Martial Solal

Martial Solal (born August 23, 1927) is a French jazz pianist and composer.

Biography
Solal was born in Algiers, French Algeria, 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".

Style
His jazz approach was once described by Jean-Pierre Thiollet as "brilliant, unique and intellectual" 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."

Leader

 * 1954 French Modern Sounds (Swing/Disques Vogue)
 * 1954 Martial Solal Trio (Disques Vogue)
 * 1959 Suite en ré bémol pour quartette de jazz (Columbia) (7")
 * 1960 Martial Solal (Columbia; US release by Capitol)
 * 1962 Jazz à Gaveau (Columbia); US release as In Concert/Trio in Concert (Liberty, 1963)
 * 1962 Suite pour une frise (Pathé-Marconi)
 * 1963 At Newport '63 (Martial Solal album) (RCA)
 * 1963 Martial Solal and the European All Stars (Telefunken; Canada release by London)
 * 1964 Concert à Gaveau vol. 2 (Columbia)
 * 1965 Martial Solal (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 Sans tambour ni trompette (Martial Solal album) (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 Triangle (Martial Solal album) (JMS)
 * 1996 Difficult Blues (John Marks Records)
 * 1997 Just Friends (Martial Solal album) (Dreyfus)
 * 1998 Silent Cinema – Cinema Muet (Gorgone)
 * 1998 Martial Solal, Vol. 2 (Vogue)
 * 1999 Balade du 10 mars (Soul Note)
 * 1999 En Solo (Fresh Sound)
 * 1999 Contrastes (Martial Solal album) (Storyville)
 * 2000 Martial Solal Dodecaband Plays Ellington (Dreyfus Jazz)
 * 2003 NY-1: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note)
 * 2007 Exposition sans tableau (Nocturne)
 * 2007 Solitude (Martial Solal album) (CAM Jazz)
 * 2008 Longitude (Martial Solal album) (CAM Jazz)
 * 2009 Live at the Village Vanguard (Martial Solal album) (CAM Jazz)
 * 2015 Martial Solal - Works for Piano and Two Pianos (Grand Piano)
 * 2018 Histoires improvisées (paroles et musiques) (JMS)
 * 2018 My One and Only Love (Martial Solal album) (Intuition Records)
 * 2021 Coming Yesterday : Live at Salle Gaveau 2019 (Challenge records)

Co-leader

 * 1957 When a Soprano Meets a Piano with Sidney Bechet (Inner City)
 * 1968 European Episode with Lee Konitz (Campi)
 * 1968 Impressive Rome with Lee Konitz (Campi)
 * 1968 ''Électrode : Martial Solal joue Michel Magne (Ducretet Thomson)
 * 1976 Movability (Martial Solal album) 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 Happy Reunion (Stéphane Grappelli and Martial Solal album) with Stéphane Grappelli (Sunnyside)
 * 1983 Star Eyes, Hamburg 1983 with Lee Konitz (HatOLOGY)
 * 1988 9/11 p.m. Town Hall (Label Bleu)
 * 1992 Martial Solal & Toots Thielemans (Erato)
 * 1999 Fast Mood with Michel Portal (BMG France)
 * 2000 In and Out (Solal and Griffin album) with Johnny Griffin (Dreyfus Jazz)
 * 2000 Portrait in Black and White (Solal and Le Lann album) with Éric Le Lann (Nocturne, H&L)
 * 2006 Portrait in Black and White (Solal and Douglas album) with Dave Douglas (CAM Jazz)
 * 2017 Masters in Bordeaux (Solal and Liebman album), with Dave Liebman (Sunnyside)
 * 2020 Masters in Paris (Solal and Liebman album), with Dave Liebman (Sunnyside)

Sideman

 * 1974 Jazz à Juan (SteepleChase)
 * 2005 Comptines Pour Enfants Seulement (Doumtak)