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Montreux Jazz Festival

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The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland. It is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lac Léman.

History

In 1967, the first Montreux Jazz Festival opened its doors. The festival was held at Montreux Casino. It lasted for three days and featured almost exclusively jazz artists. The highlights of this era were Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, Bill Evans, Soft Machine, Weather Report, Nina Simone, Jan Garbarek, and Ella Fitzgerald.

Originally a pure jazz festival, it opened up in the 1970s and today presents artists of nearly every imaginable music style. Jazz remains an important part of the festival. Today's festival lasts about two weeks and attracts an audience of more than 200,000 people.

In the 1970s, the festival began broadening its scope, including blues, soul, and rock artists. In December 1971, Montreux Casino burned down, and the festival was forced to move until the new Casino was ready in 1975. This event is commemorated in the Deep Purple song Smoke on the water.

Towards the end of the decade, the festival expanded even more, including music from all continents (with an emphasis on Brazilian music) and lasting a full three weeks. Santana came to Montreux for the first time in 1970; Van Morrison played in 1974. Other artists included Weather Report, Soft Machine, Chuck Berry, Eric Clapton, Bo Diddley, Stan Getz, Airto Moreira, Joe Henderson, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Charles Mingus, Etta James, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, B.B. King, Gilberto Gil, Ray Charles, James Booker, Hermeto Pascoal, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Elis Regina, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, Pasadena Roof Orchestra, New Order, Jaco Pastorius, Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band and many more.

Initiator

The initiator and—as of 2006—still the head organizer, Claude Nobs, has managed to bring an amazing array of artists to Montreux, both established ones and newcomers. The roster of artists who have played at Montreux reads like a "Who's who" of the music scene (see, for example, ).

Venue

The festival was originally held at the old Montreux Casino, which burned down in December 1971 during Frank Zappa's performance. ("Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple tells that story.) The festival was held then in other auditoriums in Montreux, until it could return to the rebuilt new Casino in 1975. The festival continued to grow, and in 1993, it moved to the larger Convention Centre. From 1995 through 2006, it occupied both the Convention Centre and the Casino. Beginning with the 41st MJF in 2007, nightly performances of headliners were again moved mainly to the Convention Centre (though the Casino still hosts the odd one-off shows), owing mainly to logistics: the Casino is approximately from the Convention Centre, making it difficult for crew, artists and technical personnel (as well as fans) to travel easily through crowded streets from one venue to the other. (This is exacerbated by the presence of a large number of streetside vendors and artisans - as well as strolling crowds of tourists - on the lakefront walk that connects the venues.) As of 2007, the Convention Centre hosts two main stages, Stravinsky Auditorium and Miles Davis Hall, as well as the smaller Montreux Jazz Cafe, and several smaller open-air stages around the Centre. Additional themed shows (Bahia, Blues, etc) are held on boats cruising the lake and train cars traveling the region, and various workshops and competitions are held at the nearby Montreux Palais and Le Petit Palais.

Extreme expansion

The festival changed in the 1980s: It started growing dramatically and included an even wider variety of music styles. Jazz remained important, but more and more rock and pop artists were also invited, and Brazilian music remained important.

20th anniversary poster (1986) designed by Andy Warhol and Keith Haring
Miles Davis came to Montreux several times, Santana returned in 1980. Other notable artists at Montreux were Max Roach, James Brown, Wynton Marsalis, Art Blakey, John McLaughlin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Wayne Shorter, and Al Di Meola but also Elvis Costello, Jimmy Cliff, Mike Oldfield, Brian May, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Hagen, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Joe Cocker, Los Lobos, The Manhattan Transfer, Tracy Chapman, and Van Morrison again.

The expansion that began in the 1980s continued in the 1990s and the 2000s — Montreux definitely transformed from a jazz festival into a world music festival. Quincy Jones coproduced the festival from 1991 to 1993. By 1993, the festival had outgrown the Casino and moved to the larger Convention Centre. The number of visitors rose from 75,000 in 1980 to 120,000 in 1994, and an "Off-festival" developed on the lakeshore promenades and in the cafés of Montreux.

Many "regulars" returned, but many new artists also appeared on stage: Sting, Bob Dylan, Fats Domino, Deep Purple, Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Johnny Cash, Cheb Mami, Youssou N'Dour, Marianne Faithfull, Ice T, Jazzmatazz, ZZ Top, Simply Red, Eric Clapton, Marisa Monte, George Benson, Jazzkantine, Alanis Morissette, David Bowie, Paul Simon... In 1999, the festival saw more than 220,000 visitors.

The festival has also played host to some of the most well-known and talented student groups, including big bands and vocal ensembles.

The expansion has also prompted a DVD series to be released showing the sets of a number of great artists from a range of genres playing at the festival. The series, entitled 'Live at Montreux' includes performances from artists such as:

Awards

2004

2005

2006

External links



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Last updated on Monday February 25, 2008 at 18:58:41 PST (GMT -0800)
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