Suggestions from our journalists.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
The event: Lee Fields
“It’s on stage that I always feel most alive,” Lee Fields recently wrote in a tweet accompanying a photo of him in action, his face cracked by the intensity of his interpretation. He is tragically the only survivor among the trio of glorious voices – we think of those of his late friends Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones – who rekindled the flame of soul in the early 2000s, thanks to their divine gift for music that abolished the boundaries between the physical and the spiritual. Let us therefore measure the privilege represented by the visit of the one who, at 72, is still sometimes nicknamed Little JB, as in Little James Brown.
July 4 at 9:30 p.m. on the TD stage at the Place des Festivals
Dominic Tardif, The Press
Discovery: The Two
PHOTO S. WINTER, FROM THE GROUP’S FACEBOOK PAGE
The Two
An improbable duo formed by Swiss Thierry Jaccard and Mauritian Yannick Nanette, The Two arrive with a vibrant acoustic blues that takes its roots in Mississippi almost a hundred years ago, while remaining perfectly contemporary. With more than 600 concerts given between 2014 and 2020, the duo took to the stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival and even allowed themselves to open for the late Johnny Hallyday. The Two have also just returned from an 11-date tour of Quebec in April, the two bluesmen are back with us in July for seven more concerts.
July 4 at 7 p.m. on the Rogers Stage at the Jazz Festival
Pierre-Marc Durivage, The Press
Really Jazz: Beth McKenna
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE JAZZ FESTIVAL
Beth McKenna
The young Montreal saxophonist and seasoned composer has just launched BeyondHere, which she presents to us as a sextet, the jazz orchestra perfectly suited for this kind of emancipated and dense jazz. His music is a feast of peaceful fragrances that operate with charm and his technique on his tenor is furiously unstoppable, direct in the skylight, the sound always round and full. Accustomed to large ensembles, she follows in the footsteps of an arranger like Maria Schneider brilliantly. A return to the festival that should not leave anyone indifferent.
July 4 at 5 p.m. on Place Tranquille
Claude Côté, special collaboration