Martial Solal
Martial Solal ( born August 23, 1927 in Algiers ) is a French pianist and composer of modern jazz. He is regarded since the 1950s as a leading jazz pianist France. Originally, he was strongly influenced by Bud Powell, but involves the stylistics Lennie Tristano. Marcus Gammel is in addition to his brilliant technique " his nuances, his taste for strong contrasts and his spontaneity out. " As a composer he has " developed a very dense, colorful musical language, who have successfully crosses the boundaries between jazz and contemporary composition music. "
Solal lives in a suburb of Paris since 1950.
Life and work
Martial Solal had six year old piano lessons from his mother, an opera singer, and since 1940 had an interest in jazz, which was initially aroused by images of Fats Waller and Art Tatum. In 1950 he came to Paris, where he soon found work in local orchestras, formed his own quartet with Roger Guérin, but also recorded with Django Reinhardt ( 1953). As the house pianist at the Club Saint Germain (1953, 1957-1959 ), he accompanied musicians like Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, Billy Byers, JJ Johnson, Stan Getz, Kenny Clarke, Chet Baker and Sidney Bechet. In 1955 he founded with Daniel Humair and Guy Pedersen his own trio with which he mainly worked from 1959. As early as 1960 he published his first solo LP, the later internationally acclaimed solo albums such as Nothing But Piano (1975 ), The Solosolal (1978), Blue Sine (1983 ) and most recently the Grammy-nominated Live at the Village Vanguard (2009) follow. In addition Solal initiated in the late 1950s own big band, which he had occasionally revived (1962, 1966). At the beginning of the 1960s Solal appeared internationally at festivals such as Newport ( 1963 ), Montreal, Monterey or Berlin as a soloist, with his trio, one directed with Roger Guérin quartet and sometimes in an unusual trio with two bassists (Guy Pedersen and Gilbert Rovere ) on. In 1963, he worked a long time in New York's Hickory House.
Furthermore, also made recordings with Lucky Thompson, André Hodeir, Stéphane Grappelli, Lee Konitz, Michel Portal, John Scofield, Didier Lockwood and Toots Thielemans. Since 1981, he has performed more frequently with his big band, which included soloists such as François Jeanneau, Jean -Louis Chautemps, Lee Konitz, Roger Guérin or Christian Escoudé. This later became his Dodecaband and Newdecaband.
Building on his composition work for Godard 's Breathless (1959 ), he wrote increasingly film music since the 1960s. Solals post is by Martin Kunzler with the relevant soundtrack by Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan and Art Blakey equal at the beginning of a new development in the film composition. Furthermore, its suite Rhythmical Escape and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra ( 1981) are worth mentioning. He also wrote a number of chamber music works - for about Elisabeth Chojnacka, Marcel Azzola, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Pierre Charial or Ensemble Concert Arban - as well as a set of piano etudes.
Prizes and awards
In 1956 he received the Prix Django Reinhardt ( whose existence in the second year ). His album Suite For Trio with Niels -Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Daniel Humair in 1979 awarded the Grand Prix de Disque. In 1999 he received the highly doped Jazzpar Prize. In 1998 he was awarded as the best French musicians and in 2004 he received the Django d' Or ( France).
In Paris, an international piano jazz competition is named after him, the Concours de piano jazz Martial Solal.