The Loss of Two Musical Legends and a San Diego Connection
by John Lawrence, March 8, 2019
Recently we lost pianist and composer Andre Previn and composer and pianist Michel LeGrand. Previn died on February 28th and LeGrand on January 26. Both men were prolific jazz and classical pianists and composers. Both were involved in the film industry. Previn won 4 Academy Awards and LeGrand won 3. They both won numerous Grammys. Their deaths coming within about a month of each other represent a huge loss to the world of sophisticated music, both jazz and classical.
Michel Legrand is the French composer of such tunes as "What are you doing the rest of your life," "The windmills of your mind," and "You must believe in spring." He wrote the music for "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" starring a young Catherine Deneuve. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of my favorite movies largely because of the musical score by Michel Legrand. The poignancy of the song "If it takes forever, I will wait for you" sung by Catherine dedicated to her lover who was conscripted into the French army to fight in the Algerian war is a testimony to two young people very much in love who nevertheless were forced by circumstances to go their separate ways. They were briefly reunited at a gas station when Catherine's character stopped in randomly on her way back to Cherbourg, both having married and with small children. An extensive obituary of LeGrand in the New York Times can be found here.
Previn was a classically trained pianist whose family escaped the Nazis in 1938 settling in Los Angeles where he got interested in jazz. His first wife, Betty Bennett, was a jazz singer currently married to jazz guitarist Mundell Lowe. Both are in their late 90s and live in San Diego. I have a connection with them in that, in my former occupation as a window washer, I cleaned their windows numerous times. Betty once gave me one of her CDs and as part of my former occupation as President of the San Diego Jazz Society, I presented Mundell Lowe in concert with the San Diego State jazz band. Previn and Bennett had two daughters, Claudia and Alicia, also known as Lovely (who became a violinist in the Irish band In Tua Nua). Previn later married Mia Farrow, with whom he had 3 children, after she divorced Frank Sinatra. An extensive obituary in the New York Times can be found here.