The Trio’s Personnel
Martial Solal, piano; Teddy Kotick, bass; Paul Motian, drums
Dave recalls...
Here’s a piano trio for the ages—world-class French pianist Martial Solal paired with Bill Evans’ rhythm section of that period, Teddy Kotick and Paul Motian. This mini summit meeting resulted in much more creatively adventurous music than Evans performed either live or on record with the same rhythm section.
Solal was dazzling on medium-tempo jazz classics, up-tempo originals or well-known ballads. Take your choice; there were no weak moments. Kotick and Motian had their work cut out for them as there was a great deal of memorization involved in anticipating the rhythmic and harmonic nuances of Solal’s unpredictable original compositions.
Point of interest: By the early 1960s, Solal was only one of several magnificent pianists from around the world who were all but unknown to jazz enthusiasts in the U.S. These included Georges Arvanitas (France), Gordon Beck and Victor Feldman (England), Tete Montoliu (Spain), Guido Manusardi (Italy), Friedrich Gulda (Austria), Wolfgang Dauner (Germany), and Bengt Hallberg and Jan Johansson (Sweden).