Montreux Jazz Festival 51
The Montreux Jazz Festival has announced its programme for the 51st edition. I used to visit the festival for many yeears in the 90s and early 00s when you were always in for special treats when artists would play together in situations where you wouldn’t normally see them play. Also, there was always this great hospitality of founder Claude Nobs – I have so many special memories from those get-togethers in his chalet overlooking the Lac Léman. Then came the years when it was not possible for some strange, weird, stupid contractual reason for any artist to be on stage with another.
There is a new programme feature called Out Of The Box which tries to bring back those delicioius combinations – since this is already planned into the festival, it remains to be seen how special and delicious it will get. But anyway, the two weeks and three weekends are full of great nights with a veritable number of jazz acts performing. And the Brazil Boat is also still leaving the shore. The Festival starts on June 30th with a concert by Theo Croker and a special dedication to Joe Zawinul with Vincent Peirani, Émile Parisien, Mino Cinelu, Tony Paeleman, and more performing at the Montreux Jazz Club.
Other special nights are called “Woman to Woman” for example which features Cécile McLorin Salvant, Anat Cohen, Melissa Aldana, Renee Rosnes, Ingrid Jensen, and Sylvia Cuenca (July 5th, Montreux Jazz Club). Also coming up: Herbie Hancock with his new group (July 2nd, Auditorium Stravinski), Sarah McKenzie plus the Ramsey Lewis Quintet (July 1st, Montreux Jazz Club), Ambrose Akinmusire plus Mare Nostrum (July 3rd, Montreux Jazz Club), Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Usher & The Roots (July 5th, Auditorium Stravinsky), Trilok Gurtu Quartet plus Bill Frisell Trio (July 6th, Montreux Jazz Club), Macy Gray, Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Caipi, and John Scofield’s Überjam (July 7th), Grace Jones, Wolfgang Muthspiel Quintet, and Fourplay (July 8th), Somi and Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin (July 9th), Sax Summit with Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman and Greg Osby plus the Mike Stern & Randy Brecker Band (July 10th), Erykah Badu (July 11th), Shabaka & The Ancestors and the Till Brönner Septet (July 12th), Ibrahim Maalouf, George Benson, Mavis Staples, and Michael Kiwanuka (July 13th – the latter at Montreux Jazz Lab), Joey Alexander Trio, Donny McCaslin Quartet, and Jacob Karlzon (July 14th), and Benjamin Clementine on the last night, July 15th, at the Montreux Jazz Lab, one of three major venues at the site.
All info can be found right here: http://montreuxjazzfestival.com/
