Michel Legrand Legrand Jazz

Michel Legrand Legrand Jazz on 180g 45RPM Vinyl 2P from Impex: All-Analog-Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and Limited to 3,000 Copies, Includes Large-Format Booklet with New Art and Appreciation

Academy and Grammy Award-winning composer/arranger Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Summer of '42, The Thomas Crown Affair) was not a household name in America in 1958, but he was renowned among musicians and a life-long fanatic of American jazz and its players. Legrand Jazz is the result of Legrand traveling to America and using his Columbia Records contract to enlist label mates (and soon to be legends) Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Ben Webster, Hank Jones, Herbie Mann, Phil Woods, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Sheldon Powell, Teo Macero, Milt Hinton, Jimmy Cleveland, and others to record his fantastical re-imagining of 11 jazz standards. 

Not merely content to lay down another Parisian hard-bop play-along, the 27 year old worked against type and expectations at every turn, creating a moody, idiosyncratic landscape for unusual call-and-response chase solos, washes of harp and vibes, and sultry horn canvases. Davis, Coltrane and the others manage to fall in with the diverse, mellow flow of Legrand's arrangements while keeping their unique musical voices.

Impex Records' 45RPM 2LP set is mastered by Chris Bellman on Bernie Grundman's all-tube cutting lathe from a 2-track, all-analog mix down of the original studio work prints, made especially for Impex by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios in New York. The results are revelatory. The large recording space is captured, while Davis' full force dynamic variations come through with incredible veracity. The gentle ebb-and-flow of Legrand's parts highlight microtonal fluctuations on every track. 

The sound preserves the wide soundstage of late 1950's Columbia recordings while creating intimate spaces between players on the stage for maximum definition. Packaged in meticulously recreated outer jacket in a gatefold with an original photo montage inside honoring Michel Legrand's masterpiece of reinvention and focused fan-boy enthusiasm, this release is limited to 3,000 copies.

Features:
• 180g 45RPM 2LP pressing from Impex Records
• Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering
• Analog mix-down transfer of original 1958 work tapes by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios, New York, NY
• Pressed at RTI
• Gatefold jacket housed inside a resealable, protective plastic sleeve
• Exclusive large-format booklet with new art and an appreciation by Tom Schnabel