The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Montreux Jazz Festival pays homage to music legend Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones: strong ties with the Montreux Jazz Festival
Quincy Jones maintained strong ties with the Montreux Jazz Festival over the past 30 years. Keystone-SDA

The Montreux Jazz Festival has paid tribute to the music legend Quincy Jones, who died on Sunday at age 91. The US trumpeter, bandleader, arranger, composer and producer worked with musicians ranging from Count Basie to Michael Jackson. He was the festival’s music ambassador.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The Montreux Jazz Festival was Jones’s second home every summer for over 30 years.

“Quincy Jones first came to the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1990. He was co-producer between 1991 and 1993. It was the start of a great friendship with [festival founder] Claude Nobs, who called him his ‘brother from another mother’,” Mathieu Jaton, director of the festival, told the Keystone-ATS news agency.

+ US toasts Quincy Jones and Claude Nobs

In 1991, Nobs and Jones organised a legendary concert by Miles Davis, who died a few weeks later. Since then, Jones returned every year, organising special tailor-made evenings with stars such as Phil Collins, Petula Clark, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, Simply Red and Jon Batiste.

“Since Claude Nobs’s death in 2013, Quincy redoubled his presence and availability,” said Jaton. “His 85th birthday concert in 2019 brought together a younger generation of artists, for a highly symbolic moment. Since Covid, he hasn’t been back, for health reasons.”

Always incredible projects

“Like Claude Nobs, Quincy had a broad vision of music and was interested in all styles. It was quality that counted. He was the first to bring hip hop to Montreux in the early 90s. He also gave the festival enormous credibility,” said Jaton.

+ The Montreux Jazz Festival in numbers

When Quincy Jones arrived in Montreux, he would declare “I’m back home”, he said.

“Untiring, he always had incredible projects. He went to jam sessions and loved to discover young musicians. In Montreux, he met new talents such as Jacob Collier and Alfredo Rodriguez, whom he took under his wing as producer and mentor. He was always available,” recounts the festival boss.

+ It’s a jazz thing

Jaton remembers his first meeting with “Q”.

“It was 1994 and I was waiting tables at Claude Nobs’s chalet. I was cutting Quincy’s salmon. It became a tradition,” he smiles. Far from being an inaccessible superstar, “he was a wonderful man, incredibly generous”, he added.

Translated from French with DeepL/sb

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

F/A-18 take-offs and landings at Bern-Belp Airport

More

F/A-18s take off and land at Bern Airport

This content was published on The Swiss Armed Forces are training their fighter jets in Bern to fly from a civilian base. The exercise at Bern Airport will last until Wednesday.

Read more: F/A-18s take off and land at Bern Airport
cern

More

Plans materialise for new particle accelerator in Geneva

This content was published on Preparations for a huge new particle accelerator in Geneva have reached a milestone. After several years of work, a feasibility study for the project has now been finalised.

Read more: Plans materialise for new particle accelerator in Geneva
More Russian assets frozen in Switzerland

More

More Russian assets frozen in Switzerland

This content was published on The value of frozen Russian assets in Switzerland currently stands at CHF7.4 billion ($8.4 billion), the Swiss government announced on Tuesday.

Read more: More Russian assets frozen in Switzerland
Increase in business start-ups in the 1st quarter

More

Increase in Swiss business start-ups in Q1

This content was published on The number of business start-ups in Switzerland accelerated in the first three months of the year, with entrepreneurs being particularly dynamic in Central Switzerland, Basel and Geneva.

Read more: Increase in Swiss business start-ups in Q1

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR