The Montreux Jazz Festival archive contains recordings dating back to the 1960s, carefully archived and preserved, many of which have been released on LP and are considered classics. My tattered copy of Marlena Shaw live in London still sounds as lively as it did decades ago.
Their extensive collection of footage is equally captivating and this year, in addition to many other free-to-enter events, the festival set up a dedicated screening room to show past performances by artists such as Patti Smith, Marianne Faithfull, Sinéad O’Connor and Toots & The Maytals, providing a welcome change from the occasional spectacular storm that interrupted the otherwise balmy weather.
Another legacy Claude Nobs left behind was his infamous hospitality and reverence for the musicians who played at the festival. “I can say that the reverence for music and musicians is very high here,” Joe tells me. “And the Swiss hospitality is genuine. I mean, since we’ve been here, everyone has made sure we have a good time. We rented a little pontoon boat, went out on the lake, jumped in the middle and had this panoramic view of the mountains and the castle. I couldn’t ask for much more.”
This spectacular view formed the backdrop of this year’s festival’s main stage, the Lake Stage, where Sting, Air, Massive Attack, Jon Batiste and Michael Kiwanuka provided the musical accompaniment to picture-perfect sunsets over Lake Geneva. Vulfpeck, supported by YouTube busker and now electro-hip-hop star Marc Rebillet, played a set of new and classic material, mixing elegant yacht rock with sugary sweet Sesame Street Soul; Dart attacks his bass with Olympic finger strength, everyone on stage and in the audience is having an incredible time.
At one point, guitarist Theo Katzman left the stage and reappeared, still playing, on the balcony of a top-floor apartment building opposite. Seeing a band playing so well together, with such radiant, transcendent sound quality, in such an incredibly beautiful venue, typifies the pinch-me moments that the Montreux Jazz Festival has managed to maintain despite its inevitable evolution since the 1960s. There really is no other festival that comes close. Dart agrees. “If I came to see a band live,” he says, “that would be about as good as I could get.”
The members of Vulfpeck have many other creative ideas: keyboardist Jack Stratton is the band’s manager and also involved in mixing and producing; Dart is involved in several other groups, including one called “Olllam”, whose sound contains elements of Irish folklore.
Vulfpeck’s next release, he tells me, follows the 2022 release Sweatwill be a live album. If they manage to recapture the magic of their Montreux performance, it will be a gift for superfans and casual admirers alike.
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