David Marino, Tears and Jazz: A Moving Tribute to Michel Legrand

Lire en français

It was the third time I had seen David Marino on stage since July 2024. His cherubic face is unchanged, granted, but something is different. After 250 performances at the Théâtre du Lido in Paris, seven shows a week, singing and dancing as Maxence in Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, the young Montrealer has become a man. And in front of this sold-out Cinquième Salle, where many were discovering him for the first time, it showed.

The Crooner Has Matured

The smile is still there, firmly in place. But the crooner’s gestures are more controlled, more assured, and he holds the room in the palm of his hand. For the occasion, he delivers 17 songs handpicked from Michel Legrand’s vast repertoire, from the timeless classics everyone hums to lesser-known gems: Quand ça balance, Watch What Happens, the Chanson de Maxence, Sweet Gingerbread Man, The Summer Knows, Brûle pas tes doigts, Un parfum de fin du monde…

Legrand’s music lives in strong emotions. And Marino doesn’t cheat with them. All evening long, we watched this 27-year-old young man sometimes hold back his tears with a bowed head, sometimes let the wave carry him away.

Macha Méril’s Blessing

This tribute concert was born of an encounter. In October 2025, Macha Méril, Michel Legrand’s widow, attended Les Demoiselles de Rochefort at the Lido. After the show, she went to see David backstage and told him that one day he would have to give a concert to shine a light on her husband’s repertoire, that he had the voice and the personality for it. “For his former wife, the person who knows him better than anyone in the world, to tell me that, it was the greatest compliment anyone could pay me,” says David Marino.

The conductor of Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, Patrice Peyrieras, also agreed to work with him on the project. After the Bal Blomet in Paris and New York’s legendary Birdland, the show has finally come home.

The Highlight of the Evening

With the confidence he gained over there, Marino treats us to superb numbers in tandem with the great trumpeter Ron Di Lauro, a jazz festival regular. The two trade phrases with obvious delight. And the young man doesn’t hold back on his scatting, with a generous voice that can hold a note seemingly forever.

Then comes the meeting with Lithuanian artist Ieva Dudaite, with whom he recently recorded the theme from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. Together, they give us Les Moulins de mon cœur and I Will Wait for You, two moments of pure tenderness.

The Human Side

There are also those moments when the crooner lets the suit drop. The great love song What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? he dedicates to his grandparents, married for 66 years. Lovely.

Now that he has sung in New York, Paris and London, people sometimes ask him where he lives. He sings us his answer: Pieces of Dreams (Little Boy Lost). The wink brings a smile to the whole room.

Then comes the encore. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg. Midway through the song, his voice breaks, David Marino bursts into tears and has to stop his musicians. Tears. On stage, and in the audience too.

A Talent Worth Discovering

David Marino is not only an exceptional voice. He also has charisma like no one else: the gestures of the great crooners, a command of the room, that blend of elegance and vulnerability that disarms you. He remains an exception. Few artists his age take on this jazz repertoire with such poise, in the footsteps of Sinatra and Tony Bennett, who inspired him so much.

Still too little known here for the sheer scale of his talent, our crooner is about to set off on an American tour in 2027 with singer Kate Kortum. Titled World on a String: Swinging the Songs of Broadway and produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center, it already counts more than 50 confirmed dates. On the menu: the Great American Songbook and the great show tunes of musical theatre.

His singular talent deserves to shine on a much larger scale. Today the Cinquième Salle, tomorrow Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier? I’m willing to bet on it!

Musicians

• John Gilbert – musical director and piano
• Ron Di Lauro – trumpet
• Mason Jeffery-Off – double bass
• Jacob Wutzke – drums
• Guest: Ieva Dudaite – vocals

Set List

1. Quand ça balance
2. Watch What Happens
3. Chanson de Maxence
4. Sweet Gingerbread Man
5. Le cinéma
6. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?
7. Ask Yourself Why
8. The Summer Knows
9. Brûle pas tes doigts
10. Je vivrai sans toi (La valse des lilas)
11. Pieces of Dreams (Little Boy Lost)
12. Les Moulins de mon cœur, with Ieva Dudaite
13. I Will Wait for You, with Ieva Dudaite
14. Amour en scie
15. How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
16. Un parfum de fin du monde
17. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Photo : Stephen Mosher

Related Articles (in French)

• David Marino chante Michel Legrand : le retour du Maxence québécois, du Lido à la Place des Arts
• Entrevue – David Marino, un Maxence québécois sous les projecteurs du Lido de Paris
• Entre Broadway et la Rive gauche : portrait d’une ambition sans faille
• Coup de foudre : David Marino ou le charme qui désarme
• David Marino : émotion et charisme sur scène