Autumn of Music Festival 3rd Edition

From 23 to 26 November 2022, the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation presents its autumn festival at the Petit Palais, opposite the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace. It will feature concerts from emerging talents, workshops and jam sessions that the public can attend for free. A series of musical reunions will also mark the 15th anniversary of the non-profit foundation. In parallel, the 8th Montreux Jazz Academy will welcome seven young talents who will benefit from the guidance of renowned mentors, including Gilles Peterson. Together, they will prepare a closing concert which promises to be just as exceptional and full of surprises as it is every year.

For the third consecutive year, the Autumn of Music festival will bring together artists and the public to Montreux in an intimate environment that fosters exchange, creativity and discovery. The event will take place over four evenings from Wednesday 23 to Saturday 26 November in the
sumptuous setting of the Petit Palais. After the success of the first two editions, the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation is keeping the hybrid formula of its event with a public programme of concerts and cultural mediation activities, as well as a residency reserved for the Montreux Jazz Academy musicians.

This edition will have a special flavour as the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation (MJAF) celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. The Foundation is inviting back several artists who have pursued brilliant careers after participating in its competitions and programs. Former prize winners in piano, guitar and voice will perform in a special series of pocket concerts. Other MJAF alumni will participate in the event through Academy courses and workshops.

Autumn of Music is also marked this year by the presence of Gilles Peterson. A longstanding friend of the Montreux Jazz Festival, the producer, DJ and broadcaster has supported the project with all his passion and dedication. In addition to his role in the Academy’s musical direction, the Londoner will host listening sessions, record his famous BBC show live from Montreux and will be behind the decks for the closing night, which he has named «Celebrating Jazz & Club Culture». This motto illustrates more generally the musical line and the artistic freedom that he wishes to instill during this edition of Autumn of Music.

Montreux Jazz Academy

Created in 2014, the Montreux Jazz Academy is a residency for musicians based on the transmission and exploration of new artistic approaches.

For its 8th edition, the Academy will take place under the direction of four London-based artists: producer Gilles Peterson, saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch, multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray and saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael. All four participated in the Montreux Jazz Festival last summer. Soweto Kinch and Emma-Jean Thackray have also taken part in MJAF programs in the past. Two additional mentors will support the quartet: Chicago-based saxophonist Chico Freeman and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

Seven young talents have been selected by the Foundation to benefit from this week of residence: Nils Boyny from France (keyboard), Rosa Brunello from Italy (bass) and the British musicians Davina Adeosun-Bright (vocals), Abi Asisa (cello), Jelly Cleaver (guitar, vocals), Oscar Ogden (drums) and Kemani Anderson (vocals). Their programme will be intensive and thrilling, to say the least. Mornings will be devoted to practical workshops with music industry and media experts designed to help them manage their careers. In the afternoon, the young talents will work together on their own compositions, revisited for the closing concert.

Closing concert: 26 November 2022

The closing concerts of the Montreux Jazz Academy always have an element of the unexpected. Over the course of an evening, the seven participants and their mentors exchange music in novel, ephemeral groups. The guiding theme being the original compositions of young talents, revisited for the occasion with great scope left for improvisation.

Swiss Rising Talents

The Swiss Rising Talent concerts highlight six up-and-coming Swiss artists. The selection reflects a multilingual and talented Swiss scene in many musical genres.

The programme has been divided into three evenings, each representing a different facet of the Swiss music scene. The Wednesday evening will have a folk-pop flavour with the indie compositions of Auk Nova from Bern and Nola Kin from Zurich. Thursday will be anchored in modern jazz with Basel accordionist Anatole Muster and Zurich multi-instrumentalist Andrina Bollinger. The Friday evening will have a more urban tone with the neo soul of the Ticinese Pilar Vega and the melancholy rap of Valaisan Nuit Incolore.

The Swiss Rising Talent artists will benefit from the creative effervescence of the festival, expand their network and participate in the Academy’s practical workshops. They will also leave with a professionally filmed video of their performance, intended to feed their promotion and content on social media.

Pocket Concerts

The Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation celebrates 15 years of supporting and accompanying emerging talent. For the occasion, it invited back seven artists who enjoyed further success after taking part in one of the piano, voice or guitar competitions. The pocket concerts will allow the public to rediscover these exceptional talents in high-profile solo performances.

As for the pianists, Alfredo Rodriguez from Cuba who was spotted by Quincy Jones in Montreux when he won the piano competition in 2006, needs no introduction. He has since played three trio concerts at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where he also participated in several Quincy Jones projects. Another Cuban, Rolando Luna (2007 winner) has become one of his country’s most prolific artists and has collaborated with many artists including Ibrahim Maalouf and the Buena Vista Social Club. Frenchman Paul Lay (winner in 2007) has released seven albums and received several awards including the Django Reinhardt Award for French Musician of the Year in 2016. Now based in New York, the Franco-Malagasy Mathis Picard (winner & Academy 2014) has conquered the US with his large ensemble, The Sound Orchestra.

Two winners of the voice competitions are also represented. Spanish singer and composer Paula Grande (winner 2013 & Academy 2014) has released three albums as a soloist, toured South America and founded the group Las Karamba. With Swiss, Japanese and Polish roots, Yumi Ito (winner & Academy 2015) blends jazz, art-pop and neo-classical on her album Stardust Crystals, named one of the top 10 releases of 2020 by Jazz Thing magazine.

Finally, Israeli guitarist Yoav Eshed (winner & Academy 2014), now active on the New York scene, has released four albums and won several awards.

Workshops & Music Listening Sessions

Workshops and guided listening sessions will punctuate the early evening of Autumn of Music. The Swiss-Albanian vocalist Elina Duni and the British guitarist Rob Luft will present a workshop on the art of duet playing. The two musicians met at the 2017 Montreux Jazz Academy and released an album together in 2020.

French-Israeli pianist Yaron Herman (Academy mentor in 2014 and 2015) will present a workshop on the theme of improvisation and a listening session of Keith Jarrett’s album My Foolish Heart, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2001. Swiss keyboardist Leo Tardin, winner of the Festival’s first ever piano competition, will present a workshop on the differences between acoustic and electronic keyboards.

There was also a workshop by Chico Freeman on the influence of the blues on jazz and a listening session for Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s album recorded in Montreux in 1991. Gilles Peterson will co-host this and two other listening sessions with Chico Freeman and Chez Damier.

Jam Sessions

Every evening from 10 pm, the jam sessions will be launched by the Lausanne collective Le Chic Astral, which will be joined by musicians from the Academy. Le Chic Astral organises jam sessions in various clubs in French-speaking Switzerland and set the Memphis stage on fire during the Montreux Jazz Festival last summer, under the name Iya Ko and the Guilty Pleasures.