Saturday January 29, jazz and the large format spirit will be in the spotlight for the last day of the mini-festival organized by Radio France in tribute to Michel Legrand, who died on January 26, 2019 and who would celebrate his 90th birthday on February 24. . After the Orchester philharmonique de Radio France, the first two evenings, it’s the turn of the eclectic Coronation of the Tympanum, keen on groove and catchy sound frescoes, group of the year at the Victoires du Jazz 2019, to seize the repertoire of the legendary composer. A mission that could only captivate its founder and director Fred Pallem, whose discography illustrates the taste for film music.
the Saturday night concert full poster… But it will be broadcast very soon on France Music. It should also be filmed. Alongside Le Sacre du Printemps, conducted by Fred Pallem (also on bass), the public will be able to hear singer Alice Lewis and a 21-string orchestra conducted by Mathieu Herzog. Before the concert at Studio 104 of the Maison de la Radio, Fred Pallem answers questions from Franceinfo Culture.
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Franceinfo Culture: What is your personal view of Michel Legrand’s work?
Fred Pallem : He wrote unstoppable themes, compositions of very high level. One can only bow before such a composer. When we think of A Summer 42, it’s very difficult to say that it’s not good music or that it’s badly written. Michel Legrand is a kind of musical genius, there’s nothing we can do about it!
Did you have the opportunity to work with him?
Yes, we even did television shows together, it went very well.
Would you rank him among your favorite film score composers? I remember your long-standing interest in François de Roubaix…
I don’t really have a favorite composer. François de Roubaix had a special place insofar as he embodied my first contact, in my childhood, with film music – without knowing then that it was.
How did you put together the repertoire for the concert?
Faced with this order from Radio France, my challenge was to find themes by Michel Legrand that fit with the aesthetics of Le Sacre du Tympan, which is neither a symphony orchestra nor a big band, but something at the crossroads of the two, a somewhat hybrid formation. The hardest part was finding a list of songs that suited us. We had to listen to a lot of music, do a lot of research work to unearth rarities. What interested me the most for the orchestra was the period of Michel Legrand halfway between pop and jazz. It is quite short and is located around The Thomas Crown Affair, in the early 70s. It’s something that then disappears. At Legrand, the 60s were very jazzy, then it became very symphonic.
Do you cover historical arrangements, or have you written new ones?
At the concert on Saturday night, in terms of arrangements, there are creations that we made especially for the concert… And there are other things that have never been played in concert, rarities, For example Nursery Rhymes, which was written for Stan Getz. I think it was played once in the studio, and never performed on stage again. Claude Romano, Michel Legrand’s copyist, told me that he did not have these scores in his archives. Some parts having therefore been lost, it was necessary to make a whole bunch of readings [ndlr : retranscriptions de partitions après écoute des œuvres] especially for the concert. There is also another piece, for example, for a series called Call me Matilda!. It’s great, but it’s something you don’t hear often!
Saturday evening, you will benefit from the participation of a string orchestra conducted by Mathieu Herzog…
Yes, Mathieu is an absolutely incredible gentleman that I met while working on the album Re Focus by Sylvain Rifflet – who will be present at the concert. Mathieu has done a lot of conducting for Legrand in recent years. I am lucky to have twenty incredible strings that will complete the orchestra of Le Sacre. I am pleased. Generally, we work just with a quartet, but with twenty strings, the music will have even more breath.
Tribute to Michel Legrand, by Fred Pallem and the Rite of the Tympanum
Saturday, January 29, 2022, 7:30 p.m. (full)
House of Radio and Music, Studio 104
A live jazz concert soon to be broadcast on France Musique
Rite of the Tympanum: Fred Pallem (electric bass, arrangements, artistic direction), Vincent Taeger (drums), Guillaume Magne (guitars), Fred Escoffier (keyboards), Guillaume Lantonnet (percussions), Brice Pichard (trumpet), Fabrice Martinez (trumpet , flugelhorn), Michaël Joussein (trombone), Rémi Sciuto (saxophones, flute), Fred Couderc (saxophones, clarinet), Sylvain Rifflet (tenor saxophone)
Alice Lewis (chant)
21-string orchestra conducted by Mathieu Herzog