It started again as if there had been no pandemic. The Quartier des Spectacles was packed Thursday night for the opening of the 42nd edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival featuring visiting Australian named Tash Sultana, officiating on the main stage in front of tens of thousands of spectators, curious or already conquered. And it was, as in every edition, the moment of difficult choices, between Marianne Trudel and Makaya McCraven performing at the same time, or GoGo Penguins, Wynton Marsalis and Christian McBride vying for the attention of jazzophiles. Preview of our Thursday picks, made with no regrets.
Before the start of the concert by Marianne Trudel and John Hollenbeck, a dozen spectators lined up in front of Studio TD (formerly Astral), for one of the best proposals of the festival: a series offering jazz from here and elsewhere offered in the hall for free. The duo resumed their poetic project Dédé Java Espiritu (with excerpts from their recent album Time Poem), Trudel’s expert piano, his enveloping melodies, to which the drummer and percussionist responded with his complex and colorful playing. What a beauty, while waiting for the recording of the said project, which should be released in the fall.
The American drummer Makaya McCraven was already in the saddle at the Gesù when we joined him, immersed in a program very different from that announced, and for good reason: the singer Madison McFerrin was not with us, prevented by a variant, we heard between the branches. A quartet was assembled at the last minute, it did not disappoint anyone. McCraven is a fascinating performer, an impulsive and frenetic drummer who, even in the softer passages, strikes relentlessly; with Junius Paul on his right igniting his electric bass, they generated deconstructed funk rhythms that made our skulls drop from our necks.
The modern, dreamy playground for brass instruments – among whom we believe we recognized composer and trumpeter Marquis Hill, who will play at Studio TD at 6 p.m. Sunday (and it will be free, remember!). Famous concert, although offered in a half-full room, unfortunately; McCraven does it again Friday and Saturday, with different formations.
Then head for the Monument-National, to hear Christian McBride again, preceded by the quartet of trumpeter and buglist Rachel Therrien, essentially offering the material from his beautiful album. VENA, launched in full first containment. After the intermission, only a double bass and a grand piano remained on stage; when he showed up, Christian McBride first greeted the crowd, saying he was honored to be back in Montreal. On receiving the festival invitation, he then explained, he assembled an orchestra, but in the end, it didn’t work with his accompanists, so he called on an old acquaintance… None other than Kenny Barron, warmly applauded by an audience delighted with this prestigious surprise!
It was, unsurprisingly, a classic concert, but warm, the duo revisiting the standards with a palpable complicity. At 79, Barron performs with remarkable liveliness, exchanging solos with McBride and, between the pieces, a few anecdotes. after playing Dizzy Gillespie, the bassist went there on his own, his first meeting with the master, at the age of 15. The veteran, who was part of Gillespie’s quartet in the 1960s, of course had more to add, with the two making the audience burst into laughter. Let’s just sum up by saying that there was a lot of talk about the legendary trumpeter’s digestive system…
Finally, head to Place des Festivals, a real obstacle course with orange cones, secure entrances and crowded sidewalks. So many festival-goers! Huge queues everywhere, to the point of not being able to tell if people were waiting to go to the bathroom, buy a beer or renew their passport.
The good mood, above all, which roared as loudly as the applause. Tash Sultana had the crowd in her hand, a crowd attentive to her every move. The artist mixes genres, rock, pop, funk, reggae, R & B, finding in this jumble the right balance giving him his personality. Sultana impresses less with her compositions (pleasant, catchy, rarely memorable) than with her versatility: a guitar around her neck, her fingers on a sequencer, and why not a flute, trumpet or saxophone solo? All these instruments are within his reach – not all equally well mastered, the guitar is clearly his weapon of choice and his best embodied solos, but when it comes to charisma and spectacle, Tash Sultana throws it off.