Ready to rock the world’s largest jazz festival?
For the past 30 years, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (montrealjazzfest.com) has been bringing the soul of jazz and the passion for creativity to Montreal’s streets, clubs and bars. Read on with tripatlas.com/new as we bring you the highlights of the 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival!
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Highlights of Montreal Jazz Festival 2009
Every year for 11 days, the French-speaking metropolis of North America becomes the venue where fans of all types of jazz-related music rub shoulders with aficionados of jazz in its purest form.
The 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival runs from June 30 to July 12, 2009 and will host some 30 countries, 3,000 musicians and public entertainers, 650 concerts (including more than 370 free events), and will welcome 2.5 million visitors!
The whole festival takes place on a unique site designed to meet festival-goers’ every need and ensure them music-filled days right downtown in an area off-limits to car traffic! Montreal is without a doubt the true heartbeat of Planet Jazz!
Read on for some of tripatlas.com/new’s favourite highlights of the 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival!
Music Giant Stevie Wonder Opens 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival: This year, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal is extremely proud to offer a 30th anniversary celebration with music giant, Stevie Wonder. The Grand evenement General Motors will be the special free outdoor concert where Stevie Wonder will rock the state on Tuesday, June 30th at 9:30pm at the brand-new Place des Festivals. A peerless icon of American black music, Wonder is a virtual human jukebox, his concerts celebrate his songbook with a string of hits that have defined our lives and live forever in our memories: My Cherie Amour, Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours, Superstition, You Are The Sunshine Of My Life. ji
Miles Davis at the Festival: The 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival will tip its “chapeau” or hat to one of the greatest artists the jazz world has ever known. A program of concerts has been slated to honour Davis’ mastery.
Divine Female Jazz Artists: A superb contingent of female artists illuminating virtually every series and featuring divine representatives from every musical genre, including Melody Gardot, Susie Arioli, Jill Barber, Esperanza Spalding, Sophie Milman, Patricia Barber, Anat Cohen, Madeleine Peyroux, Térez Montcalm, Hiromi, Bïa, La India, Eliane Elias, Lorraine Desmarais, Lila Downs or the sparkling China Forbes of Pink Martini
Local Quebecois & Canadian Artists: Julie Lamontagne, Alain Caron, Michel Donato, Jean Pierre Zanella or the artists paying Tribute to Éval Manigat, our world music pioneer who passed away last summer
Jazzing Flamenco will take place June 30 (6pm) and at 8pm on July 2-6, 8-11 and will be a concert to re-amaze fans of Tango Flamenco, the previous coup from the same creative team! Born of a fervent desire to modernize Spanish classical dance by fusing different musical genres (jazz, blues, soul and flamenco), Jazzing Flamenco is a production boasting an absolutely unique style. Madrid choreographer Antonio Najarro brings originality and a breath of fresh air to the current dance scene. Making daring choices, he aims to liberate-and at the same time, reconcile-tradition and modernity in a skillful creation inspired by two inventive domains, two brilliant cultures, marrying the magic of flamenco to the elegance of jazz.
Battle of the Bands: Glenn Miller Orchestra vs. The Harry James Orchestra: The world’s swinginest big band, the Glenn Miller Orchestra led by Larry O’Brien, matches up against a most worthy adversary making its first-ever visit to Montreal-despite their immense popularity-the Harry James Orchestra led by legendary trumpeter Fred Radke! Flashback to the great ballrooms of New York in the late ’30s. In a concept revisited by the Festival, two legendary orchestras share the stage at the same time, battling it out for the honour of their incredible respective repertoires-no holds barred!
For more information on the Montreal Jazz Festival, please visit: montrealjazzfest.com.