Still alive and well at 91, pianist Martial Solal is still one of the most harmonically sophisticated pianists to come out of the hard bop era. Usually associated in a trio setting, this album from Fresh Sound Records has him in a series of large band settings, mixing and matching American Ex-Pats like Kenny Clarke/dr, Billy Byers/tb and Lucky Thompson/ts with local all stars Roger Guerin/tp, Pierre Mechelot/b Barney Wilen/ts and Piere Gossez/bs.
The Parisian sessions feature material that is fairly concise, usually clocking in under two minutes, with bold brass and rich reeds setting a framework for Solal’s solos on matrial such as “”Horloge Parlant” and the hip “Blouse Bleue.” The charts get tricky on “Fatasque” and Guerin gets some solo space on “Alhambra.” Things get quite creative when Solal puts together a brass heavy team with a rhythm team of himself with Clarke and Michelot on bright and swift pieces like “Studio Fagon” and “Yes Or No” that comes across like a French version of Stan Kenton, while a big band filled with reeds ranging down to bass sax gets bold and swinging on “ Basie-Likes” and the muted trumpets team wih harpsichord on the clever “Mystere Solal.” Clever flavors in this souffle of a dish.
https://www.freshsoundrecords.com/martial-solal-albums/46958-and-his-orchestra-1956-1962.html