The windmills of Legrand’s (musical) mind

My pre-teenaged son may not know him yet, but to say that I , and the generation before me do, is the understatement of the decade. We sang What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life during high school graduation. Brian’s Song was a piano piece I gladly learned on my own. Windmills of Your Mind stoked many an adolescent fantasy.

Michel Legrand, at 70, is the type of man who strikes you with mixed feelings of awe (for his talent) and warmth (for his self-deprecating humor).

At the PICC Plenary Hall where he held his two-night show recently, the grand old man of many an award-winning composition (three Oscars, five Grammys) didn’t mince words when he revealed that The Happy Ending, the movie for which he made What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life, was a flop.

"Don’t cry, it’s not that bad," he comforted the audience.

He dismisses those glorious moments when he was bestowed honors as "the time I received this blah-blah-blah award."

The spring in his step as he crossed the stage to sing a duet with guests Kuh Ledesma and Bituin Escalante was that of a man whose music has kept him young through the years.

"Everyday is a holiday," he chirped. And that’s perhaps why this French songwriter-pianist-conductor-arranger-singer doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, or even his birthday (Feb. 24).

"Every birthday has a number, and I don’t believe in numbers," he explained.

But oh yes, he believes in love, "the most important thing in life."

It was for the love of his late mother that Legrand wrote the story for Five Days in June, which he also directed in the ’80s.

It was this same overpowering emotion that pushed him to weave all those melodies in his mind and compose, not with his fingers striking chords on the piano, but in complete utter silence.

There, in the stillness of his fertile mind, Legrand is at his best.

"As a student of the Conservatory," he recalled, "I had to compose without any (musical) instrument." And, while admitting that "the piano excites me and puts me in the mood for composing," Legrand said it limits him to only 10 fingers.

With his mind, Legrand has a rich command of resources. Creating music, for Legrand, is its own reward. This explains why he has piles of concertos gathering dust on the shelves and many more that will probably never be published.

"There’s no need for that," he dismissed the sad look on the press people’s faces. "I write for myself alone. When I write a musical score, I do it for myself."

But this audience of one ended up pleasing more people than he ever thought of.

In 1966, Barbra Streisand flew to Paris to work alongside Legrand. The result, Je M’appelle Barbra, is considered the acclaimed singer’s best song. But while writing for an audience of one has brought Legrand recognition, it has also made him adamant about not changing a single note to please anyone – not even a producer.

Take it or leave it, that’s his dictum. It’s the same policy other great artists, like Steven Spielberg (remember Schindler’s List), abide by.

Those that do get published and mounted on stage, however, are ruled by one thing even a Legrand cannot refuse: a deadline. Pressure him into meeting a deadline and Legrand will come up with his masterpiece, pronto.

"That’s the only way to work," he said. "Tell me you need it Nov. 12 and I’ll be ready."

As a songwriter, Legrand is a perfectionist. "I use the eraser more than the pencil. I change, I rewrite. I’m never satisfied."

This is why Legrand the songwriter said he never turns the page. Doing so, he explained, would mean the first page is over. And for someone who keeps on turning the melody over and over in his mind, that is never possible. Legrand never repeats himself. This is why he never keeps a copy of any of his work. Once it’s through, Legrand forgets all about it.

He cringed at the thought of "stealing an idea from any of my work when my mind runs dry."

At the rate he is going though, the man’s well of ideas will never run dry. He plans to lie low in making musical scores for movies in favor of doing musicals in New York and Broadway.

In July, Legrand plans to come back (it will be his second time in Manila, where he came, "out of curiosity and a sense of adventure") to record an album with Regine Velasquez. Regine so impressed the discriminating Legrand when he listened to her album, he instantly offered to bring her on a concert tour in Asia and the US.

Regine will sing seven of Legrand’s old songs, and seven new ones he will compose especially for her. The 14-track album, to be recorded for the newly-formed Maxi-Media Records and distributed by Viva Records, promises to turn Regine into an international recording artist. The album of love songs will be released in the Philippines and in the US.

Perhaps, the next time Legrand comes to the Philippines, it won’t be just for a short stay in his hotel room, "the story of my life everywhere in the world." Hopefully, it will be long enough for him to savor the "gentleness and warmth of the people" he has encountered for the first time only a week ago.

As it is, Legrand felt heartened at seeing the responsive audience who gave him a standing ovation during his two-night concert. Hopefully, this could start a long-running love affair between the man who makes music to please himself – and ends up winning legions of admirers – and a people whose musical talent makes him sit bolt upright to listen.