Recorded at two sessions in late April 2005 and released by CAM Jazz exactly two years later,
Solitude is a gratifying reminder that at the age of 77, Algerian pianist
Martial Solal was still a formidably creative improviser. The album, which begins and ends with complementary bookend versions of "Darn That Dream," is sprinkled with standards by
Ellington and
Gershwin and a '60s pop tune, as well as three
Solal originals. One of these is titled with an abbreviation of an old Italian saying which translates as: "He who goes softly, goes safely. He who goes safely goes far."
Solal's next recordings, made when he was 80 years old, would be Longitude, a trio album with
François and
Louis Moutin, and the highly acclaimed
Live at the Village Vanguard. As for
Solitude, the album will endure as a welcome return to the terrain visited years earlier on his album En Solo. ~ arwulf arwulf