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Martial Solal
Solal was the son of an opera singer and piano teacher, who learnt the instrument from the age of six, settling in Paris in 1950. He soon began working with leading musicians including Django Reinhardt and expatriates from the United States like Sidney Bechet and Don Byas. He formed a quartet (occasionally also leading a big band) in the late 1950s, although he had been recording as a leader since 1953. Solal then began composing film music, eventually providing over twenty scores.
In 1963 he made a much admired appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island; the Newport '63 album purporting to be a recording of this gig is actually a studio recreation. At this time, his regular trio featured bassist Guy Pedersen and drummer Daniel Humair. From 1968 he regularly performed and recorded with Lee Konitz in Europe and the United States of America.
In recent years, Martial Solal has continued to perform and record with his trio. Throughout his career he has performed solo, and during 1993-94 he gave thirty solo concerts for French Radio, a selection of performances from which were subsequently released in a 2CD set Improvise Pour Musique France by JMS Records.
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Martial Solal: Coming Yesterday: Live At Salle Gaveau 2019
by Chris May
In 2010, a British writer travelled to Paris to interview the pianist Martial Solal. The address he had been given was in the affluent suburb Chatou. On arrival, Solal's house struck the writer as something quite unlike the home of any other jazz musician he had ever visited, an haute bourgeoisie villa surrounded by an ornamental garden full of mature trees, the whole surrounded by a high metal fence. The French take their artists seriously and, on the evidence of ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings
by Chris May
Recorded in spring 1965, during Wes Montgomery's sole European tour, The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings presents the guitarist as part of an all-star international octet assembled for a one-off appearance on German television station NDR. The programme was part of a series presenting musicians who did not regularly work together in informal “rehearsal" performances. Montgomery's tour, on which he appeared with both his own quartet and local rhythm sections, has been well documented on official and unofficial recordings. But this ...
Continue ReadingMartial Solal: My One And Only Love: Live at Theater Gütersloh
by Dan Bilawsky
English poet Samuel Johnson famously and accurately remarked that “He that runs against Time has an antagonist not subject to casualties." With that statement, Johnson essentially cut to the ultimate truth behind man's battle with mortality, the powers of change, and the swift dominance of the aging process. But he didn't say it all. What he failed to address was the other side of the coin--those rare few that, while still on Earth, manage to flip Time from adversary to ...
Continue ReadingStudent Ensemble and Martial Solal: Philadelphia, April 9, 2011
by Victor L. Schermer
Berklee Global Jazz Institute/ Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University Martial Solal Perelman Theater,Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts,Philadelphia, PA Saturday, April 9, 2011 This was the final concert of the 2010-2011 season of the popular Jazz Up Close series, celebrating the legendary Thelonious Monk, organized by pianist/curator Danilo Pérez. It consisted of two disparate sets. The first brought together young musicians from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, based in ...
Continue ReadingMartial Solal: Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love
by Jack Kenny
"Tonight is a very important night because we recording the show. I have to be good and you have to be good too," Solal jokes to his Village Vanguard audience in New York, but it would not be surprising if the pianist felt some pressure. The few appearances that Solal has made in the US are startling, considering that he is one of the greatest pianists in the history of Jazz. Solal, born Algiers in 1927, has ...
Continue ReadingMartial Solal: Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love
by C. Michael Bailey
Martial Solal is a nuclear physicist of the piano. He tinkers with the subatomic structure of compositions, moving elements around, pulling them apart, and smashing them together in ways that both surprise and delight. Solal was born Algiers in 1927, settling in Paris in 1950 where he worked with Django Reinhardt and American expatriates Sidney Bechet and Don Byas. He has maintained an impressive creative profile for the past 50 years that involves solo, small group, and big band formats. ...
Continue ReadingMartial Solal Trio: Longitude
by John Kelman
Oftentimes the best free players are those with a firm footing in the jazz tradition. Few have demonstrated as uncanny an ability to straddle the line between form and freedom as Martial Solal, a European pianist who has eluded his due credit in North America. Like the slightly younger Paul Bley, Solal has an ability to take the most well-worn standard and transform it into something new; oftentimes nearly unrecognizable but always engaging and playful. Solal may lean hard to ...
Continue ReadingBackgrounder: Sidney Bechet/Martial Solal
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet was one of jazz's most complex giants. Born in New Orleans in 1897, four years earlier than Louis Armstrong, Bechet made his first recordings in early 1920, three years before the trumpeter. Unfortunately, these recordings were never issued. His first released recordings, for Okeh, came out the same year as Armstrong's earliest 78s, in 1923. The following year Bechet was with Duke Ellington, and his clarinet-like approach on the soprano sax influenced Ellington's vision for his ...
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Martial Solal Trio Recordings, 1953-1962
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Martial Solal was born in Algiers in 1927, when the city was part of what was known then as French Algeria. At 6, he began taking piano lessons and for years played classical pieces. Then he discovered the extraordinary recordings of Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum, and turned to jazz. Solal moved to Paris in 1950 and played with a variety of bands and combos. In April 1953, he recorded with Django Reinhardt on what would be the guitarist's last ...
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Martial Solal Returns to the Village Vanguard for Intimate Show
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All About Jazz @ Spinner
We're the first to admit that we don't follow the European jazz scene nearly as closely as the one here in the US. Part of the reason is that we live in the US and see the artists play more often. Another part of it is we generally like the music in the American jazz tradition better. Call us provincial. There are exceptions of course, particular the outward-leaning people like Peter Brotzmann, the ICP members as well as some of ...
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Martial Solal and Dave Douglas Quintet, Programming 2010 Jazz Festival Imaxina Sons Vigo (Spain) June 23-July 4
Source:
Michael Ricci
Wednesday, 23th June Opening concert Centro Cultural Caixanova. Theatre and Concert Hall Martial Solal Newdecaband
Martial Solal (Algeria, 1927) is one of the living legends of piano. Not many people worldwide can match his mastery in the use of the eighty eight keys of his musical instrument. Amazingly, this experienced eighty-three-year-old pianist still practices for several hours every single day: hard work is the foundation of his skill. And that skill has ...
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Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition
Source:
Michael Ricci
The 5th Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition will take place in Paris, from 16th to 24th October 2010, as part of the “Concours internationaux de la Ville de Paris". The Competition is organised by the ACDA (Association pour la Cration et la Diffusion Artistique).
The Jury will be comprised of international musicians and be presided over by Martial Solal.
The Contest is open to high-level jazz pianists of all nationalities, born after October 16, 1977.
To register for the ...
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Lee Konitz and Martial Solal - Star Eyes 1983 (Hatology)
Source:
Master of a Small House
Outside of a solo performance context, memorable jazz improvisation hinges heavily on interpersonal chemistry. Lee Konitz knows this recipe better than most. He's been a professional improviser for 60+ years and participated in recording sessions numbering well into the triple digits. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you don't. Who have with you plays a large part in the outcome. I had the misfortune of catching him several years ago on an off night in the company of a lackadaisical ...
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Martial Solal Nominated for Grammy Award for "Live at Village Vanguard" Solo Release on CAM Jazz
Source:
Claudia Artzer
Martial Solal is a man who wastes little including musical space and words. When informed he had just been nominated on December 3, 2009, for a Grammy Award for his January 2009 solo recording, Live at the Village Vanguard: I Can't Give You Anything But Love," he said, “Good news."
On the nominated disc, Solal is heard giving playful words of caution to the excited crowd. “Tonight is a very important night because we are recording the show, so I ...
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Lee Konitz & Martial Solal: "Star Eyes 1983" on Hatology 668
Source:
Michael Ricci
Lee Konitz & Martial Solal Star Eyes 1983 Hatology 668
A live concert recording at New-Jazz-Festival Hamburg on November 11th, 1983. In their duo, Solal's gift to Konitz is a liberation from... inherent restrictions. This in turn inspires Konitz to follow his own lyrical impulses to the extreme listen to how often he stretches his line to the breaking point. This is improvisation that goes far beyond merely altered chords or variations on a theme. Each ...
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Recent Listening: Martial Solal
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Martial Solal Live at the Village Vanguard (CamJazz). The CD's subtitle is I Can't Give You Anything but Love. In this recital, the French pianist gives his listeners more than love. We get architectural thinking, drollery, daring, virtuosity that includes astonishing mastery of meter, and chord voicings that illuminate like fireworks. Solal was 80 when this was recorded in 2007. His command of the instrument and his intellectual resources were in full operation. He interprets seven standards with insights into ...
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Martial Solal to Release "Longitude" on CAM Jazz
Source:
Calabro Music
"On this wonderful record, Martial Solal navigates the longitude and latitudes of music with supreme command and assurance." --Dan Morgenstern
The dictionary defines longitude as “the angular distance east and west of the prime meridian that stretches from the North to the South Pole and passes through Greenwich, England, and is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds." Longitude is also the title of Martial Solal's new Cam Jazz trio CD (with twins, bassist Francois and drummer Louis Moutin) ...
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