Claude Bolling - "Le Magnifique Pt. 1 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" / A score on a tightrope between realism, fantasy, mariachi, romantic outbursts, frenzied boleros and James-Bondian nods - the lush music of Le Magnifique establishes Claude Bolling as Henry Mancini's French cousin. CAM Sugar and Decca Records France are offering the first complete vinyl version of this Le Magnifique score in this 2 LP set, combining the original 1973 album with previously unreleased tracks and alternative takes from the CAM Sugar archives.

Claude Bolling - "Le Magnifique Pt. 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" / A score on a tightrope between realism, fantasy, mariachi, romantic outbursts, frenzied boleros and James-Bondian nods - the lush music of Le Magnifique establishes Claude Bolling as Henry Mancini's French cousin. CAM Sugar and Decca Records France are offering the first complete vinyl version of this Le Magnifique score in this 2 LP set, combining the original 1973 album with previously unreleased tracks and alternative takes from the CAM Sugar archives.

BOLLING: CALIFORNIA SUITE HUB

Jazz à la Française

This CD contains 12 compositions by Claude Bolling dedicated to 12 jazz pianists. Tracks include: An Oscar For Oscar (Oscar Peterson), Count On Him (Count Basie), Bis-Scott Rag (Scott Joplin), Dear George (George Shearing), Dave The Brave (Dave Brubeck), Midnight On Thelonius (Thelonius Monk), Duke On My Mind (Duke Ellington), Fatty Fats (Fats Waller), Ramsey The Pharaon (Ramsey Lewis), With Art and Fun (Art Tatum), Roll Jerry Roll (Jerry Roll Morton), Erroll in Blue (Erroll Garner).

This historical recording session captured on DVD is the successful outcome of the mutual admiration of two great jazz artists: Claude Bolling and Stephane Grappelli. Here, the combination of the talents of Bolling's swinging 17-piece big band and the virtuosity of Grappelli's violin make a stunning visual document. Color, 53 minutes, in French and English.

“These two exceptional musicians are identical: they're both very demanding; they're absolutely bursting with enthusiasm; and both of them get a bit wary if you treat them like friends too quickly! I wanted to bring them together for a series of concerts at the Salle Cortot, and it was two years before the idea finally took shape. Little by little, the two of them came to trust me… Today the record has finally come out!” Franck Mossler

“Music is like a small flame placed under the screen to help warm it’, said the American symphonic composer Aaron Copland, defining the role that music played in films. It’s an opinion shared by Claude Bolling, a major figure in European jazz and a man whose highly original scores have left an indelible mark on the collective memory: Borsalino, Lucky Luke, Le Magnifique, Les Brigades du Tigre… Fifty years after writing the music for his first short film, the great Bolling jumped at the idea of this retrospective, an entertaining project that would associate his twin statures as a pianist and film-composer within the same album.” Stephane LEROUGE Claude Bolling is the great ambassador of big-band jazz and one of the greatest film-music composers of the 20th century. He’s also the man behind the term “crossover” designating the music-genre which mixes jazz with classical music, thanks to a dozen duo records which paired Bolling with trumpeter Maurice Andre, guitarist Alexandre Lagoya, cellist Yo-Yo Ma or flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal... Claude Bolling’s “Suite for Flute and Piano” with Rampal remained in the U.S. sales-charts of “Billboard” magazine for more than ten years. Patrick FReMEAUX

A great figure in European jazz, the eternal ambassador of Big Band Swing and the inventor of 'crossover,' Claude Bolling is also a prolific composer of film-music. His original soundtracks - from Borsalino and Lucky Luke to the Brigades du Tigre television series - belong in the league of works by Lalo Schifrin or Henry Mancini. This anthology compiled by St�phane Lerouge contains great Bolling classics as well as rarities (some of them for the first time on disc).

Now besieged with requests for classical/jazz "suites" for himself and big-time classical performers, Claude Bolling took up violinist Pinchas Zukerman's commission, and out came another attractive confection that allows a classical cat to play quasi-jazzman for a day. This time, Bolling chooses mostly classical dance forms for his eight movements, still inserting mostly mainstream jazz segments (and a few vintage ones) around and under his soloist without getting him involved. Although he isn't asked to play jazz, Zukerman's warm, Romantic-era-grounded virtuosity doesn't betray even a hint of feeling for it; that makes Bolling's close-knit merger even more remarkable.

Sophisticated production of concert in the magnificent setting of the Palace of Versailles. The suite, first performed in 1975, has been one of the most successful Classical/Jazz crossover recordings....ten years in the Billboard top 50!