Montreux Jazz Festival Tour, Switzerland

About Montreux Jazz Music Festival: The Montreaux Jazz Festival is a music festival in Switzerland and it is held every year in early July in Montreaux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. The festival is second largest annual Jazz festival and is considered world class after Montreal’s International Jazz Festival. The Montreux Jazz Festival which got founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, Geo Voumard along with Rene Langel which has got considerable help from Ahmet and Neshui Ertegun of the Atlantic records. The festival got also held first at Montreux Casino and also lasted for three days which also features almost exclusively by the Jazz artists. The Jazz festival which earlier opened up in the 1970’s and also it presents artists in every imaginable musical style.

How to Celebrate Montreux Jazz Music Festival: The festival has also an expansion due to co-production by Quincy Jones who also brought many international artists in the early 1990’s. The festivals lasts for two weeks and it attracts an audience of more than 200,000 people which also broadens it’s scope which includes blues, soul and along with rock artists. The festival was held in the other auditoriums in Montreux and it always returns every year to rebuilt the new Casino in 1975. The festival since then has grown and in 1993 it moved to the larger Montreux Convention Center from 1995 to 2008 alongside the convention center and casino. The center is within one kilometer and it makes difficult for the crew, technical personnel and artists to travel easily through crowded streets from one venue to another.

The festival changed in 1980’s and it is said to grow dramatically which also includes wider variety of music styles and the Jazz remained important as did the Brazilian music but also more in terms of rock along with pop artists also are invited. The Miles Davis is known to come at Montreaux several times and it has British hard rock along with rock band deep purple got invited for performance which grab the headliners around eight times. The festival also saw the performance by new artists and it also appeared on stage which saw some noted names such as Sting, BoB Dylan, Fats Domino, Deep Purple and Cheap Trick along with Cheb Mami. The festival has also outgrown Casino and also moved to the larger convention center.

The three international competitions which got organized by Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation which is held every year. The Solo Piano, Guitar and Voice are the main performance here and the competition is held in that particular musical genre along with the jazz bands are based in one of the regions of the Leman Lake which has French departments of Ain and Haute Savoie and also the Swiss cantons of Geneva with Vaud and Valais. The artists performed in the number 1300 and Festival was held between 1967 to 2016 with most of the appearances by Herbie Hancock which is 27 times and B.B.King which is 21 times.

It can be said that for 50 years the top artists have performed on shores of Lake Geneva and during the famous Montreux festival it is total of 16 days of concerts. The musical experience is unique in Switzerland and it is the brainchild of Claude Nobs who is known to be the charismatic founder.

 

Location: Montreux, Switzerland