During his lengthy involvement with jazz, French pianist Martial Solal has applied his distinctive, personal approach to a wide variety of settings and moods. From intimate piano trios to big bands, his elastic sense of time and supple touch have earned him respect and accolades. Also noted for his compositions (he gained fame writing the soundtrack to Jean Luc Godard's Breathless), Solal has prodigious arranging skills that come to the fore on this lovely tribute to Duke Ellington. Taking a number of Ellington's most famous tunes--"Satin Doll," "Take the "A" Train," and "Caravan" among them--Solal sets out, in his words, "to show that the job of an arranger is actually a compositional task." What emerges from the proficient French-based, 12-piece Dodecaband is remarkable: Ellington's original melodies remain intact, but the tunes themselves sound totally new and original. Using unconventional voicings and a bevy of tempos, colors, and soloing styles (including his own), Solal re-creates these oft-played classics into fresh entities without losing their Ellingtonian flavor. --Wally Shoup
Plays Ellington,Martial Solal Dodecabano,Dreyfus,Jazz,Jazz Music,Modern Creative,Pop,Post-Bop
Jazz Music:
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- Rare Collection [Import]
- Re: Bill Evans
- Red Hot & Blue: Cole Porter Tribute [Gold CD]
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Jazz Music
8 Bit Head: Complete Remix Of Easy Listening + Other Stuff
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Stravinsky: Rite Of Spring, Fireworks, Petrouchka / Ozawa, Tilson Thomas, Chicago Symphony