Cultchas crew greets its favorite artist Martial Solal a happy 82nd birthday!!!
Born on August 23rd of French-Jewish parents in Algiers. Martial Solal began establishing his name when he moved to Paris in the fifties playing piano with American expatriates and Europe's best jazz musicians.
The sixties became pivotal to his success. This was a period marked by a string of key recordings and began writing film scores starting off with Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.
On one account, Oscar Peterson gave up performance dates in France to watch this man swing.
Solal's decision to play to a wider audience across the Atlantic gained him more favorable attention to jazz musicians and critics.
Duke Ellington:
Martial Solal has, in abundance, those indispensables of the musicians' craft: sensitivity, creativity, and a prodigious technique. Most of all, he sparkles with refreshment -- and for a jazz musician to sound refreshing in 1963 is no ordinary thing!
Dizzy Gillespie:
It is remarkable to discover that an artist so far removed from the roots of jazz as Algeria and France can adapt himself so magnificently, and can create from the soul so basically as Martial Solal.
Martin Williams:
One of the best jazz musicians in the world.
Lee Jeske:
Martial Solal has it all: heart, brains, chops. Calling him the greatest pianist in Europe is like calling Frank Sinatra the greatest crooner from New Jersey. Ridiculous!
Merci de faire la musique merveilleuse. Joyeux anniversaire monsieur Solal!!!
(1) Original photo by Mirko R. Boscolo, re-taken and cropped from Bluesine LP sleeve released by Soul Note Italy
(2) Video from youtube by HLORG
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