Where Legends are born
The Montreux Jazz Festival takes place for two weeks every summer in Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva. Created in 1967 by Claude Nobs, the Montreux Jazz Festival has become over the years an essential event, generating fantastic stories and legendary performances.
Nearly 250,000 spectators come to the Festival every year, enjoying a breathtaking setting, concerts with renowned acoustics and many free stages. With its ambitious programming choices, musical diversity and warm welcome, the Montreux Jazz Festival offers a privileged experience to musicians and the public.
In Montreux, the proximity between the greatest artists and their audiences encourages the emergence of rare moments. Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen and David Bowie delivered historic performances in Montreux. Deep Purple and Prince even helped to write the legend of the place in their songs, while David Bowie and Freddie Mercury came to live in the region and record albums.
While jazz and blues are at the heart of the event, other styles of music quickly found their place there. More recently, Muse, Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keys, Adele, Lady Gaga, Tyler The Creator and Rita Ora have played in Montreux and honoured the legends that preceded them.
Since its creation, the Festival has been a forward-thinking organization that has carefully recorded all its concerts. With more than 11,000 hours of live music, this unique collection of audiovisual archives is now registered in UNESCO's «Memory of the World» Register. According to Quincy Jones, it is «the most important testimony in the history of music covering jazz, blues and rock».
