Colombier, Michel (23rd
May 1939-14th November 2004)
He was a keyboard player, songwriter, composer,
conductor and arranger born in Lyons, France, who earned the nickname "Fusion-sama"
from the Japanese where they called him the "Godfather of French Fusion".He started his studies in music
when he was just 6 years old when his father taught him conducting,
harmony, counterpoint and piano, later to be followed by Gregorian chant
and church organ and by the time he was fourteen he was giving performances
with big bands and jazz combos.He did his service in the French Military, where he wrote several
compositions, and after he had branched out on his musical career when he
was 22, he was made Musical Director for Barclay Records in 1961. His first job with them was to
arrange the first album by Charles Aznavour from French to English so they
could release it in the United States.At the same time he was working as a composer and wrote
works like the stage production Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and the
co-written ballet Messe Pour Temps Present.This led to him working alone or in
collaboration with many acclaimed French artists such as Catherine Deneuve,
Serge Gainsbourg, Stephane Grappelli, Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Luc Ponty.Soon he was being noticed outside
of France and he went to the United States with the British singer Petula
Clark after she had chosen him to be her Musical Director.This led to him meeting Herb
Alpert
who signed him straight away and with who he received three Grammy Award
nominations for his work on the rock oratorio Wings. Other artists he worked with in his
musical career include Paul
Anka, David Arnold, Brigitte Bardot, The Beach
Boys, Neil
Diamond, Earth, Wind & Fire, Roberta Flack, Herbie Hancock,
Julio Iglesias, Liza Minnelli, Maxine Nightingale, Quincy Jones,
Bobby McFerrin, Joni Mitchell, Prince, Jean-Pierre
Rampal
, Maurice
White and Bill Withers. Well
known as a conductor and for his commissioned symphonic and
classical works he was often called upon to lead some of the world's
biggest orchestras and ensembles such as the Chicago Orchestra,
Covent Garden Orchestra, the English
Chamber Orchestra, the Kronos String Quartet, the London
Symphony Orchestra
, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Paris Opera. Added to that,
he was the composer on at least 20 ballets and worked with many of the best
choreographers and companies with artists that included Mikhail
Baryshnikov.He also became
known for writing and/or arranging scores for movies for the big screen and
television and is known to have composed for over one hundred films.They include Against All Odds, Die
Another Day, The Golden Child, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, New Jack
City, Ruthless People, Swept Away and his Academy and Grammy Award
winning Purple Rain.Albums he has worked on are many and varied and among them are his
own Old Fool Back on Earth, Surrender and V? as well as Fandango by Herb
Alpert
, It Takes Two by Rodney Franklin, American Life
by Madonna, That's What Friends are For by Johnny
Mathis & Deniece
Williams, Emotion
by Barbra Streisand, Even in the Quietest Moments
by Supertramp and the soundtracks of Nadias Theme (The Young and the
Restless), Get Carter, Trippin' and Deep Cover.In recognition for his services to
music he was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.His life was cut short by cancer in
2004 when he passed away in Santa Monica, California, at 65 years old.
