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The 46th edition of The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM) has come to an end. It can’t be considered anything but a huge success. The streets of Montreal rang in harmony for ten days with shows featuring the best of the genre and others. Not to mention an out-of-this-world performance by a pair of time-travelling aliens. It will be talked about for years.
My first show of the festival took place inside Le Studio TD. Canadian vocalist Dawn Tyler Watson treated a capacity crowd to a treasure trove of jazz and blues classics. Described as being one of Canada’s true Blues treasures, she easily lived up to her reputation. The festival appearance kicked off the new “Jazz Sessions” show, which she will be taking on tour. Her voice is remarkable. Kicking off my festival experience with her show set the bar high.
A quick walk down the street allowed me to catch the final songs of a set from the duo of Campbell & Johnston. Hailing from Halifax, they roared through the couple of songs that I was able to catch. They finished with an explosive cover of “With A Little Help From My Friends.” The Beatles would be pleased, and Joe Cocker would have been astounded. I will be digging to find more from them. Certainly, others will be doing the same. It was that good of a performance.
It was then off to Salle-Wilfrid-Pelletier for a performance from one of Canada’s best-known jazz performers, Diana Krall. Before embarking on a European tour, Diana Krall treated the people of Montreal to two shows at the festival this year. Ushered on stage along with her two other bandmates, Diana took a seat at her piano. The crowd then took their seats as the band opened the evening’s show with “Almost Like Being In Love.” Krall remains one of the best pianists in the land. Being on hand for her performance was an honour.
My next visit to the Jazzfest would be something to be remembered. To quote Randal Graves, this was certainly to be the social event of the season. When I arrived on the scene at 5:30 pm, a very large crowd had already gathered. An hour later, I could see heads to the very end of the festival ground. Two blocks away. The big winner in this was a band from Texas, Trio Asesino. “How many of you are here for the polka-dots?” A loud cheer was how the crowd responded. “That’s ok,” said guitarist Adrian Quesada. “We can’t wait to see them, too.”
They kept the huge crowd entertained with an hour-long set of southern soul music mixed with some Mexican flair. Most of the crowd may have, in fact, been there for the polka dots, but there were many Trio Asesino fans in there as well. Including one fan who held up a recently purchased album that Quesada had just mentioned. The thousands upon thousands who took in the show may now have all known who Trio Asesino was, but the band took full advantage of the huge crowd and put on a great show. Generating huge cheers for all of their songs.
By now, it was 8:00 pm. A full hour and a half before Angine de Poitrine would hit the stage. The crowd is now larger than any I have seen in years, and it is still growing. By the time our space-travelling duo poke their papier-mâché heads around the stage curtains, an unbelievable number of people have filled the area. “Tonight, downtown is sold out!” exclaimed festival director Maurin Auxéméry. He mentioned how Angine de Poitrine played before about 2,000 people on a small stage last year. This year, estimates had the crowd being north of 100,000.
The cultural phenomenon opened with “Angor,” as the crowd went bananas. There was a sea of polka dots as far as the eye could see. Inflatable dice bounced around the heads of festival goers, and even the windows of the skyscrapers that surround the festival ground had people in them. All looking to get a glimpse of the show. At one point, an inflatable raft with a couple of fans inside was seen surfing over the crowd. The whole scene was as surreal as the artists who were up on the stage.
Speaking of which, our two musicians were giving the fans everything they had been waiting hours to see. Known only as Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine, they played their progressive tunes with exact precision. In between songs, they would chat with the crowd with their undeniably distinctive noises. They would then salute us all with their hands held high in the form of a triangle. We’ll be talking about this concert for years to come.
As hard as it may be to believe, I still had another night of Jazzfest fun ahead of me. The skies, however, opened and caused some havoc on July 1st. Fortunately, by 9:30 pm, the rain had come to an end. Just in time for Larkin Poe to hit the stage. Making their very first appearance in Montreal, the sister duo from Georgia didn’t waste any time. They were rocking the stage from the very first notes of “Nowhere Fast.”
“Who came here to hear some guitars?” When the crowd answered Rebecca Lovell’s question with a massive roar, she responded by telling them that lots of guitars were exactly what they were going to get. Rebecca and her sister Megan tore their way through a 16-song set list. Each song seemed to rock a little bit harder than the one before.
The 46th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal will go down as one of the best ever. There was something for every musical taste. Once again, the festival staff did an amazing job of bringing some terrific music to the people. And most of it was free. You can line up the synonyms. Great, outstanding, superb or phenomenal. And, thanks to Angine de Poitrine, you could even say that it was out of this world. Let’s do it all again next year.
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