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“Montreux is known for special meetings of stars,” Swiss fan David Pittet said as the lights went on to mark the opening of the 45^th edition of the Montreux jazz festival on 2 July 2011.  Then the legendary Mexican-born American Carlos Santana, dressed white head to toe with his black curls touching his shoulders, appeared on stage along with John McLaughlin.  The two legendary guitarists kicked off the concert with a spiritual note from the 1960s and 70s.  They performed tunes by John Coltrane, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin, including among others, the soul-searching “The Life Divine” the acoustic version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”.  The concert climaxed with Miles Davis’ Black Satin and John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”.

The festival is held in July in Rotterdam every year.  Simultaneous, multiple, mega-sized concerts for three days - that is the festival’s agenda.

Before looking at this year’s lineup, let us take a minute to reminisce on two amazing sets that took place in 2009.  To most of us, the accordion is rare in jazz.  Yet Richard Galliano has taken this instrument to a new level, using it to accentuate a style that is expansive, embracing the full romantic arc from Brazilian music to Bach recently.  Inspired initially by a renewal of the tango, Richard Galliano has revived a forgotten form of turn-of-the century Parisian dance music, and replaced the bagpipes and horns of the original bluesy musette with his accordion.  The fond memories brought by North Sea did not stop here.  Chucho Valdes is called the piano wonder of the world.  There is a reason for that.  What he did was to resolve decades of forced separation between jazz and Cuban music.  We may look forward to more surprises in this year’s festival.

Clifford Brown died in 1956 at age 25.  On 26 June 2011 and as part of an annual festival held in his honor, a trio formed by drummer Tom Palmer, guitarist Dexter Koonce and trumpet player Tony Smith played a tribute to the Jazz legend at Mount Zion Cemetery to the left of the gravestone marked “Clifford Brown”.  By the side of the gravestone which is decorated with engravings of musical notes and trumpets, they played four songs, one of which was a cover of Brown’s “Sandu”.  The final was a musical tribute, “I Remember Clifford Brown”, which brought particularly warm applause.  There was an air of elation when Carey announced at the end of the session the formation of a new organization, Clifford’s Jazz Messenger, which will raise money to maintain Brown’s gravesite.  Harmon B. Carey, the executive director of the Afro-American Historical Society and president of Friends of Mount Zion Cemetery was the key person behind the idea of co-sponsoring the jam session in the cemetery.

In remembrance of Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, the prominent member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Branford Marsalis wrote about the impact the band had had on him.  Marsalis admitted to once, as a young man back then, having a tendency to focus on facility and “hipness”, as opposed to the power of musical intent.  Hearing Clemons and the band play with the effect of themselves being above the songs or not even aware of the song’s existence was a nurturing experience indeed.