Michel Legrand - Twenty Songs Of The Century (1974) [2016 SACD]

Quite an unusual album for Michel Legrand – a suite of tracks based around 20th Century standards – starting with older evergreens, and moving into some very hip tunes from the 60s! The orchestrations are amazing – with tones, colors, and rhythmic approaches that surpass conventional expectations for many of the tunes – and which are handled in a mixture of lushness and loneliness that recalls Legrand’s strongest soundtrack work of the time. Titles include “Summertime”, “Begin The Beguine”, “One Note Samba”, “Laura”, “Autumn Leaves”, “Moon River”, “I Will Wait For You”, “Yesterday”, and “Mack The Knife”.

Tracks:

1. St. Louis Blues (Handy) 1914
2. My Man (Yvain; Willemetz; Charles; Pollock) 1920
3. Charleston (Mack; Johnson) 1923
4. Mack the Knife (Weill; Brecht; Blitzstein) 1928
5. Malagueña (Lecuona) 1928
6. Stormy Weather (Arlen; Koehler) 1933
7. Solitude (Ellington; De Lange; Mills) 1934
8. Summertime (Gershwin; Heyward) 1935
9. Begin the Beguine (Porter) 1935
10. Cheek to Cheek (Berlin) 1935
11. My Funny Valentine (Rodgers; Hart) 1937
12. Over the Rainbow (Arlen; Harburg) 1939
13. How High the Moon (Lewis; Hamilton) 1940
14. Laura (Raksin; Mercer) 1945
15. Autumn Leaves (Kosma; Prévert; Mercer) 1947
16. One Note Samba (Jobim; Mendonça; Hendricks) 1961
17. Moon River (Mancini; Mercer) 1961
18. I Will Wait for You (Legrand; Demy; Gimbel) 1964
19. Yesterday (Lennon; McCartney) 1965
20. Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon) 1969