Martial Solal


Martial Solal is a French jazz pianist and composer.

Biography

Solal was born in Algiers, to Algerian Jewish parents. He was persuaded to study clarinet, saxophone, and piano by his mother, who was an opera singer. He was kicked out of school in 1942 because of his parents Jewish ancestry. Algeria was a French colony, and the Vichy government 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 fifteen, he performed publicly for U.S. Army audiences.
After settling in Paris in 1950, he began working with Django Reinhardt and expatriates from the United States such as Sidney Bechet and Don Byas. He formed a quartet 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. He composed music for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film Breathless.
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. 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 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."

Discography