Montreux Jazz Festival 60th Anniversary
There are few times in the year that I look forward to more than the Montreux Jazz Festival. The fortnight-long festival takes place on the shores of Lake Geneva in the first two weeks of July, and is the world’s second-largest jazz festival, after the Montreal International Jazz Festival in Canada. And while I would love to attend, my bank balance restricts such extravagance. Fortunately, the entire thing is broadcast on the festival’s YouTube page, making it an eagerly awaited annual highlight from the comfort of home.
From its nascent years, the festival attracted some of the biggest artists on the planet: Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Etta James and Leonard Cohen. A growing reputation required a broadening of horizons in the late 1970s and 1980s, with the festival welcoming artists including Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Sting and Toto, all while retaining its jazz roots with the likes of Ray Charles, B.B. King, Marvin Gaye, Sade and Tracy Chapman all making the Swiss pilgrimage.
The willingness to embrace an image of musical diversity while maintaining its tradition of excellent music has been one of Montreux’s defining strengths for decades. So, it was hardly surprising to see a star-studded lineup for its 60th anniversary.
The festival opened on 3 July with This Stage May Contain Moments in Time, Raye’s special performance in collaboration with luxury Swiss watchmakers, Audemars Piguet. Staged in the newly renovated Stravinski Auditorium, the 100-minute set more than lived up to expectations, even if I remain disappointed that the gorgeous Lake Stage did not return for the anniversary.
Opening with Nina Simone’s celebrated 1976 interpretation of Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where the Time Goes, Raye paid homage to the festival’s rich musical heritage from the off. A guest appearance from Mark Ronson, with whom she crafted the hit single Suzanne for AP’s 150th anniversary in 2025, followed. It’s fair to say the Croydon native certainly knows how to celebrate anniversaries! The pair jazzily reimagined Uptown Funk, before performing an impromptu, groove-laden rendition of James Brown’s Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, injecting irresistible energy into the set. A duet with Alicia Keys on If I Ain’t Got You, and tributes to Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, and Al Green rounded off a set that epitomised Montreux’s ethos: rooting the festival in jazz while never shying from reinvention.
That multi-genre tapestry is woven throughout the festival, with performances from many acclaimed artists occurring across the fortnight. One such example was a set from Sting on 4 July – though his performance of Desert Rose was arguably the second best of the festival, behind a brilliant rendition from Faouzia, who on 12 July did a stellar job in the unenviable situation of performing immediately before Zara Larsson! It’s rather interesting that the stage that hosted some of jazz’s biggest names in the 1970s would play host a mere half-century later to Larsson’s fun pop style and enthusiastic dancers, truly demonstrating Montreux’s evolutionary flexibility.
Some of the artists performed sets from touring shows, rather than creating something new. Marcus Miller stood out with We Want Miles!, a bass guitar-heavy tribute show to Miles Davis, in what would be Davis’s centenary year. John Legend and Lewis Capaldi also opted to use their critically acclaimed touring sets, with the Stravinsky Auditorium being the perfect environment for the former’s intimate stripped-back format titled An Evening of Songs and Stories.
While Raye and Miller showcased their appreciation for those who paved the way for them, little depicted Montreux’s intergenerational connection better than Billy Cobham’s appearance, returning 50 years after his first Montreux outing in 1976. Meanwhile, the Isley Brothers demonstrated the festival’s ability to celebrate living history, with a performance 72 years on from their formation; and Sienna Spiro and Ezra Collective representing jazz music’s exciting future.
Despite the absence of the Lake Stage being a minor letdown, Montreux proved that its best achievement is not merely preserving jazz history, but enabling that history to interact with contemporary music. Its true stage is not its physical venues, but its ability to bring together generations of artists and audiences.
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