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Official Site of the Montreal International Jazz Festival Jerry Beach Band plays theMontreal International Jazz Festival"A professional musician for more than 40 years, guitarist-singer-songwriter Jerry Beach brings his six-piece band to town from Shreveport, Louisiana - which means even if the music is R&B or gospel-tinged it never strays too far from its southern-blues foundations. Just about everyone - including powerhouse daughter Robin - contributes to the vocals, and Montrealers are privileged to be getting a first look at a man just recently elevated to the ranks of Louisiana Living Legend." (from the festival program)
This is the second year that the Louisiana Office of Tourism has partnered with the Montreal International Jazz Festival; it is the only state to enter into a promotional partnership with the festival. "It's held in Quebec, they're French-speaking, there's an affinity with Louisiana," explains Louisiana Music Hall of Fame member Jerry Beach. His band performed on scène de la Louisiane on July 9th, 2000, one of nine bands selected to represent the state. He shares with us his first impressions of the festival and of the city. Robin Beach, at nine months pregnant, was unable to go, "and it's a good thing, too!" jokes her father. "If Robin had seen Montreal, she wouldn't have left!""The Montreal Jazz Fest is different from any other festival in that it's held right downtown in old Montreal. They block a street off, or an intersection, and set up a stage. T-shirts are sold in downtown shops. Most of the festival is paid for with grants from major corporations, like General Motors and US Airways. So, nearly all entertainment is free, there's no admission. It's a nice festival, the main emphasis is on jazz, jazz first, and blues, kind of like the New Orleans festival.We left Saturday morning (July 8th) and got there that afternoon.... When we got to the Festival Headquarters, where you check in, they had a big bag for us. In that bag, would you believe there were festival t-shirts, that year's official Montreal International Jazz Fest posters, maps.... I have never been anywhere where they did that for you. Not the New Orleans festival, not even at the little festivals in Shreveport. That was so nice!Our hotel was downtown. We could walk right out of our hotel and be at a stage in minutes. We were free all Saturday night, all day Sunday to listen to music, to look around. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, it was about 72 degrees.... The city is beautiful. Everywhere there is dirt, there are flowers. The entire city is in bloom. I mean flowers everywhere! The city of Montreal is an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, which empties at Niagara Falls. So it's a big river! Greater Montreal, which includes the suburbs built up on the sides of the river, is around 3.5 million. It's a very international town. French is the predominant language.... some people don't speak English. They have every kind of restaurant you could want. Lebanese, Thai, Japanese... we had a little of everything!There were really good bands playing. There weren't really too many people we knew. A lot of the bands were from Canada. The New Birth Brass Band (from New Orleans) was doing the parade in the afternoons.... they were really doing good at what they did, winding through the crowds....We played two shows Sunday night, 8pm and 10pm. We had huge crowds! We did all originals and blues songs that we have actually recorded. The next day the paper wrote that we not only did a great show, we did two great shows, because we didn't play the same songs. The one down side of the whole trip was that I took one case of CDs with me. I figured I'd be hauling some back home. But by 9:30pm, before the second set had even started, we were sold out. I bet we could have sold 2 or 3 more cases.... Can you call that a down side?You know what Montreal is? You have a different generation of people, they dress differently, everybody has tattoos and piercings. But it is San Francisco of '69. There are a lot of young people. We saw no problems with anybody. I never saw a single policeman walking through the downtown. I remember Johnny Broussard saying, "The whole time we have been here, we haven't run into a single rude person."We loved it, we had a great time. Our driver told us that among all the staff people we had sort of unofficially been voted the most congenial. We would love to go back."
Editor's Note: The Montreal International Jazz Festival attracts millions of visitors from all over the world each year.... It is hard to believe that the festival had an inauspicious start in 1979. Its success can be attributed to the creativity, determination, and the vision of its founder, Alain Simard, and his associates, André Ménard and Denyse MaCann. Their story is inspiring, and perhaps it holds some relevance for Shreveport today . More.....
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