“Martial Solal has, in abundance, those indispensables of the musicians’ craft: sensitivity, creativity, and a prodigious technique. Most of all, he sparkles with refreshment.” These...

“Martial Solal has, in abundance, those indispensables of the musicians’ craft: sensitivity, creativity, and a prodigious technique. Most of all, he sparkles with refreshment.” These words of praise were written by his “soul brother” Duke Ellington for Solal’s US debut album, recorded mostly at Newport in 1963 with Bill Evans’ rhythm section Paul Motian on drums and Teddy Kotick on bass. More than half an exciting century later the legendary French pianist and composer, who excelled with works for soundtracks, orchestras, big bands and his own groups, as well as in the meantime duo settings with jazz masters from Lee Konitz to Dave Liebman, once again proved why the Duke loved him madly. As soon as Martial sat down at the piano for soundcheck, all the months of preparation and practice for this solo concert seemed to disappear. All that’s left is a perfectly in the moment, spontaneous sound journey with one of the finest jazzers to have ever lived.

REVIEW:

This program, captured in a German theater in late 2017, is a story of one man, one Steinway, and a bottomless well of wisdom and wit. Solal winds his way through a program that's both history and history-in-the-making, taking us from reconfigured Mozart to Broadway's beyond to Bebop nouveau. All the while he remains himself, toying with reharmonization, working magic with staccato and marcato machinations, slipping in sidebars and sly quotes, questioning with chromaticism, and charming the ears with some of the most wonderfully creative thoughts that could possibly be conjured from the bench.

-- AllAboutJazz.com (Dan Bilawsky)