The Montreux Jazz Festival Miami capped its 2nd edition with a weekend of intimate, soulful and funky vibes. This year’s rendition was highlighted by Janelle Monáe, Chaka Khan, WILLOW, and of course, the festival’s ringleader, Jon Batiste, as well as a special appearance by Shania Twain, among many others.
The Montreux Jazz Festival traditionally takes place in Montreux, Switzerland. So the Festival here is basically the same concept, but in Miami, in the middle of our peak season. Not unlike how Art Basel originated in Switzerland, and comes here for a Miami edition.
In Europe, Montreux is a fifteen-day festival, with each night welcoming two headliners. It’s hard to call it a “jazz” festival. Last year’s lineup welcomed diverse bands like Duran Duran, The Smashing Pumpkins, Justice, Jungle, Thee Sacred Souls, Alice Cooper, Massive Attack and so on. Many of those acts just played III Points here.
Regardless, the Montreux Jazz Festival Miami, overall, was good vibes.
Located at the Regatta Harbor Marina in Coconut Grove, it was smooth, catered, comfortable, low-key, very manicured, a little uppity, a tad fancy, but definitely dope. Inside the old sea-plane hangar, lay the stage where the main acts played.
Montreux Jazz Festival Miami Recap
Come on. Janelle Monáe. Dang. Monáe is a futuristic queen who throws killer parties. Is she a robot? A time traveler? She rocked a killer tuxedo, sung like an angel, and probably had a secret space boat parked out back, perhaps to go meet Prince at some post-modern multi-verse intergalactic Bermuda Triangle after-party.
She crushed her Saturday night set playing almost two hours.
And Jon Batiste: he sliced it, diced it! A musical Swiss Army knife! Batiste plays everything, probably even the kazoo at fancy galas. He’s so smooth, like butter on a hot skillet.
Chaka Khan, legend. Even at 70 years young, her voice could melt glaciers. Chaka Khan could tell a microphone to “talk to the hand” and the microphone would be like, okay.
Having said that, the Miami version of this European event was not without hiccups.
Dare we say, there was an air of elitism. Parking was a nightmare and box office staff saltier than the bay breeze. Also, food and drinks were super overpriced. Ordered two cocktails, doubles, and the bill came to $88 — that’s American dollars for two drinks. Same with the food.
And inside the hangar, a VIP section occupied the front of the stage, maybe 500 deep, sitting in chairs, as all non-VIPs were forced to stand in the back and to the side, in concert quarantine. It’s hard to hype up a crowd with everyone in the front seated.
Finally, the late night super jams, billed as “legendary” and led by Jon Batiste were not that. We counted 22 musicians and singers on stage Saturday night without much direction, creating a discordant mess, as Batiste walked around the stage playing only the cowbell. About 80 percent of the crowd skipped out before that jam mercifully ended.
But at its peak, the event was smooth and well attended and a success. We would be surprised to see this new festival leave Miami, and expect it to only get better.
Acknowledgements
This article’s published with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
