What’s a jazz philistine who prefers Madonna to do, when she’s stuck with covering the Montreux Jazz Festival? Genevieve Loh opens her ears and mind - and it changes everything she thought she knew about music.
MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND: Jazz. It’s the music many say they like, but don’t actually know anything about. I’d be the first to admit I definitely don’t.
Much to the chagrin of more musically astute friends, jazz to me was simply Miles Davis or Ella Fitzgerald, good elevator muzak, tunes at weddings, the CD you put on when the in-laws came over for brunch, or the soothing sounds for when reading. Oh, and super cool in the 90s, when filed under the category of “acid” and played in university dorm rooms.
Before anyone condemns me to purgatory, I know I’m utterly clueless. Seriously, what do I, lover of a schizophrenic combination of the Beatles, Credence Clearwater Revival, Backstreet Boys, Run DMC, U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madonna, really know about jazz? Nothing. Not a lick.
But it all changed when I entered the magical world of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
It’s been a long time since this jaded thirtysomething has been moved by any kind of music, old or new, and much less by some half a century-old festival held annually in a Swiss resort town on the eastern end of Lake Geneva.
Except, the Montreux Jazz Festival isn’t your ordinary jazz festival, as I found out upon arriving on its hallowed ground.
For one, the festival’s 50th Anniversary lineup read like a Who's Who of international music, except that it followed no musical thread discernible to this confused plebian.
Take the eclectic double bills. Buddy Guy and ZZ Top? Patti Smith and PJ Harvey? Marcus Miller and Santana?
The far-reaching roster didn’t think twice about juxtaposing the likes of Quincy Jones, Muse, DJ Shadow, Charles Lloyd New Quartet, Lana del Rey, Mogwai, and Simply Red alongside Herbie Hancock, Sigur Ros, Van Morrison, Woodkid and Neil Young. All celebrated ear-tugging acts, but was this mishmash allowed? I was perplexed (and more than a little apprehensive), but every other festival-goer I could see was, pardon the expression, all jazzed up.
And really, as I said before, what did I know? Standing wide-eyed in the middle of the crowd spilling in and out of the Montreux Musique & Convention Centre, the answer was: Absolutely nothing. Except that this wasn’t the right time to be asking questions like, “is his name really Woodkid?” Or,“shouldn’t there be more jazz at a jazz festival?”
Well, it turns out there is a definite method to the Montreux madness.
UN-PIGEONHOLING MUSIC
My education began almost immediately when I spoke to the Montreux Jazz Festival aficionados, who were more than willing to share the reason why they make their annual pilgrimage here.
They explained to me that although jazz remains at its core, the festival has (obviously) branched out to embrace everything from rock, blues and soul to hip-hop, electronica and alternative. And that this is how the festival has, over the years, come to cement itself as the place where ingenuity is celebrated and music is never pigeon-holed.
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga perform together at the 49th Montreux Jazz Festival in 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
This, I was reminded by my impassioned fellow festival-goers, was the beauty and genius of the musically diverse Montreux Jazz Festival. Yes, in its infancy the line-up had featured purely jazz all-stars such as the great Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone.
But how wonderful was it that years later, the same festival would see pop and rock greats such Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash and Pink Floyd all occupy the same stage as blues legends Aretha Franklin and BB King, jazzers Les McCann and Count Basie, and triphoppers Portishead?
SMOKE ON THE WATER, FIRE IN THE SKY
If I wasn’t convinced about the magic of Montreux before, then surely, I began to fall under its spell when I learnt that Deep Purple’s legendary classic Smoke On The Water wasn’t just a metaphor.
A shame that it took me three long days before it hit this writer that the view of the gloriously calm Lake Geneva I was waking up to everyday, was the very same body of water the Brit rockstars were singing about. (I know, the opening lyrics, “We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline…” should have been a giveaway. But let’s be honest, don’t we all just go straight to the “DurH Durh Durh” chorus?)
For all fellow dilettantes, Deep Purple’s iconic lyrics and riff were inspired after a flare gun incident set fire to the ceiling of the Montreux Casino during Frank Zappa’s concert in 1971. Finding out this history, and having it change everything I thought I knew about one of the most beloved rock songs of all time, was one thing.
It was another to find my curiosity even more piqued now about the Swiss Riviera town that became indelibly written into the rock-and-roll history books as the preferred place for bands to record throughout the 1970s.
And so, watching Deep Purple jam live at the festival, with none other than Zappa’s son Dweezil on the guitar, was simply poetic and momentous. My eyes and ears were starting to open.
Dweezil Zappa on stage with Deep Purple playing On The Water (Photo: Genevieve Loh)
BREAKING FREE OF RULES
Finding myself at one particular free concert, out of the hundreds that cheerfully pop up at parks and cafés across Montreux during the 16 days of festival fun, I was starting to have a musical epiphany of sorts.
I had explored the festival grounds alone, and had taken in the smorgasboard of workshops, concert movies, DJ parties and concerts on trains and boats. It struck me that the mystique of Montreux lay in its ability to allow all musical artists - be they big crowd-pleasers, eclectic new offerings, or struggling young musicians just starting out - to perform more freely than anywhere else in the world.
I was having fun at what felt like a spontaneous jam session, bopping to a genre of music I never knew I liked! By the time I attended the aforementioned Woodkid’s (real name Yoann Lemoine) concert, and got engulfed by his intense, haunting music and vocals backed up by a 30-piece orchestra, I was having a full-on transformative musical renaissance of my own.
Via Lemoine’s unfamiliar but vast and foreboding sound, I was re-discovering music, and the joy of music, all over again. The excited teenage girl in me was nodding in approval.
A rapt festival crowd watching Santana (Photo: Genevieve Loh)
It might sound all too hippy-dippy at this point, but based on all these different musical experiences, it was dawning on me that the 50-year-old Montreux Jazz Festival serves as a musical rite of passage for performer and audience. New artistes and seasoned veterans, music lovers and festival virgins alike.
In the day, Montreux is like a lucid dream, with music humming everywhere and conversations about life and song over aperitifs.
Come dark, it’s an all-night jamboree and your passport to a musical awakening as you bounce from one performance to the next, on a journey of discovering and re-discovering bands and sounds.
I was beginning to see the correlation. The festival wasn’t just about showcasing jazz and its musicians - it was the embodiment of jazz. It was about having no rules. It was about musicians transcending the conventional notions of performance, to convey some greater beauty or depth or joy.
And if that meant opening hearts and minds and arms to welcome and celebrate all different styles and genre of music under one roof, then all the better.
So who do we have to thank for all this? Musicians, fans and festival staff were all in agreement: The late Claude Nobs, music promoter, co-founder and long-time festival director of the Montreux Jazz Festival.
OF FREDDIE MERCURY, BB KING AND LE PICOTIN
Which brings me to my one (final) big cognizant moment. If I had to pick a moment when it all came together for me in trying to appreciate the magical musical madness that is the Montreux Jazz Festival, it would have been learning all about Nobs while visiting his beloved Le Picotin.
It is, in theory, nothing to get too excited about: Just a chalet perched in the mountains at about 1,000 meters above sea level overlooking Montreux, filled with knick-knacks, quirky curiosities and framed memorabilia, and generously opened throughout the festival to invited guests, working partners, friends and (of course) the performers.
That is, until you realise that you’re sitting on a well-worn beaten leather sofa that has possibly met many a rock legend’s bum, surrounded by half a century of pop culture - and then you’re suddenly overcome with a sense of awe.
For the late Nobs, the breathtakingly eclectic Le Picotin was home. For his musical genius friends like David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Prince and the Rolling Stones, it was the ultimate den - a home away from home to relax and chill or spontaneously jam and make music.
For the rest of the world, the house is undeniably sui generis in the realm of rock-and-roll kitsch. For this writer, it was the most surreal musical awakening.
Being inside his living, breathing museum of a home was like taking a fascinating walk through the history of music. Look over there, I’m told. There’s the piano that Freddie Mercury apparently tinkered on. Go on, feel free to sit down and tinkle those ivories.
Did I notice BB King’s guitar in the corner? And how about those keyboards? David Bowie reportedly loved playing on them. And was that a toy telephone on Claude’s desk, a gift from Sheryl Crow? Yes it was, right next to many an autographed book, platinum record or picture of every star from Van Morrison to Sting to Madonna.
Did I like the spectacular view of the alps from the veranda? Yes? Good, so did BB King, Quincy Jones, Led Zeppelin, Herbie Hancock and Prince, who all dined at this very table, but not necessarily all at the same time.
I couldn’t help being hypnotised by the mere thought of all the stories these rooms could tell. Rooms left exactly the way Nobs lived before he died at the age of 76 after a skiing accident in 2013.
He ran the festival for 45 years, and while he may have passed on, his legend and spirit clearly lived on.
THE LEGEND OF CLAUDE NOBS
Just about everyone hanging out in the house wanted to tell me why the man was the quintessence of the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the sole reason why it has become one of the most seminal and influential festivals today.
I also found out the reason why, legendary parties thrown at Le Picotin aside, so many music legends at the top of their game would make space on their schedule to play at the festival, year upon year upon year.
Nobs, the tireless networker, unabashedly loved music, the people in front and behind it, and most importantly, the importance of freedom of expression. That was very clear in the décor of Le Picotin, whose hallways were dotted with a photographic timeline of musical artefacts and an extensive collection of working retro jukeboxes.
And it was even clearer in Nob’s much-cherished archive stored within the house. I was told that ever since the festival’s inception, the innovative, forward-thinking man had arranged for most of the festival performances to be filmed using the most advanced technology at the time - capturing them for posterity and building an archive of musical treasures to share with the public.
As I marvelled at this priceless library, running my fingers through unadulterated live musical history, I was stunned by the roughly 5,000 hours of audio and video files in front of me - the first audio-visual library to be inducted into the UNESCO Memory of the World register. How could anyone not be astounded by the dedication to preserve live music as a cultural heritage and pass it down to future generations?
But I reckon the man’s soul shone through clearest in the legendary jam sessions he organised, where festival-goers had a front-row seat to rare collaborations between legends like Ray Charles with Chaka Khan and George Benson.
They beauty of it all? It didn’t happen behind closed doors at private parties, but often spontaneously on the main stages.
Nobs saw nothing wrong in bringing jazz, rock, blues and other eclectic mixes under one festival roof. He provided a place where serendipity meets creativity, and the result was some of the best performances ever from the likes of Santana, Bob Dylan and Prince.
And this, wasn’t this all what jazz was all about? Like Nobs’ chalet, the convergence of private and public space. Intimacy with strangers. Guests I didn’t know, who knew Claude, sitting down with me and sharing their passion for life and music, over delicious food and drink.
Claude Nobs, his home and his festival - forever the embodiment of jazz, its generosity, authenticity, innovation, perpetual change.
“He was amazing soul, always friendly and always with a twinkle in his eye,” a long-time festival employee said about Nobs. “He was always challenging us, pushing us and by doing so, the festival kept getting better and better.
“He never believed that any idea or project could be impossible. His generous spirit and fearlessness lives on in every one of us who has worked with him. And we all try to carry on in his spirit.”
Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones and Claude Nobs. (Photo: Montreux Jazz Festival Foundation)
AND NOW IN SINGAPORE…
And so I’ve returned to where I started, in Singapore, only not really. Jazz isn’t just muzak or simple entertainment to me anymore. It has become so much more.
And I’ve not left Montreux or the spirit of Claude Nobs behind in Switzerland either. Not quite. The Montreux Jazz Café, the ambassador for the festival and the embodiment of its formula, has - after making its way to Paris and Abu Dhabi - now arrived in Singapore, complete with music, mayhem and memorabilia.
Nobs, who trained as a chef, had conceived the café in one of his “innumerable creative bursts”, so its website states, and it combines his passion for music and fine dining. The first café opened in Geneva in 2008, and its Singapore incarnation marks its grand opening at the Pan Pacific Orchard on Oct 7.
It won’t be the first fling Singapore has had with Nobs. Back in 2005, the Montreux Jazz Festival teamed up with the 10-day long Mosaic Music Festival here. Providing a highly welcomed platform for interaction between local and international artistes, the festival - which showcased a smorgasboard of music genres - ran until 2014 at the Esplanade.
Benson Puah, then the Esplanade’s Chief Executive Officer, had said in a New York Times interview that the collaboration with the Montreux Jazz Festival was “a meeting of minds rather than a financial or contractual relationship”. Indeed for Nobs, it was as much about supporting up-and-coming festivals as it was about promoting Montreux and Switzerland.
True to form as well, he was right in the thick of things at the Esplanade, blues harp in tow, jamming with the musicians and discussing music with anyone who was interested.
Nobs may no longer be around in body to orchestrate things, but his commitment lives on: To ensure there are creative platforms around for the best original acts from anywhere to make music together, maybe grounded in jazz but embracing the spirit of improvisation, experimentation and eclecticism.
If that doesn’t serve as the genesis for someone else’s musical epiphany, I don’t know what will.
Genevieve Loh’s trip to the Montreux Jazz Festival was arranged by the Montreux Jazz Café.