Martial Solal’s Dodecaband, a legendary formation in honor of the new creation of the National Jazz Orchestra

Saturday June 8 at the Maison de la Radio, in Paris, Frédéric Maurin’s ONJ presents an exceptional program: it will revisit the repertoire of the famous big band that the great pianist formed and hosted during the 1990s. A great moment in perspective.

Although it has already created remarkable new repertoires, the National Jazz Orchestra (ONJ) ​​under the mandate of guitarist and composer Frédéric Maurin also likes to celebrate the creators who left their mark on the 20th century. Thus, there was the American jazzman Ornette Coleman with Dancing in your Head(s), the French composer André Hodeir with Anna Livia Plurabelle, a masterpiece too rarely played and recorded, but also a stage tribute to the geniuses of progressive rock with Frame by Frame (to be enjoyed in Marciac on July 31).

And now there is Martial Solal, a monument of French jazz, retired from the stage since his final recital in 2019 at the Salle Gaveau. The pianist and composer will be honored on Saturday June 8 at the Maison de la Radio, in Paris, through a reconstruction of the repertoire of the Dodecaband, a famous group that he led in the past.

Over the course of an extraordinary career that began in the 1950s, Martial Solal has played in all kinds of configurations – solo, duo, trio, big band… – with the greatest artists of his time. He also distinguished himself in New Wave film scores (Breathless, Léon Morin, priest…) and in the writing of symphonic works. Composer, arranger, orchestrator, outstanding improviser, the pianist native of Algiers founded his Dodecaband in the early 1990s. Smaller than a big band, this medium ensemble of twelve musicians in “resumes, in a lighter way, the traditional structure: three saxophones, three trumpets, three trombones and a rhythm section”, explains the ONJ on its site. The group existed on scene for a decade before releasing a single recording, released in 2000: Martial Solal Dodecaband Plays Ellington.

Apart from this discographic homage to Duke Ellington, most of the repertoire written by Solal for the Dodecaband has remained unpublished. Hence the idea of ​​the ONJ to revive beautiful pages of this historic formation by reconstituting an orchestral force similar to that which the pianist assembled more than thirty years ago. And this, with the help of Martial Solal who provided his scores to Frédéric Maurin. This will be an opportunity, assures the ONJ, to discover not only “the suites full of fantasy of the master”, but also its “rereadings/recompositions” of works by Ellington, who died a little over fifty years ago, on May 24, 1974. And when we know the irresistible humor and mischief of Martial Solal, both in the city and on stage, we can only be impatient.

For the moment, only one – and only – date of this rediscovery of the Dodecaband is scheduled on a stage in France: that of this Saturday June 8 in Paris, at the Maison de la Radio. Incomprehensible. We (very) hope that this anomaly will be corrected. In the meantime, the concert will be recorded for the antennas of Radio France, partner of the National Jazz Orchestra in this adventure (as was already the case for Anna Livia Plurabelle by André Hodeir). The brilliant pianist Bruno Ruder, collaborator of the ONJ on certain projects, will provide the first solo part. His performance will be broadcast live on France Musique, from Studio 104, as part of the show Live jazz by Arnaud Merlin. The ONJ concert will be recorded and broadcast in a future program.

As for the original repertoires presented by the ONJ since the arrival of Frédéric Maurin as artistic director in 2019, after Rituals, Dracula And Ex-Machina (a program particularly acclaimed internationally, and which has just been the subject of a European tour), the ONJ is preparing a new creation, the last of the Maurin era, entitled Games. This is a co-production with the Ensemble intercontemporain. Co-written by the Greek singer and composer Sofia Avramidou, the pianist and composer Andy Emler (director of the famous MegaOctet) and Frédéric Maurin, this new piece will be created on October 18, 2024 at La Comète, in Châlons-en-Champagne. Subsequently, the guitarist will gradually pass the torch to the musician who will succeed him, the flautist and composer Sylvaine Hélary, appointed last March.

The National Jazz Orchestra in concert in Paris
The ONJ plays Martial Solal Dodecaband, Saturday June 8, 2024, 7 p.m., Maison de la Radio et de la Musique (creation, co-production ONJ/Radio France). First part: pianist Bruno Ruder solo.
> The NJO concert agenda