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A prayerful intro with distant voices adding edge as Getz's haloed sax guides the music's sublime trajectory. A highlight track from the album. 1971 Legrand plus Getz was much more successful than the later 2000 Oscar Peterson -- Legrand affair, marred by Peterson's tepid ~melody by numbers ---with Legrand's orchestral talents relegated to a subordinate role.It remains a what might have been album had more artistic responsibity been ceded to Legrand on the session.

Courtesy of a luxuriant musicality, a catalogue of romantic songs nonpareil and copious film scores. Michel Legrand's achievement as song composer and finest living arranger orchestrator is without equal among contemporaries. Legrand's songs are occasionally informed by a contemporary pop sensibility -- Breezy -- On my way to you -- Something new in my life. Others are moodily substantial e.g. Between yesterday and tomorrow. There's the whimsical conceit of Maybe someone dreamed us enveloping a winsome melody. But these are just jottings about an illustrious six decades career that began as Sinatra was moving into top gear in the early 50's and rubbed shoulders with the greats of the music industry winning the respect of his peers. Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz commented favourably on Legrand's completeness as musician. A favourite aspect of Legrand's artistry is his long-standing brilliance as a jazz pianist, his piano contributions to his orchestral albums, too many tracks but Make Me Rainbows already up on YouTube is always worth a mention. His Cole Porter album 1957 runs the gamut in orchestral brilliance and for my money is streets ahead of any popular orchestral album from the era.
Posting videos on YouTube I have concentrated on Legrand's orchestral skills - we're all entitled to dwell upon aspects of music we especially enjoy. Legrand's career kicked off officially aged 22 with the first concept album dedicated to a city, I love Paris. It has not been bettered by any other city album. Over the years the musicality has become richer but the seamless musical technique was in place from the start. His albums down the decades speak for themselves. A musician's musician Legrand is an incessant quester. As an orchestrator his is the art of variation. No two arrangements of his songs are facsimiles.
Check out the variety of his arrangements of songs e.g. I will wait for you. There are numerous takes on his most famous song. One that has eluded comment is the Bell 1974 take, which merits mention among the better known arrangements of his classic song from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. The songs in this cache are mainly from his Folk songs album 1959, each a finely etched masterpiece in miniature. Bali Hai comes from a 1962 album recorded in New York featuring Phil Woods. Good fortune led Legrand and jazz singer Sarah Vaughan into the studio together to record one of his and Sarah's finest albums. The tracks Brian's song and Pieces of Dreams complete the Vaughan Legrand songs collaboration from 1971, now on YouTube in its entirety.
The ever resourceful I Love Movies album from 1957 is tapped for among others Sous Les Toits de Paris and a spot on Cheek to Cheek. Il peut Neiger is a rarity featuring Christiane Legrand using another favourite standby -- a large wordless choir and saxophone (long before Jan Garbarek hit the scene). It's another favourite Legrand track.