A Montreal Jazz Festival preview

The 34^th annual Montreal International Jazz Festival is fast approaching. The dizzying event – which often seems like two festivals in one – runs June 28 through July 7. The schedule also features a couple of preliminary concerts on the 27^th.

An outdoor evening show

There’s the vast array of indoor ticketed concerts. Then there are the 300 FREE concerts on 10 outdoor stages featuring some 3,000 musicians before the 10-day run concludes. Those sets run the gamut from jazz and blues to pop and world music.

 
Each year, the festival presents awards to significant artists for their contributions to their various forms of music. Here’s a rundown of the 2013 honorees:

Honors set for Montreal

The Montreal International Jazz Festival  has announced the award winners that it will honor this summer for their exceptional contributions to music. The awards will be presented during the 33^rd edition of the festival, which runs June 28 to July 8.

Montreal is full of surprises - again

For 32 years, the Montreal International Jazz Festival team has been showing the world how to produce a music festival that is filled with programming innovations, draws from genres and artists from around the globe – and runs like clockwork.
The 33^rd edition, which runs from June 28 to July 8, is just around the corner and the tickets for the 180+ indoor concerts went on sale this weekend. This six-square-block musical party is always a treat, no matter whether you go just for the 400 or so free outdoor shows at 10 stages in and around Montreal’s Place des Arts, or you also pony up to see some of the formal indoor concerts.

Jazz is always the core of the festival, but you’ll also find plenty of blues, folk, afro-pop and world music. It’s always a treat to hear some of the formidable Canadian musicians who never seem to garner much attention here in the U.S.

Sonny’s still on a Roll

The high honors, perhaps long overdue, keep on rolling in for saxophonist Sonny Rollins. His historic 80th birthday concert in New York’s Town Hall three nights after his September 7 birthday was one of the top jazz events of 2010

Then you add in Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement award from the Montreal International Jazz Festival, being the subject of an artful and insightful book (John Abbott and Blumenthal's Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins) and induction into to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary society.

Now, Rollins is on the eve of visiting the nation’s most famous address: 1600 Pennnsylvania Avenue.

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 2, Rollins will be one of 10 recipients of the 2010 National Medal of Arts for outstanding achievements and support of the arts. President Barack Obama will do the honors in an East Room ceremony at the White House. The medal is the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.

The National Endowment for the Arts, which has announced its intention to eliminate the NEA Jazz Masters awards program going forward, organizes this one as well. And it is good to see jazz have a prominent place.

The other 2010 National Medal of Arts Recipients are theatrical critic, producer and playwright Robert Brustein, pianist Van Cliburn, sculptor Mark di Suvero, poet Donald Hall, musician and producer Quincy Jones (who has firm jazz roots), author Harper Lee, actress Meryl Streep, singer-songwriter James Taylor, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

What splendid company.

And it is great to see Rollins and Jones help keep the jazz momentum going on this stage. Past jazz honorees include Ella Fitzgerald (1987), Billy Taylor (1992), Cab Calloway (1993), Dave Brubeck (1994), Lionel Hampton (1996), Betty Carter (1997), Benny Carter (2000), Paquito D'Rivera (2005), Wynton Marsalis (2005) and Hank Jones (2008).

Time permitting, you can tune in via the Web to watch tomorrow’s event at 1:45 pm Eastern Time at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

2010 is a very Sonny year

The Chinese Lunar Calendar considers 2010 as the Year of the Tiger, but in the jazz calendar this is the Year of the Colossus.

Why? All of the deserved attention focused on tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who turned 80 on September 7 - still a vibrant musical force and restless explorer. (At right, Sonny Rollins at Newport, August 2008. Ken Franckling photo).

Here’s the rundown of significant moments that have taken place.

- On June 27, Rollins received the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s Miles Davis Award for his lifetime contributions to and achievements in jazz.

- On August 15, Rollins received the Edward MacDowell Medal from The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The prestigious award is given annually to an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to his or her field. The Colony quite fittingly selected jazz writer, critic and Colony Fellow Gary Giddins to keynote the event.

- On September 10, three days after Rollins turned octogenarian, a sold-out 80th birthday concert at New York’s Beacon Theater was filled with much Rollins wonder and a few surprise guests. The biggest surprise - perhaps the only true surprise - was the appearance of Ornette Coleman, with whom Rollins likely never performed in public in their long parallel careers. In his New York Times review the following Monday, Nate Chinen captured the essence of the summit.

- Four nights later Rollins joined photographer John Abbott and writer/critic Bob Blumenthal at the Barnes & Noble store in Tribeca to talk with fans, including more than a few fellow musicians, and sign copies of Abbott and Blumenthal's Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins. The book was published September 1 by Abrams. See jazztimes.com for images from the event, and see Jazz Times' October issue for book excerpts.

It's not over.

On October 9 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rollins will be among more than 200 scholars, scientists, writers and artists, as well as civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders, inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

The nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary society is celebrating the 230th anniversary of its founding. In the , other new members from humanities and arts include film director Francis Ford Coppola, actor Denzel Washington, dancer Suzanne Farrell and singer Thomas Hampson.

“It is a tremendous privilege and honor to be made a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences," says Rollins. "Not only for me, but for what I represent - the great American music called jazz."

Rollins was nominated by Academy member Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, a Minneapolis-based neuroscientist, amateur saxophonist and longtime Rollins fan. "It's a terrific tribute to a legend," says Georgopoulos, "and a jewel in the Academy's crown."

Since its founding in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots, the Academy has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation. Prominent inductees in prior centuries included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The Academy’s current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

In about two weeks, we can officially add a Saxophone Colossus to the list.

Rollins is being honored for a lifetime of achievement as a musician. But don’t for a nanosecond think he’s finished. He has many more creative notes to play.

Giving credit where it is due - and then some...

When you've made an indelible imprint on an art form - people take notice. Particularly when that effort has helped fuel their own successes.

Such is the case with George Wein, the producer of the first jazz festival as we know it today back in 1954 in Newport RI.

In June 2009, as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival's 30th anniversary, founders Alain Simard and Andre Menard honored Wein (right) as the “father of all jazz festivals” at a news conference before his Newport All-Stars performance at Montreal's Théâtre Jean-Duceppe. They gave him a symbolic Tony Bennett silkscreen of Louis Armstrong that the singer and painter created especially for the festival.

This Thursday, September 16, the Monterey Jazz Festival will honor Wein at its 2010 Jazz Legends Gala at Mission Ranch in Carmel CA. The $225-per-ticket event will be hosted by another pianist, who is far better known as an actor-producer, Clint Eastwood, and his wife Dina. 2010 Festival Artist-in-Residence Dianne Reeves will perform at the gala, which is a benefit for the Monterey Jazz Festival's education programs.

“With George appearing at this year’s MJF, it is a perfect opportunity to honor him with our Jazz Legends Award,” said Tim Jackson, General Manager of the Monterey Jazz Festival. “He is truly ‘The godfather’ of jazz festivals.”

The Jazz Legends Award was first presented to pianist Dave Brubeck in 2007, and to the composer, trumpeter and bandleader, Gerald Wilson, in 2008. MJF’s Education Programs have a strong impact on students and schools from coast to coast.

Wein will at the 2010 Monterey Jazz Festival on Saturday and Sunday, September 18 and 19 for a performance and a live interview.

The honors are most fitting at both venues not only for starting a jazz venue that is an art form unto itself.

Wein, who turns 85 on October 3, came back from semi-retirement last year to rescue the Newport Jazz Festival. Young entrepreneurs who bought the festival from him a few years earlier ran it into the ground financially under the Festival Network aegis. Wen and his own crew are still hard at it under the banner, New Festival Productions.

Bravo.

Postcards from Montreal

Here are a few visual treats from my coverage of the 31st annual Montreal International Jazz Festival. The musical choices were bountiful and at times painful - with as many as three or four significant offerings simultaneously during peak evening hours.

As the outdoor Quartier de Spectacles continues to evolve, there was a noticeable increase in the number and variety of street performers this time - mimes, men and women on stilts, and a bounty of other zany characters. And that doesn't include a few in the audience.

Concert images, from top:

• Allen Toussaint


• John Scofield and The Piety Street Band


• Grace Kelly and Jason Palmer


• Montreal trumpeter Ron DiLauro's Porgy & Bess project


• MAnu Katché


• Trumpeter Ingrid Jensen was special guest with sister Christine Jensen's Jazz Orchestra.


• Bassist Brandi Disterheft


• Trumpeter Jocelyn Couture presented his big band in a Maynard Ferguson tribute.


• Blues guitarist Ana Popovic

A special award among many (updated)

This afternoon preceding his 14th Montreal International Jazz Festival concert appearance, pianist Dave Brubeck was honored with a special issue of the festival’s Miles Davis Award, which honors a jazz musician of international stature for a lifetime body of great work.

Brubeck, who turns 90 in December, received the weighty bronze statuette from festival president and co-founder Alain Simard. “It’s heavy.... So was Miles,” Brubeck quipped before delving into a few anecdotes about Davis, whom he considered a great friend. “We exchanged ideas back and forth and had a great relationship,” Brubeck said. He recalled one afternoon when Davis came to visit his Connecticut home. He and his sons had been playing basketball in the driveway, and soon, the sons were amazed to see their dad shooting hoops with Miles Davis.

In taking note of his stellar career, the festival noted that before Brubeck, jazz was essentially an East Coast affair.

Each year, the festival bestows a half-dozen or so significant honors for musicianship or other contributions to music, in addition to its Grand Prix de Jazz TD that is awarded to a rising star of Canadian jazz from among eight competitors on the outdoor stages at this year’s festival.

The 2010 Grand Prix de Jazz TD was awarded Monday to the Montreal-based Parc-X Trio, which consists of bassist Alex Lefaivre, pianist Gabriel Vinuela-Pelletier and drummer Mark Nelson.

This year’s other major honorees included:

Singer Smokey Robinson was honored with the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award, recognizing a popular artist’s extraordinary contributions to the music world.

Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins received the 17th Miles Davis Award (the regular award, given a week prior to Brubeck’s special award) for his body or work and influence on the jazz idiom.

Photographer Herman Leonard received the festival’s second Bruce Lundvall Award, which is presented to a non-musician leaving his or her mark on the world of jazz.

Bassist (as well as pianist, percussionist and vibes player) Don Thompson received the Oscar Peterson Award, which is presented to a Canadian musician who has made outstanding contributions to jazz.

Bassist and singer Richard Bona was honored with the Antonio Carlos Jobim Award for distinguished work in the world music field and cultural crossover to jazz.

The Manhattan Transfer received the Ella Fitzgerald Award for its distinguished and world-renowned work in the vocal field. The group has been together for 37 years.

Guitarist George Benson received the festival’s second annual Montreal Guitar Show Tribute Award for his contributions as a leading international guitarist. The MGS awarded its first such award last year to Jeff Beck.

The festival winds down tomorrow night (Tuesday) with a Mardi Gras-type spectacle, complete with an hour-long carnival-like parade before Allen Toussaint and oter New Orleans musicicans hit the stage for a closing extravaganza,

A spectacular night - marred by one idiot

Guitarist John Scofield was a great choice to open the New Orleans portion/final phase of the 2010 Montreal International Jazz Festival. His Piety Street Band released an exceptional funky New Orleans-gospel and blues-based CD under the Piety Street name earlier this year. The band was even better in person last night at the Theatre Maisonneuve. Pianist/B3 player/ vocalist Jon Cleary was a strong foil for Scofield, at one point echoing or extending Scofield's guitar lines on the centerpiece, "Walk With Me." "Glory Land" was a strong shuffle beat romp. The quartet also included bassist George Porter Jr. and drummer Terence Higgins.

Was Keith Jarrett going to play one or more encores after his two-set Montreal perforamce with triomates Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette? We'll never know. The band's performance was beautiful, digging deeply into a wide range of standards that tended to have you / me / romance at their core. (But don't they all really?) "You Go to My Head," "Everything Happens to Me," "Too Young to Go Steady," Autumn Leaves," "All the Things You Are," "My Ship" and "I've Got a Crush on You" were all on the agenda. The players' empathy and synergy is always a joy to witness. DeJohnette's delicate and airy drum solo on "Too Young" was exquisite.

Jarrett's zero tolerance for photography during his concerts is notorious, preferring perhaps that rather than distract the band and surrounding audience members, that attendees savor the moment for what it is. There was a firm "no photography" request before the show, and again right after intermission - for both the performance and the bows that followed. In this world of people wanting to do their own thing in their own moment, some believe they are exempt from rules set for others. During the third bow, possibly before the band was ready to do another tune or so, the aforementioned IDIOT fired off a flash with his/her point-and-shoot. Too bad the neighboring ticketbuyers didn't gently push his/her arm down so there would be no mood interruption. Jarrett suggested that the neighbors take his/her camera away - and walked off stage to end the night.

At the dark and intimate Salle Gesu space an hour later, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's quintet explored a half-dozen originals that blended rhythms rooted in swing and an ethereal tone that bordered on the exotic. The packed house loved it. Stanko's young bandmates supported his music wonderfully, with very strong piano, electric bass and guitar solos throughout.

Montreal ready to rock again with creative programming

How do you top your 30th anniversary blowout?

At the Montreal International Jazz Festival, you don’t try to go one better intentionally, you just continue to offer the wide-ranging and imaginative programming that got you to your fourth decade.

That seems to be the philosophy, and you can’t argue with success. It’s a success that can be viewed as a multi-block block party, indoors and out, that draws 2.5 million visitors to 650 concerts (370 free outdoor shows on 12 stages, 180 indoor ticketed concerts at 10 concert halls) featuring an estimated 3,000 musicians from 30 countries.

“Last year was an extraordinary year, but I think this year’s programming matches up,” says Andre Menard, the festival’s artistic director and co-founder.

This year’s 31st annual event runs June 25 to July 6 (roughly a week earlier than in 2009).

Last year’s kickoff was a free outdoor concert by Stevie Wonder that drew a crowd that seemed beyond count - with people ignoring day-long rains and streaming into the festival’s Quartier des Spectacles neighborhood just to get within sight - or at least hearing distance, of nearly a dozen large video screens set up to accommodate those who couldn’t get near the prime outdoor stage.

This year’s primary indoor draws including some terrific headline combinations.

• June 25: an opening night pairing of Lionel Ritchie and Cassandra Wilson.


• June 28: Smokey Robinson


• July 1: George Benson’s Nat King Cole tribute show.


• July 2: The combination of Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and saxophonist John Zorn.
  
• July 5: The Steve Miller Band and The Doobie Brothers.

Other major concerts will feature Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett’s Standards trio, the Moody Blues, Roy Hargrove’s Big Band, Terence Blanchard, Boz Scaggs, Cesaria Evora, Ahmad Jamal, Joan Armatrading, Richard Bona, John Scofield’s News Orleans-rooted Piety Street Band, Cyndi Lauper and pianist Allen Toussaint’s Bright Mississippi all-star project. The list goes on and on... and on some more.

Taj Mahal and The Fabulous Thunderbirds will team up for a blues evening at the Metropolis on June 28. On the night of July 1, Zorn will host a “Masada marathon” at the Theatre Maisonneuve that features two separate performances - each of which includes Zorn with five different bands (10 bands in all.)

This year’s edition of the acclaimed “Invitation” series spotlights four different artists with multiple nights and guests of their choosing. The four bandleaders are Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, French drummer MAnu Katché, pianist Robert Glasper, and Allen Toussaint (solo one night, and with Bright Mississippi the next).

The Theatre du Nouveau Monde (New World Theater) will feature eight nights of performances by jazz artists from Spain, with two nights apiece by Dorantes, Chano Dominguez, Diego and Juan Carmona.

The festival’s own year-round on-site jazz club, Astral, (located in the festival's House of Jazz, which opened last year >>>) will host jams from midnight to 4 a.m. nightly, in addition to being the site of ticketed performances earlier in the night. The outdoor free events program will be made public on June 3.

Also running in Montreal (through August 29) at the Montreal of Fine Arts is the first North American multimedia retrospective on the career of Miles Davis. The “We Want Miles” exhibition-performance, which was designed and organized by the Cité de la Musique in Paris, will also evoke some of Davis’s four memorable Montreal concerts. And this year’s concert schedule also includes Montreal trumpeter Ron DiLauro’s big band revisit of Davis’s “Porgy and Bess” project on June 30 at the Theatre Jean-Duceppe.

One thing is clear. The programming at Montreal never gets stale. That explains why the festival, as Menard puts it, “is now a beacon in Montreal - something people look forward to.”

Jamie Cullum at Montreal, 2009... >
According to tourism research, some 250,000 to 350,000 of the 2.5 million attendees are tourists from elsewhere in Canada, the U.S. or abroad, but he vast majority of people who flock to the festival are from greater Montreal.

Savor those unexpected musical moments

You never know where or when the music is going to catch you off guard. The surprising moments stick with the psyche.

We had to bail out early on this year’s 30th annual Montreal International Jazz Festival, but the music followed us on the long trip home. Quite unexpectedly.

1) A precautionary stop at a hospital emergency room for my rather balky leg at the time. Who should walk in to take a look at it? A hospital resident who is a jazz guitarist and writes about jazz as time permits. He said he studied with Art Davis at the University of Wisconsin at one point. His faves – Bill Frisell, John Scofield and John McLaughlin. Even more crazy, it turns out he did a medical rotation with an old college friend of mine who has a local practice in the same city.

2) A few hours later, we pull into a fast-food joint for something quick. And we’re sitting at a table, a few feet away from a ceiling ventilator fan, whose motor is making a rather remarkable series of three distinct Afro-Cuban-like rhythms. Each a bit different. First one, then the next (a bit longer and more complex), then the third. Then it would repeat the same three patterns. We sat fascinated, and I was wishing I’d had a hand drum with me, not just a laminated tabletop. The night manager walked by as we listened. She looked up at the fan, clearly annoyed that the motor was making any noise at all, oblivious to the rhythms. Such is life.

The week of the sponsorship

Just a day after George Wein announced that CareFusion will be the title sponsor for his jazz festivals in Newport starting this year and New York starting in 2010, The Montreal International Jazz Festival today announced that it has a new presenting sponsor.

TD Financial Group (Toronto-Dominion Bank and its subsidiaries) is stepping up to succeed longtime primary sponsor General Motors. GM Canada is bowing out this year, not surprising given the financial pain felt throughout the auto industry. The TD Canada Trust presenting sponsorship begins with next year's 31st annual Montreal event.

TD has been a Montreal International Jazz Festival sponsor since 2004, most visibly at the Club Jazz TD Canada Trust outdoor stage... >

Interestingly, TD has a branch office in the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan, the festival organization's own new building (the former Blumenthal Building) at the corner of Bleury and St. Catherine Street West, overlooking the festival site.

And how about the timing of these developments. George Wein and his Newport All-Stars will perform at Montreal tomorrow night in what is billed as a tribute to the father of all jazz festivals. Wein will be joined by Lew Tabackin, Randy Sandke, Howard Alden, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash for the Theatre Jean-Duceppe music event.

MIJF 2009 opens Wonder-fully

What a way to kick off the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s 30th edition, a 13-day programming marvel that opened June 30 and runs through July 12.

Montreal pianist Oliver Jones opened the festival’s newest venue, MIJF’s year-round cabaret-style jazz club L’Astral, located in the festival’s new multiple-purpose Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan (House of the Festival). The six-floor building also contains a bistro, a gallery space that becomes the bustling media center during festivals, archives and staging offices. L’Astral is an ultra modern, high-tech venue that retains more than as hint of the spirit of the festival’s old Spectrum venue, now just a hole in the ground across the street awaiting downtown redevelopment.


Oliver Jones at L'Astral... >
Jones paid tribute to mentor Oscar Peterson before shifting into an extended Gershwin medley that opened with a bit of “Rhapsody in Blue” and coursed through six other tunes, many from “Porgy and Bess,” before a rollicking finish with “I’ve Got Rhythm.” Ranee Lee joined him to sing Miles Davis’s “Four,” “Beautiful Love” and a bilingual version of “Stormy Weather,” as well as “Lady Be Good.”

Hundreds of thousands crowded into, or in some cases, within earshot of the festival site, and waited patiently, sometimes under a sea of umbrellas, for the festival’s first outdoor spectacle of the year, a free Stevie Wonder concert billed as ”A Wonder’s Summer Night 2009.” The huge main stage area couldn’t accommodate anything close to the throng, so many more stood transfixed wherever they could see one of the 10 video screens set up on other stages in and around the Place des Arts. The crowd was later estimated at more than 200,000.


If you couldn't jam into the main stage area, you had to settle for the great sound, and perhaps a glimpse of Wonder on one of 10 video screens, like this one near the Place des Arts Metro station... ^
While he hit the stage a half-hour behind the scheduled start, Wonder was generous with his time, playing for more than two hours. He paid tribute top the late Michael Jackson - interspersing some MJ tunes with his own classics. “The Way You Make Me Feel” opened with a Michael Jackson recording, with Wonder joining on the first refrain before taking over the tune. After his own “Higher Ground,” Wonder also channeled a lot of jazz material, exploring Miles Davis’s “All Blues” on harmonica, John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” on piano and an extended version of Chick Corea’s “Spain” featuring all of his horn players before delving into many of his own Grammy-winning hits.


Donny McCaslin, Julie Lamontagne... >
I like this festival because it presents a chance to see and hear so many artists who rarely get to convenient venues in the U.S. Other favorite shows in my brief Montreal stay included saxophonist Donny McCaslin with Canadian pianist Julie Lamontagne, Montreal pianist Vic Vogel’s robust big band performing an homage to the jazz masters on the General Motors main stage, singer Hilary Kole who opened for the energetic Brit Jamie Cullum, and Japanese saxophonist Sadao Watanabe, who made his Montreal debut with a Japanese sextet that blended the best elements of bop, fusion, Afrojazz rhythms and the folk traditions of his homeland.Singer Melody Gardot played for nearly full houses two nights at the double-balconied Theatre Maisonneuve, weaving a vocal spell


Hilary Kole... >

with her sense of dark mystery and vocal intimacy.With a huge range of principally jazz artists featured indoors and an eclectic mix of jazz, blues, world music and other genres outdoors, the festival managed to create a superb anniversary celebration that figures to top prior years in attendance and the sheer numbers of concerts - giving a 30th edition gift back to attendees.
C’est magnifique.



Jamie Cullum... >

Montreal International Jazz Festival by the numbers

6 - major award winners in 2009. (Bruce Lundvall, Stevie Wonder, John Pizzarelli, Ornette Coleman, Susie Arioli, Toots & The Maytalls)

13 - The number of days of the festival this year not counting several preview concert events.

30 - When this 30th annual festival began in 1980, a ticket to see opening headliner Ray Charles cost $9.50. This year’s top ticket is $129.50 for guitarist Jeff Beck. In contrast, 2009 opening outdoor headliner Stevie Wonder’s show was free.

30 / 3,000 - The festival features 3,000 musicians from 30 countries.

681 -There are 224 ticketed indoor concerts this year and 457 free outdoor concerts, a noticeable increase from past years when there was about a 150/350 split.

60,000 - The festival recovers 30 tons of recyclable material annually. Additionally festival co-presenting sponsor Rio Tinto Alcan bought the carbon offsets to make the event carbon neutral.

36 million - The number of festival attendees from 1980 to 2008, with nearly 25 percent estimated being tourists from outside Quebec, the U.S. and around the world. Yes, this is a destination festival for some, but for many more, it is a huge hometown event.

Montreal’s amazing block party

One of these years, I am truly tempted to go to the Montreal International Jazz Festival strictly for its free, outdoor concerts. The great variety of talent for the paid, indoor concerts in 10 or more venues each night makes it difficult.

But the outdoor stages transform downtown Montreal’s Place des Arts (soon to be surrounded by an expanded Place des Festivals) into an immense block party that opens in leisurely fashion at midday for early risers. By evening, the area is hopping with free music on nearly a dozen stages. There’s one for the blues, one for world music, one primarily showcasing bop-oriented smaller groups from Canada, and several that mix the talent.

All told, there are more than 350 free outdoor concerts over the festival’s 12-day run. Sometimes they afford the opportunity to hear Canadian, European and Cuban groups of great quality who rarely play in the United States.

Montreal’s Place des Arts at night, 2008... >
The most amazing part of the outdoor phenomenon is the mega-concerts and super-concerts on the primary stages that usually draw 100,000 or more fans. Some years, the crowd fills several huge blocks and has exceeded 200,000.

For this 30th year’s festival extravaganza, there will be five free “mega-concerts” in the Place des Festivals, as well as three free outdoor "super-concerts."

~ This year’s outdoor opener on Tuesday, June 30 will feature Stevie Wonder on the General Motors stage.
~ On Sunday, July 5 local singer-pianist Patrick Watson will be the Bell Special Event feature with string quartet, horns and several special guests, including Lhasa de Sela and Guy Nadon.
~On Tuesday, July 7 XM Radio Satellite presents the greatest names in Rocksteady - Ken Boothe, Stranger Cole, Hopeton Lewis, Leroy Sibbles and The Tamlins, as well as Bob Marley's onetime backup singers Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt in an event inspired by the documentary Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae.
~ On Sunday, July 12, the Rio Tinto Alcan Closing Event features two concert spectacles: Fiesta Cubana, with the Afro-Cuban All Stars and Los Van Van, and Ben Harper & Relentless7.

Also on tap are three extra outdoor super-concerts on the General Motors stage:
~ On July 3, the Florence K presents La Noche de Lola with jazz, bossa, blues and Cuban salsa.
~ On July 9, the rhythm shifts with the rumba flamenca of Jesse Cook and the Rumba Foundation as surprise guests.
~ On July 11, teenage vocal phenom Nikki Yanofsky, a Montreal festival darling for the past two years, will be featured.

Montreal does indeed know how to throw a block party. One of the most amazing occurred five years ago when the festival expanded the scope and shape of its largest outdoor stage for a grand event called “Soleil de Minuit,” celebrating the 20th anniversary of Montreal-based Cirque de Soleil and the 25th anniversary of the jazz festival.

Over the past decade, there has been at least one or two block-filling spectacular extravaganzas every year.

This year, there will be a handful. Bring lots of energy along with your enthusiasm.

Economic domino effect on jazz is troubling

These are indeed troubling times for the general economy – and the spillover to the jazz world was inevitable. Just as some companies and some parts of the economy seem to be doing OK, or at least surviving, others are folding or in danger of disappearing.

I took no pleasure in reporting (see my December 31, 2008 post) the earliest word about the apparent demise of Festival Network LLC. And now fellow blogger and jazz journalism colleague Howard Mandel has reported troubling news about the ill state of health of JazzTimes.

There is a spinoff economic effect at work here – since JT seems to have been quite dependent on the revenue it received by producing and publishing JVC festival supplements in three of its issues each summer. With JVC’s festival sponsorships down the tubes, it had to hurt deeply. Read Howard’s perceptive take on it in several posts he filed this week at his blog, Jazz Beyond Jazz. This is extremely painful. I have had a relationship with JT since the early 1980s (back when founder Ira Sabin produced it tabloid newsprint style) as a writer and photographer, and still do the occasional review for its Web site. I hope someone indeed steps in to ensure its survival because of its prominent stature in the jazz community.

These turns are troubling, as were some of the perspectives in West Coast saxophonist Mel Martin’s latest Jazz and Saxophone Newsletter. Mel reported that he “played the last night at Jazz at Pearl's (in San Francisco) while they were hauling out the coffee machine and the paintings on the walls. The Jazz and Blues Store in Carmel has folded, the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles is closed at the end of May and may relocate in Santa Monica.”

Struggles go on everywhere, yet there have been some glimmers of hope. George Wein, who sold his Festival Productions Inc. organization to Festival Network two and one-half years ago only to see the new owners run its operations into the ground by overspending and expanding at the worst possible time, found a way to continue jazz and folk festivals under his own name in Newport this summer despite uncertain sponsorship.

A few other former Wein-affiliated festivals continue to operate. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, produced by Wein associate Quint Davis, never was a part of the Festival Network deal. Two other festivals that were part of the FN operation in 2007 and ’08 – Freihofer’s Jazz Festival in Saratoga NY and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, saw those contracts expire. Two other longtime Wein affiliates – Dan Melnick and Darlene Chan – now produce them (Melnick has Saratoga, Chan has Playboy).

The Montreal International Jazz Festival is preparing to celebrate its 30th annual event – expanding and vibrant despite this being the last year of title sponsorship by General Motors.

On the positive side of the California jazz club scene, Andrew Gilbert reported in the San Jose Mercury News that Yoshi’s jazz club recently ended an experiment with other forms of booking and returned with a solid lineup of stellar jazz bookings, particularly at the new San Francisco venue, in addition to its Oakland location.

Montreal jazz expands

When most of us outside of Canada think jazz and Montreal, we think early summer. Equipe Spectra, the organization that produces the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, wants to make that linkage year-round. It makes sense, as the city has a jazz hunger that extends beyond the summer season, no doubt whetted by the two-week extravaganza that ranks as the largest and generally the finest jazz festival on the planet. This year's 30th edition runs June 30 to July 12.

With expansion of the Place des Arts, the general home of the festival, into a full-blown Quartier des Spectacles, Equipe Spectra has transformed a neighboring former warehouse building into a multi-story, multi-purpose facility called Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan (“House of the Festival” for short).

The centerpiece is L’Astral, a state-of-the-art, 350-seat, cabaret-style showroom. The venue will open June 29 with a pre-festival concert by Montreal pianist Oliver Jones (back from retirement once again) and singer Ranee Lee, and a public concert by the same pair on the 30th.

L’Astral... >
Tickets go on sale June 6 for L’Astral’s inaugural Jazz All Round series. The September through November schedule includes the Yaron Herman Trio (opening on Sept. 17), Harry Manx, the McCoy Tyner Trio, the Allan Holdsworth Trio, The Sociopaths featuring Charles Papasoff, Coral Egan and Matt Herskowitz; Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Standards Trio, the Afro-Cuban All Stars, the Steve Amirault Trio, Sara Tavares, Cowboy Junkies and Carol Welsman.

McCoy Tyner, Montreal, July 2008... ^

The new building on St. Catherine Street will also include a restaurant, hall of fame, archives and exhibition space, and the festival's media space.For more information, visit the festival's Web site, http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/.

Montreal Jazz Festival enhancements

There will be more to celebrate - and enjoy - when the 30th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal is held July 1 to 12.

The festival, the world's finest - and largest - jazz event, draws more than 2 millon attendees and 3,000 musicians from 30 countries for its 550 concerts (370 of them free outdoor events).

By the time the festival opens, the production organization Equipe Spectra will have opened its own new building that adds a new venue in the festival's downtown site, in and around the Place des Arts. Festival Co-Founder and Artistic Director Andre Menard said that new building, Maison du Festival de Jazz, will house a 350-seat cabaret-style performance hall, restaurant, hall of fame, archives and exhibition space. It will also house the festival's media space.


Co-Founder/Artistic Director Andre Menard, 2008 ... >
Every five years, the festival has added a prestigious new annual award to honor musicians from various genres. This year it is adding the Bruce Lundvall Award to honor the achievement of a non-musician from either the music business or the media. Menard said in Boston this week that the first recipient of that new award will be Bruce Lundvall himself, for his 25 years as president of Blue Note Records and his many other contributions to the industry.

Festival headliners this year include Jeff Beck, blues guitarists Buddy Guy and Susan Tedeschi, pianist Chucho Valdes, singers Melody Gardot, Patricia Barber and Madeleine Peyroux - and many more to be announced later this month.