Remembering Martial Solal
Martial Solal, the Algerian-born French jazz pianist and composer, passed away last Thursday, December 12 in Versailles. He was 97 years old. In the preface to Solal’s autobiography, André Hodeir wrote, Martial Solal, born in 1927, is a pianist. According to Alain Gerber, he is ‘one of the world’s greatest musicians, across all styles, genres and cultures’. Solal ‘astounded’ Sviatoslav Richter, dazzled Duke Ellington with his ‘sensitivity, freshness, creativity and extraordinary technique’, …