Review: DAVID MORINO SINGS MICHEL LEGRAND at Bal Blomet

There are evenings at the Bal Blomet that feel less like concerts and more like revelations — and David Marino's first solo show in France was just such a gift. The Montréal-born singer, who has been quietly winning over Parisian audiences in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort at the Lido, stepped out from the ensemble and into the spotlight the evening of June 19th with a program devoted entirely to Michel Legrand.  

Marino has the rare quality of making every song feel both classic and freshly discovered. Backed by four musicians with direct personal links to Legrand — Patrice Peyrieras at the piano, François Laizeau on drums, Claude Egea on trumpet, and Marc-Michel Lebevillon on double bass — the evening had an organic authority that no amount of research alone can produce. This was a band that had played these melodies with the great master himself, and the audience — which included the late Legrand’s wife, movie star Macha Méril — could feel it. 

Asserting their jazz credentials, the quartet opened with a buoyant "Ray Blues," Egea's trumpet cutting clean and bright through the Bal Blomet's intimate hall. "Quand ça balance" followed, Marino leaning into its easy-going swing, his voice loose and confident — the kind of performance that makes a nightclub audience lean back in their chairs and smile. 

"Watch What Happens" (from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg), the breezy standard, was a particular highlight: Marino inhabits this repertoire from the inside out, having lived with it nightly on stage at the Lido. "La Chanson de Maxence" (Demoiselles) — the role he plays in the show — carried a different charge altogether, more tender and exposed.

The famous Legrand-Nana Mouskouri duet "Quand on s'aime," with the French-American mezzo-soprano Sophia Stern, one of the demoiselles at the Lido, was a study in restraint, with their two voices finding a natural chemistry. "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" (from the movie The Happy Ending), hinting at finding the love of his life in the cast of the show, and "Ask Yourself / Ou bien quoi?" demonstrated his ease moving between English and French.

Then came "The Summer Knows" (Summer of '42), and the room went very quiet. It is one of Legrand's most achingly beautiful ballads, and Marino sang it with the kind of stillness that requires not just complete trust in the song but complete trust in oneself. 

"Brûle pas tes doigts" and "Je vivrai sans toi" brought warmth and rhythmic color back to the evening, while "Valse des lilas" — given a gently swooping treatment over Peyrieras's luminous piano — was among the night's most delicate moments. "Pieces of Dreams" (Pieces of Dreams) floated with just the right degree of wistfulness, and the "Les Moulins" medley (The Thomas Crown Affair) was the occasion for the evening's most spectacular guest turn; the Lithuanian pianist Ieva Dudaite, known to her devoted international following as Ieva Piano, joined the stage and brought the house down, her fearless virtuosity and natural showmanship broadening the evening's palette magnificently. It was a measure of how well-matched she and Marino, who performed together in Vilnius for the first time just a few months ago are as performers that the medley felt not so much like an interlude but like the natural climax of the first half of the evening. 

"L'Amour en scie," with its churning, almost obsessive refrain, showed Marino's dynamic range to fine effect, while "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" (from the movie Best Friends) and the hauntingly lovely "Un parfum de fin du monde" (Les uns et les autres) deepened the program's emotional arc in its final stretch. 

The encores — "Parapluies" (Parapluies) and a bilingual reprise of "La Chanson de Maxence" — brought the evening full circle with grace, the audience reluctant to let it end. 

Marino is a gifted singer with a passion for his craft — a natural communicator, a genuine musician, and an interpreter with something genuine to say about this repertoire — holding the audience in the palm of his hands. Let's hope, he'll be back soon.

Regarding Michel Legrand, the great the Broadway diva Miless Errico, who performed at Bal Blomet three years ago with Isabelle Georges, is doing her tribute concert at Ronnie Scott's in London on July 12th.  It would be great to see those two Legrand aficionados on stage together in Paris, London, or New York!  In the meantime, Marino is due to repeat this concert in New York at the legendary Birdland in August 10th and in his hometown of Montreal in October 21st at Place des Arts.

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