Jazz Collection : Martial Solal Série-Collection : Jazz Collection

Jean-Paul Fargier
1999 - 55 min - Vidéo - France

Solal at the piano : an outpouring of ideas, rhythms, melodic inventions, harmonic inspirations, surprising inventions (that he modestly calls "technical solutions"), all that makes up improvisation sounds like the most ingenious of compositions.
Whatever he plays, no-one has ever played it like he does. Sidney Bechet, Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli recorded their strangest records with him. His film musics (Godard’s "À bout de souffle") are among the strangest in the history of the cinema. His solos, duets, trios, his big bands have made their mark on the history of European jazz. He is one of the greatest piano improvisers, alongside Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett...
Yet Martial Solal is a marginal in the jazz world : he was born in Algiers, matured in Paris and has lived for a long time in the suburbs. He does not even have an impresario. The only thing that interests him is his piano.