Swing in the Street: Betty's Jazz Fest Lowdown
Opening Day
The festival got off to a smashing start with a opening cocktail party at the Musée des Arts Contemporains where organizers and special guests were honoured and the festival reminisced about the last twenty years. A large delegation from Louisiana was present for the special tribute to the southern state and their 300 years of historical French culture and music. And the wife of the late, great painter Alfred Pellan gave a touching speech about contributing a print by her husband to the commemorative souvenir collection.
The first show I attended was 8 1/2 Souvenirs who played on the massive du Maurier main stage. From Austin, Texas, this quintet has been entertaining crowds in the Southwest and West coast for a few years now, and made their Canadian debut at the festival. They did some great tunes off their new album to be released this fall (called "Twisted Desire") and totally got the crowd worked up. Chrysta Bell's voice is beautiful and they ran the gamut of swing, blues, lounge and folksy French-style twang (courtesy of guitarist Olivier Girard) - and even did a few tunes in French to the delight of the crowd!
Then it was time to inaugurate the Labatt Blue Dry Swing Stage with the Swingtown Sinners, a local band we should be proud to call Montreal's own. They've never performed with such energy and sounded right up there with the best of East Coast talent! Lead singer Nigel's voice was on the ball and the horn section impressive. Dancers from Miss Wolff's Jiving School provided additional entertainment on the side stages which really added to the party-like atmosphere! And, of course, there was dancing in the crowd - many recognizable faces were out in full force swingin' in the gravel (kickin' up dirt they were!) and on the grass. The crowd likely numbered around 2,000, and I have a feeling the swing stage is going to be the place to be this year! The music and dancing's only going to get better, folks!