La Gitane / Le Leopard

Limited edition of 500 copies: La Gitane (1986) and Le Leopard (1984).

Two original scores composed and conducted by Claude Bolling. First time on CD. 60 minutes of music, including 30 minutes of music never released before. 8-page CD booklet with French and English liner notes by Gilles Loison. The common point with the two French comedies from the 1980's is French actor Claude Brasseur.

For La Gitane, the director made his choice on Claude Bolling with whom he had already worked on Le Magnifique (1973) and Louisiane (1984).

The score plays on three main themes: a gypsy waltz played by Michel Gésina, Christian Escoudé and Raymond Gimenez on guitars and used as a main theme with different orchestrations (twirling in the opening and closing credits, moving for the romantic scenes...), a melancholic theme with the use of the flute underscoring Durieux's lassitude and a love theme for Hubert and Mona based on extracts from Claude Bolling's "Suite for chamber orchestra and jazz piano trio" composed in classical-jazz crossover style in 1982.

Only three themes from La Gitane were before released on several compilations. MUSIC BOX RECORDS releases now a complete edition including all the music written and recorded by Claude Bolling for the film.

For the musical timbre of Le Leopard, Claude Bolling chose to reinforce the images with an atmosphere mixing jazz and African rhythms.

He called upon musicians able to blend easily into such a style, including saxophonists François Jeanneau and Jean-Louis Chautemps, trumpet player Eric Le Lann, and the percussionists Marc Chantreau and Michel Delaporte. Bolling gave them licence to improvise widely so as to generate the mysterious noises of the jungle and to devote their full attention to the action sequences.

He also composed a romantic theme played by Raymond Guiot on flute for Pauline and Nick Denver, Lartigue's rival. For this newly remastered version, MUSIC BOX RECORDS presents the same LP record program (released in 1984) with main themes of the score.