The Maui News - Weekender

Musician Claude Bolling dead at 90

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NEW YORK — Claude Bolling, the French pianist, composer and arranger who attained a worldwide following through his melodic blend of jazz and classical influences and stayed on the Billboard classical charts for more than a decade with his 1975 album “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano,” has died.

Bolling’s representa­tives announced on his website that he died Tuesday in Garches, France, at age 90. A cause of death was not provided.

A lifelong admirer of Duke Ellington, the Cannes native was a profession­al musician by his teens and over the following decades would perform with everyone from Lionel Hampton to Yo-Yo Ma. He arranged music for Brigitte Bardot and Juliette Greco among others, wrote soundtrack­s for hundreds of French film and television production­s and his compositio­ns could be heard on such American releases as “The Holiday” and “Joker.”

Bolling’s three Grammy nomination­s included one for best chamber music for “Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano,” a collaborat­ion with flutist JeanPierre Rampal which featured the playful “Baroque and Blue” and the more reflective “Irlandaise” and sold more than 1 million copies. He would later collaborat­e with Angel Romero on “Concerto for Classic Guitar and Jazz Piano” and with YoYo Ma on “Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio.” In 1984, Bolling was joined by American flutist Hubert Laws for a performanc­e on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.

Bolling’s wife of 48 years, journalist Irene Dervize-Sadyker, died in 2017. They had two sons, David and Alexandre.

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