The Film Song Affair

Description

Jean-Michel Bernard is a singular pianist who has found his place at the crossroads of musical genres. With a solid classical background, and the freedom and expertise of the great jazz musicians, he is unquestionably the pianist of cinema, between interpretation, composition and reinvention, unique in his kind. The one whom Ray Charles - with whom he played for four years - called “Genius!”, or Lalo Schifrin “Soul brother” has developed every talent throughout his immense career: composer, orchestrator, concert pianist, arranger and producer. Since his meeting with Benny Goodman, and through the friendship and long-standing musical partnership developed with Michel Portal, the classical clarinetist Paul Meyer has always kept the world of jazz within reach. A flagship of the renowned Vents Français, with a worldwide reputation, a gifted instrumentalist decorated with awards, now also an international conductor (principal conductor in Tokyo and Mannheim, invited by orchestras around the world), Paul Meyer proudly claims his Classical culture but willingly lets himself be guided beyond it or elsewhere... as long as the music speaks to him in colors. The Film Song Affair, or the natural meeting of two great masters, both guardians of temples with doors and windows wide open. Two artists who long ago moved beyond the desire to prove anything and want music to be above all luminous and self-evident. They are total artists, with limitless abilities, ever-sharp curiosity, the kind that sparks beautiful cross-family encounters. Paul Meyer entrusted his unique cantabile to Jean-Michel Bernard, who invited him into cinema, in a musical environment that will also dare to let itself go. To make up for having skipped over the lyrics of these sublime songs from cinema, almost all drawn from The American Songbook, the singing had to surpass itself once more, the works had to tremble despite everything, even stamp their feet... and the spirit of the great films visited had to remain unbetrayed. Such is the mission of reinvention that Jean-Michel Bernard has always set himself, as an alchemist of cultures, also a tightrope walker between musical genres, especially when they unfold on screen; a mission that Paul Meyer has made his own on this project, without any violence.