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Claude Bolling, 1930-2020
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. Read more…
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