From jazz and blues to pop and hip-hop and everything in between, last week’s 36th annual Montréal Jazz Festival offered a wide range of music for jazz aficionados, music lovers and festival-goers alike. With more than 35 shows a day, a plethora of music was on tap throughout downtown Montréal.
On Friday July 3 a potpourri of people swayed to the music of renowned Montréal singer and pianist Florence K as she performed under the stars at Scène TD. With a pair of acclaimed albums to her name (Bossa Blue and La Historia De Lola), Florence K sang in French, English and Spanish before the crowd of thousands who attended the free evening concert.
Later that evening, jazz vocalist Miss Mellow serenaded diners at Balmoral restaurant, y as part of Musique au Balmoral. The Québécoise singer performed the popular French song C’est si bon (It’s so good), the gospel spiritual Wade In The Water and Dolly Parton’s 1973 hit song Jolene, much to patrons’ delight.
Author: Victor Diaz LamichMaking her debut at the 36th Montreal International Jazz Festival, Londoner ALA.NI performed at L’Astral, Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan on Saturday, July 4th.
On Saturday night, the incomparable Ron Carter performed at the theater Salle Luder-Durvernay, Monument National. Carter’s career has spanned more than 50 years, with more than 2,000 albums to his credit, including a collaboration with Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest on the song Verses from the Abstract. Carter and his quartet, which includes pianist Renee Rosnes, drummer Payton Crossley and percussionist Rolando Morales-Matos, hit the Montréal stage with a 20-minute musical odyssey that had the audience bobbing their heads to the beat of the bass. It was so quiet in the theater you could hear the proverbial pin drop. After inspiring the audience with his music, Carter then made them chuckle when he said being a bandleader yields two great benefits. One is that he “gets all the chicks” and the second is that he “gets to have any song played on a whim.” The latter included one of his favorites, the beautiful and romantic My Funny Valentine, led by Renee Rosnes.
One of the best shows of the weekend was by Londoner ALA.NI, who made her debut this year at L’Astral, Maison du festival Rio Tinto Alcan on Friday night. A former back-up singer for Mary J. Blige, she quickly and easily won over the crowd with her emotive and pure singing, which matched her warm and engaging personality. On stage with only her guitarist, the chanteuse, whose singing style recalls the late great Billie Holliday, performed all of the songs from her spring and summer EPs You & I. That included the somber Roses and Wine, in which the mistress tells her lover to go back to his wife even though she loves him. ALA.NI began her set with the light Cherry Blossom, after which she transitioned to what she called the “bitter stuff” with Darkness At Noon.
Performing for more than an hour, ALA.NI also included a cover from The Cure and Todd Rundgren’s Can We Still Be Friends? With a voice straight out of the Roaring Twenties, she stunned the crowd with an angelic a cappella version of Judy Garland’s Over the Rainbow. It’s moments like this that make the Montréal Jazz Festival so special — you discover an artist on the verge of greatness.
