Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland
Set-List:
Numbers included….Rockin At Midnight, I Got A Woman and all-star jam on We Are Family
Reviews:
This review by regular TBL contributor Sunila
Well, I’m glad I knew about Jimmy’s absence beforehand, as was to be expected the festival organizers didn’t say a word about this and no explanations or news about his health. And since I am not paying attention to web rumors I am still worried. I wrote to the customer service at the festival just in case but I doubt I’ll have any return. The poor people at the ticket desk were badly insulted by people who took the “loss” of their money with less philosophy as some of us did. As if this was their fault!
I do feel really bad, after all the ticket was around $220 and I really don’t want to spend that much money on an “ordinary” concert. For Jimmy I would but not for people I can see otherwise (Chic were playing a free concert the next day!)
Anyway that can’t be changed so on to the concert itself. I didn’t take the time to stop and jot down notes so most of my memories are lost already (my brain has an old type of RAM so I can’t retain information for so long)
I was cool to see so many legends and pay homage to Ahmet Ertegun once more, the man shaped most of today’s music industry with his work after all. Ben E King was quite something for me, as his songs were among my favorites as a kid; I still know the words… same goes for Solomon Burke and his Otis Redding tribute. Chaka Khan was fab, standing in for Aretha Franklin. And Chic brought back memories just as old, never was such a fan of theirs but it was fun.
As was to be expected it was a bit silly to be sitting during that sort of concert. Thankfully most of the artists asked us to stand but as security was tight, most people didn’t dare move, or maybe didn’t want to, so the mood of the night was a bit mulled. At the end some people, including myself, vaguely dared going closer to the front and dance but the party mood never really kicked in. I am really trying hard not to feel disappointed by all that but watching this on TV when it’ll come out must be more fun.
Of course with Nile Rogers on stage they played “Rockin’ at Midnight”, then some other rock songs I can’t remember now (sorry):
Later the other guests played “Rock’ N’ Roll” with Steve Nicks on vocals but Robert was nowhere to be seen!
He came back for the finale: “We Are Family” but mostly hid in the back or flirted with one of the singers.
Well sorry for not being more enthusiastic but it was too disappointing, even though I usually try to focus on positive things. In fact the only really cool thing this week end was going to see the Rembrandt exhibition in Vevey, 10 minutes away from Montreux.
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