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| Label Challenge Records |
UPC 0608917351620 |
Catalogue number CR 73516 |
Release date 09 April 2021 |
"Best of 2021 Albums of the year: Martial Solal Live albums: Martial Solal Solo recordings: Martial Solal "
New York City Jazz, 03-1-2022Coming Yesterday is the recording of what turns out to be Martial's last concert, he decided to stop playing piano after that show:
Martial Solal
"When I walked onto the stage on January 23, 2019, I did not yet know that I would decide not to play piano anymore after this concert, more than seventy years after my debut. To maintain a certain level, this instrument requires your daily attention; it requires delicacy, brutality, and especially energy. I have lived with these demands all my life, with the joy of seeing the progress, the technical and musical advances, the rhythmic and harmonic enrichments that we acquire over time. Of course, everything goes very fast at first. As long as you are gifted, if you spend a little time on it, if you listen to what was done before you, if you choose a path, everything may seem easy. Progress is rapid, illusions are immense, and then walls arise, walls that you want to reach and overcome. Seventy years to achieve this is a minimum... When energy is no longer available, it is better to stop.
I had the impression on January 23 of having reached the beginning of a path that I would have liked to continue, after so many years of improvisation, of creation, based on what are called standards, which I call pretexts, challenges, essay topics that you can develop in a thousand and one ways according to the evolutions that arise in your mind or in your circle of musicians. The standards have gone out of fashion, replaced by other themes that most of the time may not have the qualities to become standards, the so-called “originals”. All musicians considered themselves composers, free jazz burst onto the scene and swept away old themes, eliminating the difficult rules of stability of tempo, harmony and melody. Some standards have survived, and those you will discover can be described as indestructible. They are always only pretexts for expressing ideas, but with relaxed rules, the rubato being entitled to be cited as well as accelerations, atonality or the absence of a continuous tempo.
That is what I was thinking on January 23. Part of this concert seems to reflect my knowledge to this date. For me, jazz remains that of the twentieth century, the one that saw the birth of New Orleans, middle jazz, be-bop, and free jazz. The first three of these jazz eras were built on ternary rhythms. Charlie Parker may have been the first to use sixteenth notes on a medium tempo, abolishing the necessity of this permanent balancing called swing that has disappeared in this form with the emergence of binary rhythms and phrasings. This style of rhythm no longer corresponds to what I considered essential. I preferred a greater freedom, playing on the melting of keys, rhythms, duration, style, rather than on the forced slavery of the “new” ones. Great freedom requires a lot of work. I’ve done my share. I want to thank those who helped me, who helped me progress thanks to their encouragement or criticism, to those who were kind enough to play alongside me, for me, who often played my compositions for years. Too bad for all those who have missed out what I have tried to offer them. Progress is a very selfish happiness. I feel as if I have sown a blade of grass during this concert, showing a direction that I would like to see continue. In some places, this grass has already grown enough to be considered a musical testament… improvised''
Au moment où j'entrais en scène, ce 23 janvier 2019, je ne savais pas encore que je déciderais de ne plus jouer de piano, plus de soixante-dix ans après mes débuts. J'ai eu l'impression, ce 23 janvier, d'être parvenu au début d'un chemin que j'aurais aimé continuer, après tant d'années d'improvisation, de création, à partir de ce que l'on nomme des standards, que j'appelle des prétextes, des enjeux, des sujets de dissertation que vous pouvez développer de mille et une façons, au gré des évolutions qui surgissent dans votre esprit ou dans votre entourage. Certains standards ont survécu, ceux que vous découvrirez peuvent être qualifiés d'inusables. Ils ne sont toujours que prétextes à exprimer des idées, avec toutefois des règles assouplies, le rubato ayant droit de cité de même que les accélérations, l'atonalité ou l'absence de tempo permanent. Voilà où j'en étais de mes réflexions ce 23 janvier. Certains passages me paraissent refléter l'état de mes connaissances à ce jour. Pour moi, le jazz reste celui du vingtième siècle, celui qui a vu naître le New Orleans, le middle jazz, le be-bop, le free jazz. Charlie Parker a peut-être été le premier à utiliser les doubles croches sur un tempo moyen, faisant oublier la nécessité de ce balancement permanent que l'on appelait le swing, ce balancement là ayant disparu sous cette forme avec l'arrivée des rythmiques et des phrasés binaires. Ce style de rythmique ne correspond plus à ce que je considérais comme essentiel. J'ai préféré une liberté plus grande, jouant sur les mélanges de tonalités, de rythmes, de durée, de style, plutôt que l'esclavage obligé des « nouvelles » rythmiques. La très grande liberté demande beaucoup de travail. J'en ai fourni ma part. J'ai l'impression d'avoir, pendant ce concert, semé un brin d'herbe indiquant une direction que j'aimerais voir se poursuivre. Par endroits, cette herbe a déjà suffisamment poussé pour qu'elle puisse être considérée comme un testament musical... improvisé.
Duke Ellington influenced millions of people both around the world and at home. He gave American music its own sound for the first time. In his fifty year career, he played over 20,000 performances in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East as well as Asia.
Simply put, Ellington transcends boundaries and fills the world with a treasure trove of music that renews itself through every generation of fans and music-lovers. His legacy continues to live onand will endure for generations to come. Winton Marsalis said it best when he said "His music sounds like America." Because of the unmatched artistic heights to which he soared, no one deserved the phrase “beyond category” more than Ellington, for it aptly describes his life as well. He was most certainly one of a kind that maintained a llifestyle with universal appeal which transcended countless boundaries.
Duke Ellington is best remembered for the over 3000 songs that he composed during his lifetime. His best known titles include; "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing", "Sophisticated Lady", "Mood Indigo", “Solitude", "In a Mellotone",and "Satin Doll". The most amazing part about Ellington was the most creative while he was on the road. It was during this time when he wrote his most famous piece, "Mood Indigo"which brought him world wide fame.
When asked what inspired him to write, Ellington replied, "My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people".
Duke Ellington's popular compositions set the bar for generations of brilliant jazz, pop, theatre and soundtrack composers to come. While these compositions guarantee his greatness, whatmakes Duke an iconoclastic genius, and an unparalleled visionary, what has granted him immortality are his extended suites. From 1943's Black, Brown and Beige to 1972's The Uwis Suite, Duke used the suite format to give his jazz songs a far more empowering meaning, resonance and purpose: to exalt, mythologize and re-contextualize the African-American experience on a grand scale.
Duke Ellington was partial to giving brief verbal accounts of the moods his songs captured. Reading those accounts is like looking deep into the background of an old photo of New York and noticing the lost and almost unaccountable details that gave the city its character during Ellington's heyday, which began in 1927 when his band made the Cotton Club its home.''The memory of things gone,'' Ellington once said, ''is important to a jazz musician,'' and the stories he sometimes told about his songs are the record of those things gone. But what is gone returns, its pulse kicking, when Ellington's music plays, and never mind what past it is, for the music itself still carries us forward today.
Duke Ellington was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1966. He was later awarded several other prizes, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, a month after his 75th birthday, and is buried in theBronx, in New York City. At his funeral attendedby over 12,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Ella Fitzgerald summed up the occasion, "It's a very sad day...A genius has passed."
Best of 2021
Albums of the year: Martial Solal
Live albums: Martial Solal
Solo recordings: Martial Solal
New York City Jazz, 03-1-2022
The great improvisations and sound quality are the motivation to purchase this production.
FWD, 06-1-2022
Best Albums of the Year
New York City Jazz Records, 03-1-2022
Top 10 best album of the year 2021
Jazz Magazine, 01-12-2021
Astonishingly nimble and technical on the beautiful Steinway, he is a compelling musical storyteller.
De Nieuwe Muze, 01-10-2021
During the Salle Gaveau 2019, Solal will provide insight for the last time into his fascinating way of improvisation. Indeed from the twentieth century, but with a freedom and fantasy that is disappearing. An exceptional performance in phenomenal sound quality.
Music Emotion, 02-7-2021
Solal said, 'When energy is no longer available, it is better to stop.' This recording indicates that neither his fingers nor his imagination had yet lost their power.
BBC Music Magazine, 01-7-2021
Recorded by the microphones of Radio France, "Coming Yesterday" (Challenge) allows us to hear a mischievous piano mixing cheerfully rhythms and tones on inusable standards jostled with humor.
Le Blog de Choc, 25-6-2021
... With such intoxicating joy of playing, one can only regret Solal's decision to stop.
Fono Forum, 14-6-2021
... What to say in conclusion? Only Thank you, Martial, for your great music, for your love affair with the piano!
sk.jazz.sk, 01-6-2021
... as proof that one can form shining pieces for the eternity and the one day from completely wrung out material with insanity skill and clairvoyance... The joy that always accompanies his playing is also in his nature, that's not news. Solal is a relaxed sage, this record communicates. And also - through jazz - an eternal youth. This is how we internalize him then.
Jazzpodium 06 07 2021, 31-5-2021
... a farewell letter to all those who so adored Martial Solal, this French miracle pianist of Algerian descent, who marveled at his improvisations, in which he always struck elegant hooks, who appreciated his virtuosity, and his knowledge of repertoire, who succumbed to his incomparable wit, his charm...
Jazzthing, 26-5-2021
... And Martial Solal presents with this record another important one, which testifies how much he developed his own style, including the tradition of jazz from New Orleans, through bebop and swing to hard bop and modern expressions of jazz, as well as borrowings from classical music...
musikansich, 20-5-2021
''The whole album sounds fresh and vivid, unfortunatly Solal decided to stop playing live concert after this evening''
De Standaard, 19-5-2021
A perfect ending. Solal’s mind was made up. This had been his final concert.
The Guardian, 13-5-2021
... He dissects harmonies, fragments rhythms, improvises freely, fades the melody back in, only to look at it again 'backwards' and reformulate it in a different key/pitch. This is work, or in his words, what underlies his approach to 'art'. Wow!
Na Dann, 12-5-2021
The Solal technique is breathtaking, the Solal creativity is enrapturing, the inventiveness is all consuming, humour is never far away.
Jazz Views, 11-5-2021
Fragments of the whole are surveyed from multiple angles, each facet examined and revealed in different voicings and registers, altering perspective, colour and form. All magnificently placed because Solal is a master of time and space.
LondonJazzNews, 07-5-2021
But, now aged ninety-three years, Solal has decided to retire while he is still ahead. The album is an elegant and idiosyncratic valedictory in which "Lover Man," "My Funny Valentine" and "Have You Met Miss Jones" are among the tunes given treatments as fresh as the day they left their composers' hands.
All About Jazz, 04-5-2021
Coming Yesterday feels like an important document. And it is salutary to be reminded of at least one of the places where Solal's unique and seemingly boundless creativity and capacity for surprise come from. As he has written in the sleeve note: “Great freedom requires a lot of work. I’ve done my share.
The Arts Desk, 29-4-2021
Coming Yesterday contains eight masterpieces by the French pianist
Trouw, 28-4-2021
A glittering farewell to the concert stage ... Solal plays atonal, wild and free, full of irony and unpredictability - then again tenderly and with a mild wink. A tour de force, overwhelming, wide awake, old school and at the same time radically modern and forward thinking into a future of jazz…
NDR CD of the week, 23-4-2021
... On the one hand, his exploration of the themes of the standards moves more strongly in the rhythmic space, which then sounds completely unexpected. On the other hand, his far digressing improvisations aim at an examination of the harmonies, which leads to the fact that many titles do not sound like standards, but like his own songs ...
Jazz Fun, 13-4-2021
From Django Reinhardt in 1953 to Dave Liebman in 2020, Martial Solal has met them all. He represents the history of jazz on his own and gives it a recognizable personal touch.
Jazzhalo, 07-4-2021
But this concert, fortunately recorded by Radio France, has something special since it is a kind of farewell to the public : "When I walked into the stage on January 23, 2019, I did not know that I would decide not to play piano anymore after this concert.
JazzMania, 05-4-2021
... How can someone over 91 still play like that, so nimble in the hands and in the head, the right and the left as always equal, a waterfall of ideas, a gifted alienator of the known, a lifelong modernist who always helps himself to tradition? Solal has tried his hand at "Tea For Two," "Lover Man" or "My Funny Valentine" thousands of times, but they always sounded new, like pieces from his pen…
Jazzthing, 23-3-2021
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