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Coming Yesterday - Live at Salle Gaveau 2019

Martial Solal

Coming Yesterday - Live at Salle Gaveau 2019

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Records
UPC: 0608917351620
Catnr: CR 73516
Release date: 09 April 2021
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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, 03-1-2022
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About the album

Coming 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''

Coming Yesterday ist der Mitschnitt von Martials letztem Konzert, da er sich nach dieser Show entschied, nicht mehr Klavier zu spielen:

Kein geringerer als Duke Ellington lobte ihn anlässlich seines US-Debüts 1963 in Newport für Einfühlungsvermögen, Fantasie und eine erstaunliche Technik“.

Martial Solal
"Als ich am 23. Januar 2019 die Bühne betrat, wusste ich noch nicht, dass ich mich nach diesem Konzert, mehr als siebzig Jahre nach meinem Debüt, entscheiden würde, nicht mehr Klavier zu spielen. Um ein gewisses Niveau aufrechtzuerhalten, erfordert dieses Instrument deine tägliche Aufmerksamkeit; es erfordert Zartheit, Brutalität und vor allem Energie. Ich habe mein ganzes Leben lang mit diesen Anforderungen gelebt, mit der Freude, den Fortschritt zu sehen, die technischen und musikalischen Fortschritte, die rhythmischen und harmonischen Bereicherungen, die man mit der Zeit erwirbt. Natürlich geht am Anfang alles sehr schnell. Solange man begabt ist, wenn man ein wenig Zeit damit verbringt, wenn man darauf hört, was vor einem gemacht wurde, wenn man einen Weg wählt, kann alles leicht erscheinen. Der Fortschritt ist schnell, die Illusionen sind immens, und dann entstehen Mauern, Mauern, die man erreichen und überwinden will. Siebzig Jahre, um dies zu erreichen, sind ein Minimum... Wenn die Energie nicht mehr vorhanden ist, ist es besser, aufzuhören.
Ich hatte am 23. Januar den Eindruck, am Anfang eines Weges angelangt zu sein, den ich gerne fortgesetzt hätte, nach so vielen Jahren der Improvisation, der Kreation. Basierend auf den so genannten Standards, die ich als Vorwand, als Herausforderung, als Aufsatzthema bezeichne, das man auf tausend und eine Art und Weise entwickeln kann, je nach den Entfaltungsmöglichkeiten, die sich in deinem Geist oder in deinem Musikerkreis ergeben. Die Standards sind aus der Mode gekommen, ersetzt durch andere Themen, die meist nicht die Qualitäten haben, Standards zu werden, die sogenannten "Originale".

Alle Musiker hielten sich für Komponisten, der Free Jazz kam auf die Bühne und fegte die alten Themen weg, indem er die schwierigen Regeln der Stabilität von Tempo, Harmonie und Melodie aufhob. Einige Standards haben überlebt, und diese kann man als unverwüstlich bezeichnen. Sie sind immer nur vorgeschoben, um Ideen auszudrücken, aber mit gelockerten Regeln, wobei das Rubato ebenso zitiert werden darf wie Beschleunigungen, Atonalität oder das Fehlen eines kontinuierlichen Tempos.
Das ist es, was ich am 23. Januar gedacht habe. Ein Teil dieses Konzerts scheint mein Wissen bis zu diesem Datum zu reflektieren. Für mich bleibt der Jazz der des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, der Epoche, in der New Orleans, der Middle Jazz, der Be-Bop und der Free Jazz entstanden sind. Die ersten drei dieser Jazz-Epochen waren auf ternären Rhythmen aufgebaut. Charlie Parker war vielleicht der erste, der Sechzehntelnoten in einem mittleren Tempo verwendete und damit die Notwendigkeit dieses permanenten Balancierens aufhob, welches Swing genannt wird und in dieser Form mit dem Aufkommen binärer Rhythmen und Phrasierungen verschwunden ist.
Diese Art von Rhythmus entspricht nicht mehr dem, was ich für wesentlich hielt. Ich zog eine größere Freiheit vor, das Spiel auf der Verschmelzung von Tonarten, Rhythmen, Dauer, Stil, statt auf der erzwungenen Sklaverei der "Neuen". Große Freiheit erfordert eine Menge Arbeit. Ich habe meinen Teil dazu beigetragen. Ich möchte mich bei denen bedanken, die mir geholfen haben, die mich durch ihre Ermutigung oder Kritik weitergebracht haben, bei denen, die so freundlich waren, neben mir, für mich zu spielen, die oft jahrelang meine Kompositionen gespielt haben. Schade für all jene, die verpasst haben, was ich versucht habe, ihnen zu bieten. Fortschritt ist ein sehr egoistisches Glück. Ich fühle mich, als hätte ich während dieses Konzerts einen Grashalm gesät, der eine Richtung aufzeigt, die ich gerne weiterverfolgen würde. An einigen Stellen ist dieses Gras bereits so weit gewachsen, dass man es als musikalisches Testament betrachten kann... improvisiert''

Martial Solal - My One And Only Love - European Jazz Legends Vol. 15

Beide Hände Solals führen eine Art Eigenleben - wer sonst könnte links und rechts so verbindlich voneinander trennen und konsequent gegenläufig Rhythmus und Improvisation voran und zueinander treiben?
Michael Laages, NDR 2018

... Daher werden Balladen bei Solal kühn reharmonisiert, bizarr auseinandergelegt. Wenige haben wie Solal die Fähigkeit, in knapp bemessener Zeit den Beweis anzutreten, dass Standards unentdecktes Neuland sein können.
Tom Fuchs, Piano News 2018

Dieser nicht mehr ganz junge französische Pianist hat es geschafft, jeden Stil und jeden Klang, dem er im Laufe seiner langen Karriere begegnet ist, zu absorbieren, zu destillieren und zu brechen. Und was noch beeindruckender ist, ist die Art und Weise, wie er dies alles zu einem Stil sui generis zusammenfügt, der immer wieder überrascht...
All About Jazz 2018


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.

Artist(s)

Martial Solal

Born on 23 August 1927 in Algiers (Algeria), Martial Solal is certainly the French musician who meets with the wider international recognition since Django Reinhardt. From New Orleans, middle jazz, be bop to advanced modern jazz, the breadth of his career and the richness of his work amply justify this distinction, without forgetting the essential: his exceptional talents as an instrumentalist and composer, and the incredible fertility of his imagination in improvisation that made him one of the most admired pianists, far beyond the circle of jazz. Under the influence of his mother, an amateur opera singer, he started studying classical piano, clarinet and saxophone at the age of six, and discovered jazz as a teenager through Lucky Starway, a saxophonist-bandleader...
more
Born on 23 August 1927 in Algiers (Algeria), Martial Solal is certainly the French musician who meets with the wider international recognition since Django Reinhardt. From New Orleans, middle jazz, be bop to advanced modern jazz, the breadth of his career and the richness of his work amply justify this distinction, without forgetting the essential: his exceptional talents as an instrumentalist and composer, and the incredible fertility of his imagination in improvisation that made him one of the most admired pianists, far beyond the circle of jazz.
Under the influence of his mother, an amateur opera singer, he started studying classical piano, clarinet and saxophone at the age of six, and discovered jazz as a teenager through Lucky Starway, a saxophonist-bandleader who introduced him to the recordings of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, etc. and trained the young pianist to accompany him. Fascinated by the feeling of freedom through improvisation, Solal decided to become a jazz musician in 1945. This initiation encouraged him to practice intensively his piano technique, as he constantly did daily later.

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Composer(s)

Duke Ellington

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...
more

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."


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Martial Solal

Born on 23 August 1927 in Algiers (Algeria), Martial Solal is certainly the French musician who meets with the wider international recognition since Django Reinhardt. From New Orleans, middle jazz, be bop to advanced modern jazz, the breadth of his career and the richness of his work amply justify this distinction, without forgetting the essential: his exceptional talents as an instrumentalist and composer, and the incredible fertility of his imagination in improvisation that made him one of the most admired pianists, far beyond the circle of jazz. Under the influence of his mother, an amateur opera singer, he started studying classical piano, clarinet and saxophone at the age of six, and discovered jazz as a teenager through Lucky Starway, a saxophonist-bandleader...
more
Born on 23 August 1927 in Algiers (Algeria), Martial Solal is certainly the French musician who meets with the wider international recognition since Django Reinhardt. From New Orleans, middle jazz, be bop to advanced modern jazz, the breadth of his career and the richness of his work amply justify this distinction, without forgetting the essential: his exceptional talents as an instrumentalist and composer, and the incredible fertility of his imagination in improvisation that made him one of the most admired pianists, far beyond the circle of jazz.
Under the influence of his mother, an amateur opera singer, he started studying classical piano, clarinet and saxophone at the age of six, and discovered jazz as a teenager through Lucky Starway, a saxophonist-bandleader who introduced him to the recordings of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, etc. and trained the young pianist to accompany him. Fascinated by the feeling of freedom through improvisation, Solal decided to become a jazz musician in 1945. This initiation encouraged him to practice intensively his piano technique, as he constantly did daily later.

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Press

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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