Michel Jean Pierre Colombier was born in 1939 in Lyon, France, and was trained in classical music from a young age before turning to jazz in the late 1950s; he entered the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris but was dismissed two years later. He made his professional debut in the early 1960s as a pianist and arranger, and in 1961 he took a position as pianist-répétiteur for Michel Magne, who then made him his assistant on film score arrangements, notably for Gigot. From 1963 he worked with Serge Gainsbourg, and from 1966 with Barbara, and he later wrote the music for Un flic (1972). In 1969 he released his debut solo album Capot pointu on La compagnie, followed by Wings (A&M, 1971), which included songs such as "All in All" and "We Could Be Flying" and earned the Grand Prix of the Académie Charles-Cros. After moving permanently to Los Angeles in 1975 he scored Hollywood films, including Purple Rain (1984) and Against All Odds (1984), wrote the music for the French film Une chambre en ville (1982), and collaborated with artists such as Prince, Madonna, and Air. His final solo album, Old Fool Back On Earth (Columbia, 1983), carried on the jazz fusion spirit of Wings. Michel Jean Pierre Colombier died of cancer in 2004 in Santa Monica, California, leaving behind a body of film and studio work spanning more than four decades.
