As the Montreal Jazz Festival (MtlJazzFestival) turns 40, its visionary founders take a final bow
The 40th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, which comes to a close this weekend, marks the last time festival founders André Ménard and Alain Simard curate the 11-day showcase of top-notch jazz players along with hundreds of artists playing all styles of music in a variety of settings. The 2019 edition was held from June 26 to July 6, and like in previous years, mixed free outdoor shows with paid indoor concerts.
Known for its progressive programming and welcoming milieu, Montreal Jazz is much like Austin’s South By Southwest in that the festival has grown mightily from its humble beginnings and has become an annual destination for music lovers.After 40 years of guiding the, what can you say about the relationships that have impacted on you during that time?
Ours could be one of the last industries that is people-driven. You meet great people, you hear great people, and you try to make something out of all this. The greatest person I met in that respect was Alain Simard. He had this idea in the late 1960s when the pop festival business was booming of being[based] downtown with concert halls where people pay to get in, and then the free outdoor stages. He knew that Montreal could do something different.
I’m proud that Americans would travel here to find music that they wouldn’t hear in America. It’s doubly gratifying to know that people were trusting our good taste. I remember we had a band from Romania one year and saxophonist Ornette Coleman was in town. He was walking by and stopped on the spot and listened to them for about 15 minutes. He was on his way to sound-check but he had to hear that music. Ornette was shaking his head and watching.
Who is your one White Whale, that is, what artist did you try to book for the festival that always got away?. When we tried a first edition of the festival that didn’t really take off in 1979, it was the year Joni was doing the Shadows and Light tour with bassist Jaco Pastorius and guitarist Pat Metheny. We could only dream that she would return to the road with those guys, which she never did. But we kept offering.
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