Montreux Jazz Festival

Rip It Up, Issue 15, 1 September 1978, Page 17

Montreux Jazz Festival

John Dix

The Twelfth Annual Montreux International Jazz Festival kicked off on July 7th with an evening of European jazz-rock, starring Jan Ackerman and friends, and finished on July 23rd with a night of Country Rock, headlined by rapidly rising American bands, Dixie Dregs, and Sea Level; in the two weeks separating these two events, more than 30,000 people saw some 500 musicians performing in concert and taking part in impromptu jam sessions. Almost every type of popular music was represented with, naturally enough, the onus being on jazz. Despite the unusual venue for the festival, it has now taken over both the longerrunning Newport and Monterey Festivals as the pinnacle on the jazz calendar. Rock music doesn’t have anything to compare to the Montreux Festival. Besides the nightly concerts and jam sessions, there are daytime musicians’ workshops, drum clinics, “New Orleans" boat rides, and three separate venues where one can see up-and-coming stars performing free. Montreux is a small town (pop:17,000) set in the heart of Switzerland on the edge of Lake Geneva. The festival is the brainchild of Claude Nobs, whose interest in music is paralleled only by his commitment to give young musicians from all nations a chance to prove themselves to their peers at the festival. As well as appearing at the “Free Entertainment" venues during the day, nine of the visiting big bands (from the States, Canada and Japan) recently had the

privilege of performing under the direction of Clark Terry, Harry Edison or Bill Evans. The three week programme this year boasted a history of 20th Century music: Count Basie, Milt Jackson, Buddy Rich, Mary Lou Williams, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, Pharoah Saunders, Etta James, Brecker Brothers, Freddie Hubbard, Junior Wells & Buddy Guy, Taj Mahal, Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham, and Larry Coryell amongst others. There were also four "World Exclusives" at the festival. Ray Charles put together a special band for the occasion including Dizzy Gillespie, "Fathead" Newman, Kenny Burrell and guest singer Esther Phillips. Xanadu was a ten-piece band put together by drummer Frank Butler; musicians included Blue Mitchell and Ronnie Cuber. John McLaughlin premiered the third Mahavishnu Orchestra, mainly comprised of new musicians. But the highlight of the festival was "Viva Brazil”, a night of almost all-Brazilian musicians headed by master percussionist Airto Moreira and wife Flora Purim. The event drew the largest crowd ever assembled at the Montreux Festival. With the festival over and preparations well on their way for the next, one can only hope that, with the ever-growing development of accurately capturing live concerts on celluloid, someone may decide to film a future festival so that the rest of the world can share some of the highlights of this unique festival.