MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer, pianist and bandleader Claude Bolling died on December 29, 2020, at a hospital in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, at the age of 90.

One of the leading figures in French jazz, Bolling was also a prolific film composer who wrote more than 100 scores for cinema and television. His jaunty theme for Borsalino became one of the most recognizable pieces of French film music of the 1970s, while his parallel career combining jazz and classical music brought him international success.

Claude Jean Harry Bolling was born in Cannes on April 10, 1930, but spent most of his life in Paris. A precocious pianist, he discovered jazz through recordings by Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and other American musicians, and at 14 won a competition organized by Jazz Hot magazine and the Hot Club de France. He formed his first ensemble while still a teenager and later studied harmony, piano and orchestration, developing a particular devotion to Ellington that remained central to his musical personality.

By the 1950s Bolling was an established presence in French jazz, performing with visiting musicians including Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge, Rex Stewart and Cat Anderson. He formed his own orchestra in 1956 and subsequently worked extensively as an arranger and musical director for French popular singers, including Brigitte Bardot, Juliette Gréco and Henri Salvador. Cinema soon became another major part of his career.

Bolling’s best-known film score came with Jacques Deray’s gangster drama Borsalino (1970), starring Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Rather than conventional crime music, Bolling created a wonderfully infectious period-flavored theme drawing on ragtime and early jazz, perfectly capturing the film’s stylish recreation of 1930s Marseille. The music became a substantial success independently of the film, and Bolling returned for the sequel Borsalino & Co. (1974).

His association with Deray continued through films including Flic Story (1975), Three Men to Kill (1980) and He Died with His Eyes Open (1985). Bolling’s other significant scores included René Goscinny’s animated western Lucky Luke (1971), Philippe de Broca’s exuberant spy spoof Le Magnifique (1973), José Giovanni’s The Gypsy (1975), Herbert Ross’s California Suite (1978) and Mike Newell’s supernatural thriller The Awakening (1980). He received César Award nominations for He Died with His Eyes Open and Claude Lelouch’s Chance or Coincidence.

Bolling was equally familiar to French television audiences through his music for the enormously popular period crime series Les Brigades du Tigre, which ran from 1974 to 1983. His screen writing reflected the same qualities as his jazz performances: melodic clarity, rhythmic vitality and an affection for older musical styles that could be playful without becoming parody.

Internationally, Bolling became perhaps even better known for his pioneering jazz-classical crossover works. His Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, recorded with Jean-Pierre Rampal in 1975, sold more than a million copies and remained on the American classical charts for years. He subsequently wrote similar works for musicians including guitarist Alexandre Lagoya, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, trumpeter Maurice André and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Bolling continued performing with his big band until retiring from musical activity in 2014. His wife, journalist Irène Dervize-Sadyker, whom he married in 1959, died in 2017. He is survived by their two sons, David and Alexandre.