Martial Solal (23 August 1927 – 12 December 2024) was a French jazz pianist and composer.
Life and career Solal was born in Algiers, French Algeria on 23 August 1927, to Algerian Jewish parents. He was persuaded to study clarinet, saxophone, and piano by his mother, who was an opera singer. He was expelled from school in 1942 because of his parents' Jewish ancestry (Algeria was a French colony, and the Vichy regime in France was following Nazi policies). Solal educated himself after having studied classical music in school. He imitated music he heard on the radio. When he was 15, he performed publicly for United States Army audiences.
After settling in Paris in 1950, he began working with Django Reinhardt and U.S. expatriates such as 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 20 scores. He composed music for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film Breathless (À bout de souffle, 1960).
In 1963, he made an 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 with overdubbed applause, as documented in the sleeve notes of some later reissues. At this time, his trio included bassist Guy Pedersen and drummer Daniel Humair. From 1968, he performed and recorded with Lee Konitz in Europe and the U.S.
In its January 2011 issue, The Gruppen Review published a 12-page interview in which Solal discusses his work as an eternal "researcher in jazz".
Solal died in Versailles, Yvelines on 12 December 2024, at the age of 97.Décès du pianiste Martial Solal, grand nom du jazz, à 97 ans
Style
His jazz approach was once described by Jean-Pierre Thiollet as "brilliant, unique and intellectual"88 notes pour piano solo, Jean-Pierre Thiollet, Neva Editions, 2015, p. 357. He has said of his technique: "You have to make people believe that it's very easy, even when it's very difficult. If you look to have trouble with the technique, it is no good. You must play the most difficult thing like this."(Martial Solal interviewed by Larry Appelbaum just before his concert at the Library of Congress, 11 April 2011).
Discography Leader 1954: French Modern Sounds (Swing/Disques Vogue) 1954: Martial Solal Trio (Disques Vogue) 1959: (Columbia) (7") 1960: Martial Solal (Columbia; US release by Capitol) 1962: (Columbia); US release as In Concert/Trio in Concert (Liberty, 1963) 1962: (Pathé-Marconi) 1963: (RCA) 1963: Martial Solal and the European All Stars (Telefunken; Canada release by London) 1964: (Columbia) 1965: Martial Solal "Trio" (Columbia) 1965: En Liberte (Columbia) (with Gilbert Rovere and Charles Bellonzi) 1965: Son 66 (Columbia) 1966: En Direct Du Blue Note (Columbia; US release in 1969 as On Home Ground by Milestone) 1970: Locomotion (PSI, imprint of Musique Pour L'Image) (with Henry Texier and Bernard Lubat) 1970: (RCA Victor) 1975: 7 + 4 = X (PDU) 1975: Nothing but Piano (MPS) 1978: Suite for Trio (Universal) 1981: Big Band (Universal) 1983: Bluesine (Soul Note) 1984: Big Band (Dreyfus Jazz) 1984: Plays Hodeir (OMDCD) 1991: Triptyque (Adda) 1991: Duo in Paris (Dreyfus Jazz) 1995: (JMS) 1996: Difficult Blues (John Marks Records) 1997: (Dreyfus) 1998: Silent Cinema – Cinema Muet (Gorgone) 1998: Martial Solal, Vol. 2 (Vogue) 1999: (Soul Note) 1999: En Solo (Fresh Sound) 1999: (Storyville) 2000: (Dreyfus Jazz) 2003: (Blue Note) 2007: (Nocturne) 2007: (CAM Jazz) 2008: (CAM Jazz) 2009: (CAM Jazz) 2015: (Grand Piano) 2018: (JMS) 2018: (Intuition Records) 2021: (Challenge records)
Co-leader 1957: When a Soprano Meets a Piano with Sidney Bechet (Inner City) 1965: Zoller Koller Solal with Attila Zoller and Hans Koller (MPS) 1968: European Episode with Lee Konitz (Campi) 1968: Impressive Rome with Lee Konitz (Campi) 1968: (Ducretet Thomson) 1976: with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (MPS) 1977: Duplicity with Lee Konitz (Horo) 1979: Four Keys (MPS) 1980: Live at the Berlin Jazz Days 1980 with Lee Konitz (MPS) 1980: with Stéphane Grappelli (Sunnyside) 1983: Star Eyes, Hamburg 1983 with Lee Konitz (HatOLOGY) 1988: (Label Bleu) 1992: Martial Solal & Toots Thielemans (Erato) 1999: with Michel Portal (BMG France) 2000: with Johnny Griffin (Dreyfus Jazz) 2000: with Éric Le Lann (Nocturne, H&L) 2006: with Dave Douglas (CAM Jazz) 2017: , with Dave Liebman (Sunnyside) 2020: , with Dave Liebman (Sunnyside)
Sideman 1974: Jazz à Juan (SteepleChase) 2005: Comptines Pour Enfants Seulement (Doumtak)
References
External links A Portrait of Martial Solal: Verbunkos. Retrieved 9 February 2013
Martial Solal unreleased recordings, including - Gruppen review Martial Solal recording at Murecstudio Milan murec studio la storia