Martial Solal RIP

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

NYT...

"Martial Solal, Europe’s pre-eminent jazz pianist, who recorded dozens of startlingly original albums in a career of almost three quarters of a century and who wrote scores for numerous films, including Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece “Breathless,” died on Thursday in Versailles, France. He was 97.

His death, in a hospital, was announced by Rachida Dati, France’s minister of culture..."

An exceptionally long and productive career and some great recordings. I've recently bought a French album he made with Lucky Thompson and they are a superb match for each other. Classic.

RIP

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Solal, "Green Dolphin Street", live footage Hamburg TV studio, late 60s. The session with Wes and Griffin, Scott etc. Extraordinary stuff ...Johnny Griffin, "ridiculous man, ridiculous!!!"

http://youtu.be/HPfsIjuqTZs?si=XxptSG0KugkBR2bw

[Jazzrook]

Solal, "Green Dolphin Street", live footage Hamburg TV studio, late 60s. The session with Wes and Griffin, Scott etc. Extraordinary stuff ...Johnny Griffin, "ridiculous man, ridiculous!!!"

http://youtu.be/HPfsIjuqTZs?si=XxptSG0KugkBR2bw

Amazing playing, BN. Ronnie Scott seemed to be enjoying it!
Here’s ‘Suite Pour Une Frise’ from ‘Newport ‘63’ with Teddy Kotick & Paul Motian:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=bHUEyGePBf0

JR

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

From Richard William's take on that performance, way back from his Blue Moment blog..

"And you can hear it when, as the last note dies, Griffin walks round beside Solal, leans into him and says: “Ridiculous!” And as he walks away and he and Scott cross paths, you can see them shaking their heads in admiration. It’s a beautiful thing to see musicians reacting spontaneously in an informal setting. More than half a century later, we can share their sense of delight and discovery" He goes on to say they've all gone now, except Solal.

And now him.

[Jazzrook]

Martial Solal & Johnny Griffin playing Monk’s ‘Well You Needn’t’ from their 2000 duo album ‘In & Out’:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=P9xbw_UgohE

JR

[Alyn_Shipton]

I liked Martial - first met him when I literally bumped into him in the Rue des Lombards in Paris. We ended up going off to record this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tzw0k

[Serial_Apologist]

Amazing playing, BN. Ronnie Scott seemed to be enjoying it!
Here’s ‘Suite Pour Une Frise’ from ‘Newport ‘63’ with Teddy Kotick & Paul Motian:

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=bHUEyGePBf0

JR

I bought the album including that - one of my first jazz LPs. On it were a number of standards; what amazes me to this day, given the amount of development in the music since, were the extraordinary chord substitutions in them, demonstrating a phenomenally sophisticated harmonic sensibility. Martial had borrowed Bill Evans's rhythm section for the occasion - Teddy Kotick and Paul Motian.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Martial Solal's music for Godard's "Breathless" with Seberg/Belmondo.

Solal said that when Godard initially approached him with the offer to write it, he had only previously written a few minutes of film music. Godard helpfully suggested he might just use a single instrument, "like a banjo". Hopefully Godard being "humourous".

http://youtu.be/DyNzTDG4_Rs?si=WLQK_HkhKIOSEEnD

Solal's much later (1989) solo piano reconstruction of his own Bout de Souffle/Breathless theme. It's from a fine solo album "Jazz n' Motion" where he takes on, and transforms, classic themes. No prisoners.

http://youtu.be/5qQ6eyTK89A?si=KfAvfthTtljJBCwt

[Quarky]

Yet another undiscovered jazz voice for me. But what immediately struck me was the clarity and boldness in his technique.

An extract from his final concert in 2019 - 2 mins to 25 mins:: https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemus...oncert-7810191

[Ian Thumwood]

I saw Solal in Vienne many years ago. The evening was given over to his works which would be considerwd as Third Stream. I am not convinced that he was part of the jazz mainstream and probably deserves more credit as a composer pushing a more contemporary / classical agenda. The likes of Dave Douglas understood his worth but i think it will take some time for jazz fans to understand his music.

For me, Solal set the agenda for so much French jazz and succeeded it making it more academic. By the end he had gone well beyond the music he produced in the 1960s. I am not always a fan but respect what he was doing.

[Quarky]

There seems to be a strong tradition of improvisation in French music, particularly Organ music. A reason perhaps that Jazz has taken such strong root in France.
But also a reason why Solal wouldn't feel constrained by jazz 'tradition'.
Just speculating as usual .

[Serial_Apologist]

There seems to be a strong tradition of improvisation in French music, particularly Organ music. A reason perhaps that Jazz has taken such strong root in France.
But also a reason why Solal wouldn't feel constrained by jazz 'tradition'.
Just speculating as usual .

Jazz became very much part of french culture, particularly through the gifted individuality of Django Reinhardt - who was actually Belgian-born, but very much adopted through his association with the violinist Stephane Grapelli, who was French, and the Hot Club of France. Jazz catered for armed personnel from the occupying forces during the Liberation, and by association with Sartre, Existentialist philosophy and left wing political affilations, along with the general intellectual and artistic milieu of Paris's Rive Gauche then and into the early 1950s, when Miles and other black Americans found enthusiastic reception for their music and presence, and later film - such a contrast from how they were perceived and treated back home - and many would settle as quasi-refugees from America in the latter decade giving encouragement to local jazz exponents. France would become a prime slot for touring US names, unlike Britain until the 1960s, where mutual AFM and MU visiting bans kept British artists at arm's length from direct experience of the music, its people and spirit. This is all off the immediate top of my head, and presents the matter very inadequately, though it amounts to the framework that boosted French jazz from the wake of WW2 to the 1960s

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

It was France and French advocacy that introduced both Ray Charles and John Coltrane into Europe, and many others as well. Frank Tunot of French Radio was in the Atlantic studio when My Favourite things was first recorded and subsequently cut down specifically for a (hit) French 45. He was also instrumental in bringing Ray Charles & band to Antibes in 1960 and subsequently to Paris. I remember entire concert broadcasts of Miles, Dizzy, Basie, Mulligan etc etc on my crackling radio as a kid that you could only dream of from the BBC. Hugely significant.

[Ian Thumwood]

French advocacy for American jazz goes back to Hugues Panassie in the 1930s and musicians from the States were in Europe from the off. I think that France has always responded differently to jazz of various kinds whether we are talking about Bechet ir Ayler. In my opinion, Solal was really about an intellectual approach to jazz which i think is a strong element within so much French jazz and which almost rejects the American model for music that borrows heavily from 20tj century classical.


I think that French jazz is little understood in uk. Solal is the tip of the iceberg and totally different in respect of , say, the more Euro centric ECM stuff. A lot of French jazz ia seriously academic and almost oppposed to rge American model. This is where Solal ended up.

[Quarky]

This is something my mind was rotating around::

The “French tinge”. Jazz and its Paris-New Orleans connection

Luca Cerchiari Musicologica 1/2021, Rock Pop JazzFriday October 1st, 2021, 20:36 Comments Offon The “French tinge”. Jazz and its Paris-New Orleans connection

http://www.musicologica.eu/francuzsky-nadych-jazz-a-jeho-parizsko-new-orleanske-spojenie/?lang=en

Abstract:

In recent years, musicological research proved how relevant have been, besides African sources, the European roots of jazz. These can be traced also in the French musical heritage, ideology and culture, including the 1789 Revolution’s freedom principle and the liberal attitude of French governors concerning black slavery in the American colonies, starting from Louisiana. The article suggests the importance of a Paris-New Orleans connection. French and Parisian musical traits were basic ingredients of New Orleans jazz melting pot, whereas the Parisian and French circulation of some important creole musicians from New Orleans like Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Edmund Dedé, during the nineteenth century, helped the latter circulation and proper cultural perception of Afro-American music. Due to these facts, Paris, since then, became the second capital for jazz in the world.