Morgan Enos spent the weekend at Montreal’s 44th International Jazz Festival, taking in an eclectic and exciting mix of music from a star-studded line-up. The Festival ran from 27 June – 6 July 2024. Read on for his take on the proceedings…
“You see that building over there?” asks David Beckett, a freelance writer who’s been attending the Montreal International Jazz Festival – one of the biggest jazz festivals on the planet – for more than three decades.
We’re in a third floor press room adjacent to the conversation-and-DJ space Le Phono, with a sun-drenched, panoramic view of the cordoned-off section of downtown. When Beckett was fresh out of high school, he borrowed his mother’s truck, pointed it north, and drove some two hours from his home in Burlington, Vermont.
He then parked at the Rising Sun, a legendary, now-defunct jazz and blues club. There, he saw Dexter Gordon, one of the baddest tenor saxophonists ever, firmly planted back in the States after residing in Copenhagen for 14 years.
In the ensuing years, Beckett beheld Art Blakey, the juggernaut drummer and decades-long engine behind the Jazz Messengers, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, the penetrating and pulverising alto-sax blues shouter.
“There’s a real sense of spectacle,” Beckett says. Montreal Jazz Fest is no rote gig, gig, gig affair: street musicians pick at electric guitars, poutine aromas spill out of food trucks, behemoth crowds abound. “I used to go to a festival in Saratoga Springs, then come up here for a few days,” he adds. “But I just realised I enjoyed the hang here.”
Granted, Beckett split the difference in 2024; he managed to catch both festivals. But as someone who’d never been to Montreal, barely been to Canada, and only nominally experienced a jazz festival, Beckett’s insights ring true: Montreal Jazz Fest is something different.
For one, it’s so civil. As a music journalist living in a Jersey suburb of New York City, most gigs go down without much, or any, incident. But I’ve been in many professional situations where, even with seemingly bulletproof credentials, you’re met with a TSA-style, prison guard-esque, faintly dehumanising treatment.
Not so at Montreal Jazz Fest. My first impression of French Canadians: attentive, bon vivant and overall lovely, and this vibe extended to the festival writ large.
Photo credit: Victor Diaz in special collaboration with Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Even in stifling heat, among immense crowds and on a tight schedule, any potential festival-spawned source of stress eluded me. A burger and a beer wasn’t 78 dollars. My press pass meant I was good to simply enjoy the show; it wasn’t some catalyst for gratuitous suspicion.
The programming was smart. The headliners included Outkast’s André 3000 – whose new age detour New Blue Sun made waves last year – along with two generations’ gateways to the jazz-curious, in Norah Jones and the Icelandic breakout singer-songwriter Laufey.
“It’s changed. It’s got a new face. I feel it’s looking for the new, young sound,” says saxophonist, composer and conductor Christine Jensen, who has 25 years of experience with the festival.
The other major acts loosely fitted into three categories. First: leading acts I could easily sit in the Lincoln Tunnel and see in an hour, many days of the year: saxophonists Kenny Garrett and Melissa Aldana, trumpeters Ambrose Akinmusire and Keyon Harrold, and guitarist Julian Lage.
Second: more commercial acts, like the flamenco and new age-adjacent guitarist Jesse Cook, who was blazingly charming at the Maison symphonique.
And third, non-jazz artists: country artists like Orville Peck, indie acts like Future Islands, and rappers like Killer Mike and Freddie Gibbs. All who, considering the arc of music history, have been incontrovertibly forged through jazz’s DNA.
“Montreal is kind of amazing, in terms of the variety of acts. It’s a huge scale,” Cook says. “Whereas other jazz festivals, they’ll have amazing acts, but maybe there’ll be three or four venues, and a few things going on. But it’s not like this.”
Montreal Jazz Fest seamlessly split the difference between communal (and free) outdoor sets – the first walk from the hotel led straight to the jangle of Joel Ross’s vibes – and reverent indoor performances. A solo performance by the great pianist Fred Hersch, who performed covers ranging from Joni to Jobim, was met with churchlike awe, and thunderous applause.
It was hard to catch everything. Who could? As with any festival, you can only catch a sliver of it, and in such sweltering heat, frequent hikes back to the AC-ed hotel are in short order.
Yet, as a total newcomer, I was blown away by the efficiency, variety, and kindness that emanated from Montreal Jazz Fest. Although this jazz fan is spoiled in his proximity to NYC, it was lovely to behold it within our northern neighbour.
Shortly after Montreal Jazz Fest’s inception in 1980, Beckett jumped in, stayed in, and hasn’t abandoned ship yet. Visit Montreal at the right time of year, and you’re bound to follow suit.
