Melissa Errico is the champion of the late Michel Legrand’s music.
➤ MELISSA ERRICO, from p.32
Legrand, continuing as his muse,
even after his death (this past January),
as well as full-time champion
of his entire oeuvre.
She met Legrand in 2002, as the
star of his only Broadway musical,
“Amour.” In 2011, the two collaborated
on the CD “The Legrand Affair,”
luxuriously backed by the
100-piece Brussels Philharmonic,
and since then she has been singing
his songs steadily.
Last spring, Errico hosted Alliance
Francaise’s festival of the
fi lms he scored, including 1968’s
“The Thomas Crown Affair,” with
that famous erotic chess game
scene with Faye Dunaway and
Steve McQueen. The piquant music
for this sequence had lyrics
written for it by Legrand’s frequent,
brilliant collaborators, Marilyn
and Alan Bergman, and became
the song, “His Eyes, Her Eyes,”
which Errico has gloriously made
her very own.
Chosen by The New York Times
to write an appraisal of Legrand at
the time of his death and the only
American artist invited to perform
at his memorial in Paris, Errico just
released “Legrand Affair (Deluxe
Edition),” an updated and extended
version of their 2011 creation. She
was going through her Legrand
memorabilia after his death when
she came across a cache of homemade
tapes of her singing with him
at the piano, sketches for what was
to become their album. Hearing
these tracks, she said, “reminded
me of how much I also love hearing
more intimate versions of his
music. In Michel’s music, genre
doesn’t exist — he was unencumbered
by boundaries. His plurality
of disciplines became his freedom
MELISSAERRICO.COM
and made one seamless web of
music. I’m happy beyond words to
be able to put his energy back into
the world.”
And, boy did she ever, at Feinstein’s/
54 Below on November 8!
Backed by a brilliant band led by
the greatest living non-classical
accompanist today, Tedd Firth,
who was simply on fi re, Errico,
bursting with passion for her mentor,
delivered a rich feast of reminiscences
and anecdotes in her
distinct “talking cabaret” style, as
well as sumptuous song, in which
she totally lost herself, sometimes
literally becoming the music. Her
voice is crystalline and clarion, as
silvery and refreshing as a mountain
stream, and she did a segue
from “His Eyes, Her Eyes” to the
lulling, sensual “The Summer
Knows” that took my breath away.
Legrand and the Bergmans’
masterpiece, I believe, was the song
“What Are You Doing the Rest of
Your Life?,” and Errico noted that
its composition was rare in that
its lyrics came fi rst and then were
then set to music. When Legrand
looked at the song’s title, he went
to the piano and played the fi rst
nine notes for it, instantaneous
and perfect, such was his musical
fecundity. To me, this revives longdisputed
question — are songs
better when the words come fi rst,
as was the case with Rodgers and
Hammerstein?
The evening of November 7
saw me at the premiere of the
very moving and very fun documentary
“I’m Gonna Make You
Love Me,” as part of DOC NYC’s
festival. Karen Bernstein and
Nevie Owens’ fi lm details the ut-
➤ BRIAN BELOVITCH, continued on p.35
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