It’s the 32nd annual Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. MAGNET’s Mitch Myers translates the action.
Leisurely enjoying a warm Montreal evening and taking in the musical potpourri that is their Jazz Festival, I happened by the wonderful Gesù Theater and caught a solid set by mildly controversial alto saxophonist/vocalist Grace Kelly. I have to admit that watching this 19-year-old Asian-American girl playing bebop alongside alto veteran (and mentor) Phil Woods went a long way in gaining my respect. Her playing is sincere and emotive, and while she may be guilty of lacking depth, that will only change for the better over time. She is also a bit over-stylized as a jazz singer, but she has a decent voice and will certainly grow into that role with practice and isn’t afraid to put herself out there and entertain. In the meantime, Kelly has been playing with all sorts of jazz stars since the age of 13, been all over the world as a performer, leads her own quintet and has just put out her sixth CD, Man With The Hat, which also features her buddy Woods. Clearly, this kid will be around for a while. And why not?
On the opposite end of the age spectrum, the grande dame of rockabilly herself, Ms. Wanda Jackson, rocked and rolled the crowd at Club Soda. And at age 75, that’s really saying something. Energized by the career opportunities presented by Jack White, Jackson is out there hustling her new White-produced The Party Ain’t Over and is backing it up with a live show that delivers the goods. Besides singing old hits like “Fujiyama Mama” and “Let’s Have A Party” and including an obligatory tribute to her old boyfriend Elvis Presley, Jackson is now covering other vintage material including “Riot In Cell Block #9” and cool Eddie Cochran tunes like “Shakin’ All Over” and “Nervous Breakdown.” The main attraction here is that Jackson still has that great wail of a voice. Whether singing straight country or growling her way through some rockabilly-boogie, she is a total pro whose lifetime of performing continues to pay off for new and receptive audiences.
Then, after some delicious congee in Chinatown, it was off to see the Roots play to a very full house at the sizable Metropolis nightclub. The crowd was totally berserk for the band, and the Roots responded with a furious set of hard funk, black rock and adrenalized hip hop that included killer tunes like “The Seed” as well as snippets of crazy covers like “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” “Jungle Boogie,” “Bad To The Bone” and “Rock And Roll, Part 2.” Most significantly to me, the band played a rousing version of the late, great Gil Scott-Heron’s classic warning “The Bottle.” The only problem with this great rocking show was that the Roots chose to cut things quite short and left the enthusiastic audience begging for more and out on the street by 10:30. Although the band put the blame directly on the venue, the Metropolis was unhindered by any sort of curfew, and rumor has it that the real reason for the abrupt cutoff is that ?uestlove was simply in a hurry to go spin records as a guest DJ elsewhere in town. I guess that explains the big limo that was waiting outside the Metropolis. Well, I’m sure that the real party went on in Montreal for ?uestlove, Black Thought and all the rest of the Roots—and even for some of their fans.
