The king of improvisation, recognized by his peers around the world, the French jazz pianist Martial Solal died at the age of 97 on Thursday, December 12. “in the afternoon, in a hospital at Versailles, in Yvelines”his son Eric Solal announced to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Composer, arranger, conductor, Martial Solal has proven to be as comfortable in re-reading classical works as he is in a confrontation with the most contemporary music. We owe many film soundtracks to him, especially the New Wave manifesto, out of breath by the Franco-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard and recorded over a hundred discs, as a solo, duo, trio or even in a big band.
“The piano is worked physically, with exercises, there is an element of sport”the athletics and horse racing enthusiast told AFP in 2019. At over 90, he continued to play his instrument daily “with at least two to three hours of work a day” and perform a handful of concerts a year, such as the Salle Gaveau in Paris in January 2019.
“I’m happy when I have a concert because I tell myself that I’m finally going to hear the music I love”confessed, a few days before the recital, this musician with a solid sense of humor. In 2021, he will receive the Jazz Academy’s grand prizewhich awards the best record of the year, for the album Tomorrow comes: Live at Salle Gaveau 2019.
Failed by Algiers conservatory
Born on August 23, 1927 in Algiers to a Jewish family, Martial Solal learned the basics of the piano with his mother, who sang opera, before taking his first lessons around the age of 6. The child is considered very promising, but hates reading sheet music. When he took the entrance exam to the Algiers Conservatory, he completely failed the music theory part, so much so that he failed.
He then decided to devote himself to jazz, which he practiced alongside a local celebrity, saxophonist Lucky Starway. “What I liked was this way of taking a song, even an uninteresting one, and changing it to your liking. It was a revelation”he will say.
Landed in Paris in 1950 in the dead of winter, he had a difficult start before being hired by a club in Pigalle. His notoriety grew, he became the official pianist of the Club Saint-Germain, a true temple of jazz, and of the Blue Note. He accompanies all the great visiting soloists, from Dizzy Gillespie to Sonny Rollins through Sidney Bechet.
His love for improvisation never leaves him and his ambition is to make jazz evolve. “I never listened to records, I didn’t want to be like anyone, not even the ones I admired”he said in his autobiography My jazz centurypublished in 2024.
He received his first prize from Jean Cocteau, participated in the recording of the latest album by the gypsy virtuoso Django Reinhardt, composed masterpieces such as Suite in D flat for quartet Or Frieze suite.
America rolls out the red carpet for him
In 1960, the man who briefly went by the moniker Jo Jaguar helped his friend, saxophonist Guy Lafitte, complete a composition for Pathé-Marconi. It is Twist in Saint-TropezDick Rivers’ first big hit with the Wild Cats. “It’s like I won the lottery”said Martial Solal who, thanks to copyright, will be able to get through the lean times.
Considered a “giant” by his colleagues, he is, in the eyes of the critic Alain Gerber, “one of the greatest musicians in the world, all styles, all genres and all cultures combined”. “It completely changed my view of music”Jean-Michel Pilc, another great French jazz pianist, testified to AFP in 2016.
His career takes him all over the world. In 1963, he was invited across the Atlantic to play at the Newport Festival, a milestone for a jazz musician. America rolls out the red carpet for him, New York clubs want him, but he prefers, after five months spent in the United States, to join France and his family.
He returned to the big orchestra in 1982 and in 2006, with the Dodecaband, then the Newdecaband. Winner of numerous awards, Martial Solal received the ultimate recognition of the Jazzpar Prize in 1999, considered the Nobel Prize for jazz.
In a publication on the X network, the resigned Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, paid tribute to “a legendary pianist and composer whose name shines in the jazz firmament alongside Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal”.
