Montreux Jazz Festival honours Quincy Jones

Chaka Khan 'and friends': an evening that would have pleased Quincy Jones Keystone-SDA

American artist Chaka Khan ‘and friends’ opened the 59th Montreux Jazz Festival on Friday. For over three hours, their show, dedicated to their friend and mentor Quincy Jones, thrilled the audience, as did the magical décor of the Lake Stage.

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The iconic American diva, who has recorded over 2,000 songs during her career, devised an exclusive show for the festival dedicated to the memory of Jones, who died last November at the age of 91. Very close to Q, the nickname given to Jones by Frank Sinatra, she took part on several occasions in the parties he organised in Montreux.

“This place is like my musical second home,”, Khan said at the start of the concert. Friday was her 21st appearance on a Montreux stage, including six as headliner.

As archive footage of Jones flashed across the screen, the 72-year-old singer, who is currently on tour to celebrate 50 years in the music business, mixed classical showmanship with a tribute to the American producer and trumpeter, “someone who has meant a lot” to her.

“To Quincy with Love” brought back the unique atmosphere that reigned on stage in Montreux during the evenings organised by Jones, where a plethora of guests crossed paths. A whole gang joined the singer on stage, starting with Siedah Garrett, another voice who left her mark on Jones’s discography.

Then came the Americans Rahsaan Patterson and Lalah Hathaway, the British singer Mica Paris and the Swiss artists Marc Sway and Jan “Seven” Dettwyler, artists who have taken part in Jones’s major shows at the Montreux Jazz Festival and elsewhere.

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A mix of funk, pop, hip-hop, R’n’B and even blues, the show clearly won over the audience, with the lake and the setting sun as a backdrop. The artists revived a catalogue of Jones’s legendary songs, including “The Place You Find Love”, “Tomorrow (Better You)”, “Baby come to me” and “You put a move on my heart”.

Marc Sway recalled Jones’s love of Brazilian music and gave the audience a taste of it with a magnificent “Desafinado”. Seven invited the audience into his Secret garden. “Stuff Like That”, “I’m Every Woman” and “Ain’t Nobody” brought together all of Chaka Khan’s guests.

Around the world

This unique concert, created especially for the Montreux Jazz Festival, will be broadcast worldwide as part of the livestream programme.

Long-time friends, Chaka Khan and Jones worked together on the album Masterjam (1979) and on the producer’s greatest hits such as “Stuff like That” and “I’ll be good to you”, sung as a duet with Ray Charles. The singer last came to Montreux in 2011 as Jones’s guest.

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Every summer for over 30 years, the Montreux Jazz Festival was the second home of Quincy Jones, “a wonderful man, incredibly generous”, said festival director Mathieu Jaton.

Jones first came to Montreux in 1990 and put together a series of tailor-made evenings with musicians from every continent and generation, from Phil Collins and Petula Clark to Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, Simply Red and Jon Batiste. He was a close friend of festival founder Claude Nobs, with whom he shared a broad vision of music and an interest in all styles.

After the death of ‘Funky Claude’ in 2013, Jones redoubled his presence and availability. He had not returned to the festival since then, for health reasons.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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