Between the Beats

This year’s program of the Montreux Jazz Festival once again is fantastic. Every year Claude Nobs seems to surpass himself with his festival. Nowhere in the world, you can see and listen to so much high quality music in such a great setting.

I was lucky to spend two unforgettable concert nights in Montreux last week. On July 6th, I saw SMV, which are Über-Bass-Players Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten and on July 9th the wonderful Raphael Saadiq, both at the Miles Davis Hall.

My expectations were very high, when SMV published their album “Thunder” last year. I asked myself, how can three of the very best Jazz Bass players show their individual class and at the same time harmonise as a “rhythm trio”. Listen to the CD and you will see, only geniuses like them can do that.

Live on stage SMV is even better. Their Montreux performance gave all three of them a lot of room for breathtaking solos, each of them in their typical style. Stanley Clarke plays a very smooth guitar like style, like we know him back from his time with Return to Forever, the Fusion supergroup from the 70s. The great Marcus Miller’s Bass is groovy and funky as always and Victor Wooten’s technique  sometimes sounds as not from this world. The concert highlights for me were a minimum 15 minutes version of the Miles Davis classic “Tutu” and “Beat it”, SMV’s hommage to the great Michael Jackson. It was an unforgettable, very intensive concert.

Also Raphael Saadiq’s concert on July 9th was an unforgettable experience. Last year he published his album “The Way I See It”, which is a tribute to the “good old times” of the Motown/Stax era, however it never sounds as just a copy. Saadiq is able to give this music a modern touch without loosing the roots. The band was very tight and Raphael Saadiq in top form. I particularly liked the slow tempo tracks “Oh Girl” and “Sometimes”. Very moving was Raphael Saadiq’s performance of the Jackson Five’s “ABC” “for his brother Michael”. The concert was a wonderful soulnight at its best.

Tags: Marcus Miller, Michael Jackson, Montreux Jazz Festival, Raphael Saadiq, Return to Forever, Stanley Clarke, Stax, Victor Wooten

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