(Raffaella Mezzanzanica)
“Le plus grand plaisir est savoir que la public est heureux, que les artistes sont heureux” (The greatest joy is knowing that the audience is happy, that the artists are happy) (Claude Nobs – They All Came Down to Montreux documentary)
There is a beautiful spot located in the French speaking part of Switzerland which is called Montreux Riviera. It is a little paradise with a Mediterranean climate and the beauty of this landscape has attracted musicians, artists, writers as well as “normal people” looking for inspiration.
In the middle of this spot, you can find the small city of Montreux, which basically gives the name to the whole riviera. Many people would not know about Montreux if not for the fact that once a year, in July, this city becomes the “capital of world music” thanks to the eponymous festival – Montreux Jazz Festival – which had its first edition in 1967 and it was created by Claude Nobs.
During the years, the Montreux Jazz Festival has become the second home to many artists belonging to the most different music genres because the atmosphere, the feeling they have here is incomparable to any other festival or venue in the whole world. It is the same thing for all the music lovers that every year come to enjoy their performances.
The whole idea of this festival belongs to its founder, Claude Nobs, who had an unmeasurable love for this place. He was destined to become a cook but then, at the age of seventeen, he discovered jazz thanks to the Atlantic Recordings of Ray Charles and John Coltrane. That music opened his mind and he decided that he had to start a jazz festival in the city.
The first edition was launched with a budget of 10.000 CHF. Claude Nobs went to the United States, to Atlantic Records and, from there, he started “a Swiss lesson on how to run a jazz festival”.
While the world, and the music, continued to change during the years, he decided that it was time to open up the festival to rock music and so he did.
Not only did Montreux become the Mecca for jazz, but also for pop and rock music and for every other music genre in between.
In its more than 50 years of history, Montreux has hosted unique performances by the most appreciated artists in the whole world – Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Roberta Flack, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Prince, Talking Heads, Jack White and many others.
“Montreux Jazz is the original prestige festival. If they invite you here, it is your duty and an honor to come and perform.” (Questlove)
“We all came out to Montreux”…this is the first line of Deep Purple’s Smoke On the Water, a song which basically tells what happened back in on December 4, 1971 when a fire destroyed the Montreux Casino. The band was going to start recording their Machine Head album there, right after a Frank Zappa concert, but someone fired a flare gun at the ceiling during Zappa’s show, which set the place on fire.
“They All Came Out to Montreux” is the title of a documentary mini-series on the extraordinary story of Claude Nobs and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray, produced by BMG and Beyond TNC, it features three one-hour episodes and had its world premiere on 20 March 2022 on RTS 2. Then, it was made available online at PlaySuisse and distributed abroad. This international co-production is mostly based on previously unseen footage from the audiovisual archives of Montreux Sounds, Radio Télévision Suisse and the Montreux Jazz Festival Foundation. The archives have recently been the subject of a new agreement designed to extend the use of this unique heritage around the world.
Claude Nobs wanted the music to be enjoyed by everyone, not only those who came to the festival. This is also the reason why he wanted to have all the performances recorded using the latest technologies. Under the guidance of the Claude Nobs Foundation, this unique collection of audiovisual archives has been recognized by UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. Through a partnership with EPFL, the archives, including more than 11.000 hours of live music, have been entirely preserved and digitalized since 2017.
“This archive is the most important testimonial to the history of music, covering jazz, blues and rock” (Quincy Jones)
The legacy of the festival and of the performances of the artists is so important that many of them have created and published live albums during the festival. In 1968, the jazz pianist Bill Evans won a Grammy for his album Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. It was the first time in the history of Grammy that an artist won an award for a jazz performance recorded outside of the US.
Since 1967, the Montreux Jazz Festival took place every single year, but in 2020 and 2021 while the whole world was silenced by the Covid pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, so were the two main locations of the performances (Auditorium Stravinski and Montreux Jazz Lab).
However, this year the Festival is back in “full swing”!
After two years of unprecedented challenges, the 56th Montreux Jazz Festival returns to its roots and continues its transformation. Festival-goers will once again experience the auditory pleasures of its two iconic venues, the Auditorium Stravinski and the Montreux Jazz Lab, as well as the electrifying atmosphere along the waterfront and on the terraces. New free stages will pop up, including the Ipanema, an open-air nightclub, the Super Bock Stage and its Biergarten in a totally redesigned Parc Vernex, and a vast array of innovative musical experiences to soak up at the Lake House.
Since its last “normal” edition in 2019, the Montreux Jazz Festival has taken becoming an all-round active ecosystem to a whole new level. Over the past two years, the different entities of the Festival have set up an entirely digital edition, built an incredible stage on the lake, organized two autumn festivals, inaugurated a new Festival license in China, launched a new vinyl collection, released a documentary mini-series and developed MJF Spotlight, a digital brand dedicated to the promotion of emerging artists. The Lake House will be an incubator for diverse experiences and will embody the Festival’s transformation.
This program of the 56th edition of the festival was unveiled on Friday April 13 and it is majestic as usual: from a-ah to Yola, from the return of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds to Björk, from John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension to Alan Parsons Project, from Diana Ross to Paolo Nutini, from Rodrigo y Gabriela to John Legend and many, many more (check this link to access the full program – https://bit.ly/3JGSiEU):
When Claude Nobs died on January 10, 2013, after entering a coma as a consequence of a cross country skiing excursion not far from his home, Mathieu Jaton became the new CEO of the festival and, of course, the person named to preserve the legacy of the founder.
The Festival has always been a milestone for the artists and the worldwide music community and it will continue to keeping up with tradition as well as with innovation. In fact, in the past few years Montreux Media Ventures – a media, production and content creation company and subsidiary of the Montreux Jazz Festival, whose mission is to diversify and perpetuate the festival’s exposure and revenues by producing high quality content year-round – has come to life.
In addition, in January 2022 Montreux Jazz Festival announced a UK and European partnership with TikTok for the festival’s new music initiative MJF Spotlight created in 2021 to support emerging artists and new music, in the form of original content creation and live performances. As part of the partnership with TikTok, MJF Spotlight will be releasing a series of live performances under the name “MJF Spotlight on the road”. Additionally, TikTok have been named an official partner for the 2022 edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival and will be bringing its creators and talent to the Lake Geneva shoreline this summer.
This is what makes this festival so special. Not only is Montreux a music festival but it is a place for inclusivity and diversity. It is the real place of musical freedom.
Special Thanks:
Montreux Jazz Festival – Press Department
Other Credits:
“Montreux Jazz Festival: 50 Summers of Music” – Author: Arnaud Robert with Salomé Kiner – Editions Textuel, Paris 2016
Montreux-Vevey Tourisme official website (www.montreuxriviera.com)
Switzerland Tourism Official Website (www.myswitzerland.com)
