet’s famous lyrics. As well as arranging this album, Legrand provides all the vocals, and he chose a crack-team of accompanists for this project : Kenny Werner and Thierry Eliez on piano and organ, Jean-Marc Benais on guitar, Ron Carter and Philippe Chayeb on double bass, André Ceccarelli and Martin Drew on drums and Phil Woods on alto sax. It was recorded in spring 2005 at the Guillaume Tell studios in the town of Suresnes, France.

Many of Nougaro’s timeless classics are covered, plus an opportunity to listen to two of Claude’s songs, performed by Michel in a “virtual” duet with Nougaro (based on the analogue tapes of the time). Legrand has also composed an original song based on one of Nougaro’s unpublished texts, “Mon Dernier Concert”, recently discovered by his wife, Hélène Nougaro.

Michel Lergrand is one of the great musical artists of our times : a composer, singer, pianist, conductor and lyricist, who has written over 150 movie scores (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Summer of ‘42, The Thomas Crown Affair, Yentl, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, etc.), and recorded nearly 200 albums that have earned him three Oscars and 5 Grammy Awards. Claude Nougaro was one of the towering figures of post-war French Chanson, to which he brought a strong jazz influence.