Published18. April 2024, 10:58
Festival: Lenny Kravitz, Justice et Dionne Warwick au Montreux Jazz 2024
Coherent, abundant, sometimes surprising, the programming for the 58th edition with its new Lake scene should make many people happy. The ticket office opens Friday at noon.
par
Laurent Flückiger
The Montreux Jazz Festival will take place in a new configuration, from July 5 to 20, 2024.
The organizers of the Montreux Jazz Festival have often repeated it: they like challenges, novelty, they do not like to rest on acquired knowledge. For infrastructure, they will be served. As we recall, a new configuration was unveiled in the fall. Thus, the Congress center, under construction for two editions, gives way to an outdoor stage on the lakeside with 5,480 seats and one at the Casino with 1,307. That is to say a larger capacity than the Stravinsky auditorium (4,000) for the first and smaller than the Lab (2000) for the second.
The situation could be simple, but the festival did not just adapt its ticketing to the new locations. “We wanted to shuffle the cards and not copy/paste Stravinsky and Lab,” promises the festival director, Mathieu Jaton, unveiling the program. Namely, a stage at the Lake with several evenings with two artists as popular as each other and a stage at the Casino focused on young shoots, groove, jazz and urban music – no more shaking French rap .
Massive Attack outdoors in Montreux
On the Market Square, the public will be able to treat themselves to some pretty formidable “double sets”, namely Jon Batiste and Trombone Shorty (July 5), Rag’n’Bone Man and Sting (17), PJ Harvey and The National ( 9), Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum (13), Alice Cooper and Deep Purple (8). As we can see, some names are regulars on the Riviera. We can add Paolo Nutini (on July 10 with Jessie Ware) and Zucchero (on the 6 with James Arthur), who gave no less than five concerts in Montreux in 2022. We can regret a lack of surprise on this side.
It is offset by the lineup of Justice (12), Lenny Kravitz (16) and, why not, the Smashing Pumpkins with three of the four original members (7). Vulfpeck (14), an American jazz-funk collective that drives its fans crazy with its groove, is in Switzerland for the first time since its creation in 2011. After its cancellation at the der last year, Janelle Monáe shares its evening ( 18) with Raye, new R’n’B sensation – no less than six Brit Awards won in 2024, a record. Massive Attack (15), outdoors by the lake, should be something. Finally, we have a weakness for revival 80s of the closing evening (20) with Soft Cell and Duran Duran.
Proximity and intimacy at the Casino
The other paid part of the festival will take place on the first floor of the Casino, in a room offering proximity and intimacy. Mathieu Jaton highlights “two artists who embody what we wanted to do there”: the Icelandic Laufey and the American D4VD (July 19). They are young, 24 and 19 years old respectively, and are moving the boundaries of jazz and pop after being revealed on TikTok. Mahalia and The Yussef Dayes Experience (8), Kokoroko and Masego (11), Jalen Ngonda (14), Noname (15), Thee Sacred Souls (20) embody the British jazz, groove and hip-hop scene and no longer have much to envy their elders Paloma Faith (12), Britanny Howard (14), Selah Sue (20).
Youth also among Yamê and Tyla (10), as well as Tems (16) and Tif (17), who represent urban music with the rapper Disiz as a mentor (17). Henry Moodie and Lauren Spencer-Smith (5) are 20 years old and the future of pop opposite Loreen, Eurovision winner in 2012 and 2023, who will perform after Santa from the group Hyphen Hyphen (18).
The legend Dionne Warwick
As for curiosities, André 3000, half of Outkast, will enter the cosmic atmosphere with a flute (15), -M- and the most successful guitarist in the world Thibault Cauvin will join forces for an instrumental journey (6) and Asaf Avidan will return solo on the same evening (7) as the Zurich group Black Sea Dahu with a string quartet.
We saved the best for last. In 1970, Claude Nobs programmed for the first time at the Casino a young English group that would leave its mark: Pink Floyd. More than fifty later, its drummer and co-founder covers the group’s first psychedelic pieces. It’s Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, to be seen on July 13. After Diana Ross, another great American singer stopped in Montreux on July 9: Dionne Warwick, 83, who became famous in the 1960s as the muse of star composers Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Among his hits, “Walk On By”, “Don’t Make Me Over”, “Do You Know The Way to San José”, “Heartbreaker”, “That’s What Friends Are For”. She was also the first to record “I Say A Little Prayer”.
The opening of the ticket office is tomorrow, Friday April 19, at noon. The program of free stages will be announced on June 5.
“There have always been many women in Montreux”
Three questions for Michaela Maiterth and Rémi Bruggmann, programmers of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Has the greater capacity of the Lac stage allowed you to program artists that you could not have at the Stravinski?
Michaela Maiterth: Not artists but productions. At the Stravinsky, we were always too small compared to what is done on large open air stages. We’ve been reducing the technique for several years, we’re used to it.
Remi Bruggmann: There will be no concessions to be made on Massive Attack or Justice, for example.
Conversely, the Casino is smaller than the Lab.
R. B.: And some of the places are seated. So we quickly realized that we weren’t going to do French rap. Disiz and Tif are quite special projects where the public will not jump in all directions.
Gender parity in programming seems to have been achieved. Is she wanted?
M. M.: We are dependent on who tours or not and we are not going to sacrifice the life of the festival to make quotas. There have always been many women in Montreux because there are great female artists. Either you are good or you are not good.