Pictured: Aretha Franklin [© Jay Blakesberg]

Festival au Montreal

By John Swenson

I've been to scores of music festivals over the last 40 years but I never had a better time or heard more outstanding music than I just experienced at the International Festival de Jazz de Montreal. The festival actually made money for its organizers, and since it's a non-profit that money will go towards funding even more concerts for the lucky people of Montreal.

Jazz Festivals have been moving further and further away from any traditional idea of what they might encompass, but no festival has gone to greater lengths to redefine the genre than the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. This amazing event wrapped up its 29th edition with a lineup of 725 performances, more than half of them free, in dozens of venues located within a three block area in downtown Montreal. The city closes the main drag, Sainte-Catherine Street, for nine days during the festival, a shrewd municipal decision considering the boost it gave to tourism this year. General public revenues exceeded $10 million, 25 percent of the crowd came from outside of Quebec, and hotel occupancy increased by 57 percent. The giant stage at the intersection of Sainte-Catherine and Jeanne-Mance which serves as the festival centerpiece drew a crowd of well over 100,000 people to the area for a free concert from the eclectic Canadian band Bran Van 3000 on a Tuesday night in the middle of the festival's run.

The festival balanced its share of celebrity headliners with a wide ranging selection of music from all over the world and a healthy dose of Canadian content. Aretha Franklin, McCoy Tyner, Hank Jones, Leonard Cohen, Steely Dan, Public Enemy, Al Green, James Taylor, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Richard Thompson all played to sellout crowds, but the lesser known acts still drew large and enthusiastic audiences for their performances. It's a measure of how far this event has come that what seemed like a small scale version of the classic jazz festival 10 years ago has mushroomed into an event like no other.

The organizers have clearly studied similar events and borrow freely from the George Wein model epitomized by the Newport and JVC jazz festivals as well as more open-ended events like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Austin's South By Southwest. By putting on so many events over such a short period of time the event is able to appeal to a wide range of interests, and the disparate audiences, ranging from retirees to punks, never seems to get in each other's way.

Older tourists enjoyed spectacular weather sitting in the beer gardens and wine bars of the open air plazas listening to live bands play folk music or nostalgic takes on swing and Dixieland jazz. Younger audiences had a vast array of rock, rap, blues, jazz and world music to choose from. Parades, jugglers, magicians, puppeteers and folk dancers performed at strategic locations between the stages.

The food is pretty good too, highlighted by delicious crepes and barbecued sausages, although the proximity to the Asian quarter and the Old City places scores of excellent restaurants and cafes within easy walking distance.

The event is really several festivals at once. It's probably the world's best pure jazz festival right now, with its annual invitational series, which this year featured two of the greatest living pianists in jazz history, McCoy Tyner and Hank Jones, both playing multiple shows with different accompaniment each night. Hank Jones opened his series with Oliver Jones in a salute to the late Canadian piano icon Oscar Peterson. Jones played with saxophonist Joe Lovano on his second night in a reprise of their spectacular duets album, Kids. The third night was a daring two piano exchange between the old master and one of the young virtuosos on the instrument, Brad Mehldau. Mehldau delivered an anecdote about seeing Jones play at the legendary New York piano bar Bradley's, an inspirational moment that turned out to be a turning point in his life. On the final show Jones and bassist Charlie Haden recapitulated the magic of Bradley's, which was famous for its piano-bass duo performances, with a show that was special for its relaxed sympatico. So relaxed, in fact, that at one point Haden stopped in mid-song because Jones was playing in 4/4 time when the performance called for 3/4 time. The two played brilliantly together on several Charlie Parker tunes, including "Moose the Mooche," and revisited their wonderful collaboration Steal Away -- Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs with an incredibly moving version of "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child."

Tyner, who was presented with the Miles Davis Award during the festival, played a solo concert, fronted an orchestra with featured guest trumpeter Christian Scott and played a concert of music recalling his historic quartet with John Coltrane featuring Coltrane's son Ravi. The pianist employed his dramatic, percussive style on the classics "Afro Blue" and "Giant Steps." There was plenty of other jazz scheduled during the festival, including a saxophone summit with Lovano, Dave Liebman and Ravi Coltrane, the reunion of Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke in Return to Forever, and performances by jazz vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, Cassandra Wilson, Diane Reeves and Abbey Lincoln.

Among the highlights of my stay was a three hour show from Public Enemy, the most disciplined and entertaining hip-hop performance I've ever witnessed. The packed crowd at the Metropolis Theater howled through the show from beginning to end. Professor Griff, one of the group's three front men, was denied admission to Canada by customs officials, but Chuck D and Flavor Fave were determined to go on with the show. After apologizing for Griff's absence Chuck D noted "The U.S. is like the new Mexico I guess. You got 25 million people up here and enough water and oil to last 300 years!"

Public Enemy rolled into an amazing set that included some new material, several old favorites, a lot of nifty choreography, Flavor Fave doing pushups and playing a drum solo, some Obama campaigning and McCain trash-talking, and the usual array of inspirational messages from Chuck D, who never patronizes his audience. The highlight, though, was a track by track recreation of what many consider the greatest album in hip hop history, It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back. It's a little hard to believe this album is 20 years old, but tracks like "Don't Believe the Hype" and "Party for Your Right to Fight" make as much if not more sense now than they did when they came out a generation ago.