Michel Legrand - I Love Movies

Most people know Michel Legrand for his popular movie scores (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of '42) and the hit songs from them (I Will Wait for You, The Windmills of Your Mind, Theme from Summer of '42). Yet his first love is jazz and he began his recording career with a series of best-selling instrumental albums for Columbia.

The success of I Love Paris in 1954 spawned a dozen or more LPs in a similar vein -- Holiday in Rome, Castles in Spain, Legrand in Rio, etc. Legrand apparently did not benefit financially from the popularity of the albums. He was paid a flat session fee for the recording sessions that took place in his native France.

I Love Movies came along in 1958. The movie themes therein were mostly well known, but there were several from French movies that may not have been familiar to North Americans.

The standard Cheek to Cheek was written by Irving Berlin for the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie Top Hat. Astaire's recording of the song with Leo Reisman's orchestra was deemed to be the top hit of the year. Here's Legrand's version.

Cheek to Cheek



I can't begin to sort out the bewildering array of download versions of Legrand's Columbia recordings. Most, if not all, are the usual European out-of-copyright releases that should be approached with caution. As far as I can determine the tracks from I Love Movies are not available in a digital format.

On CD you should look for Legrand Piano: I Love Paris released by Sony in 1990 and available for under $5 on Amazon. There's also a release from Polygram in Europe of what is undoubtedly Legrand's finest Columbia recording, Legrand Jazz, with the participation of the likes of Miles Davis, Ben Webster and Hank Jones. There are plenty of cheap copies on Amazon and elsewhere. Make sure you get the Polygram release as there are also out-of-copyright versions floating around.

Here's something else from I Love Movies.

Curtis Peagler and the Jazz Disciples - It's a Blue World (45 single)

Alto saxophonist Curtis Peagler (1929-1992) fronted a group known as the Modern Jazz Disciples, which recorded two well-regarded LPs for New Jazz (an offshoot of Prestige) in 1959 and 1960.

The group had a rather unique easy swinging sound, due in large part to the use of a normaphone, played by William Kelley. This instrument is a valve trombone in the shape of an alto sax.

The Modern Jazz Disciples disbanded after the two New Jazz LPs and Peagler moved over to Columbia where he recorded a one-off single, It's a Blue World/Low Life, in 1961. This 45 did not lead to an album, a rather rare occurrence when you're talking about a jazz artist, and is now a collector's item.

Peagler is top billed (he wasn't on the LPs) and the "modern" has been dropped from the Jazz Disciples' name.

It's a Blue World



There is no indication of the personnel on this single and I'm not sure if the trombone sound is that of a normaphone. The two sides have not been released digitally.

Peagler went on to spend three years with the Ray Charles orchestra and seven years with Count Basie. He also worked in the recording studios and put out a couple of albums under his own name.

Here's Curtis Peagler with the Modern Jazz Disciples from one of their LPs recorded for Prestige.

Lee Wiley - Night in Manhattan

Jazz singer Lee Wiley (1910-1975) pioneered the concept of recording albums of songs that shared a common composer or theme.

Those albums began appearing in the late 1930s as sets of four 10-inch 78 r.p.m. records. Wiley recorded sets devoted to the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, and Harold Arlen. In the '40s Wiley performed with the big band of pianist Jess Stacy (to whom she was married for a time) and with small groups organized by guitarist Eddie Condon.

In 1950, Wiley signed with Columbia, where she recorded what many consider to be her best album, Night in Manhattan, backed by a group that included trumpeter Bobby Hackett and pianist Joe Bushkin. The LP was first issued as a 10-incher with the cover pictured at the top of this post.

Four additional tracks were made available for the 12-inch release, which had this cover.

In 1995, Columbia Special Products reissued the LP on cassette and CD with the cover below.

Here's a track taken from the cassette version of the 1995 re-release.

I've Got a Crush on You



There are numerous options for obtaining on CD or via downloads the songs that Lee Wiley recorded for the Night in Manhattan sessions. Most of them are listed here.

And here's Wiley with the song that set the mood for Night in Manhattan.