My review of 2014 Montreal Jazz Fest (Akinmusire & Tigran By Invitation; Mehliana; Gustavsen), today at All About Jazz.
There simply isn't a festival in the world like the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Where else in the world can you find a city where, with a population of well over 1.5 million people, six square blocks are closed down for the entire duration of the festival—in this year's case 11 full days running from June 26 to July 6, 2014? Where can you find a festival that, with six outdoor stages putting on free performances from mid-afternoon until early morning, you can catch some truly world class acts like Partisans or Rob Mosher without paying a penny? Or have the pick of thirteen different ticketed indoor venues where an even broader cross-section of some of the best jazz, blues and world music can be found?
For its 35th edition, FIJM had one of its best overall rosters in recent years. With three By Invitation series guests including Harry Manx, Ambrose Akinmusire and Tigran Hamasyan, there was the chance to see these largely up-and-comers in some remarkable contexts, like Akinmusire in duet with guitarist Bill Frisell (taking a day off from his own tour of Guitar in the Space Age, seen just a few evenings prior at the 2014 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival); Tigran in duet with pianist Brad Mehldau; and Manx playing with everyone from eight-string wizard Charlie Hunter to Kevin Breit and David Lindley.
Large scale shows featured a terrific mix of performers this year as well. Singers including Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves and Stacey Kent shared the Place des Arts Théâtre Maissonneuve with Ginger Baker's Jazz Confusion, festival stalwart Marcus Miller, Terence Blanchard and Oliver Jones, amongst others; while at PDA's recently opened Maison Symphonique de Montréal it was possible to catch everyone from the mercurial but marvelous Keith Jarrett and singer/songwriter Elvis Costello to Bobby McFerrin and Brad Mehldau solo. With Mehldau making a number of appearances at this year's FIJM, he also delivered his recent electronica-informed Mehliana (Nonesuch, 2014), with drummer Mark Guiliana; pianist Fred Hersch, the Heath Brothers, Ben Sidran and Peter Bernstein all had two-night residencies at the city's longstanding Upstairs Club; Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and B.B. King were all performing at PDA's large-scale Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier; while, earlier in the week, Canada's own Daniel Lanois, blues legend Charlie Musselwhite and Ben Harper, Pink Martini and soul-meisters Earth, Wind & Fire all performed at the same venue.
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