2023-06-30 04:42:39
Interview
Mathieu Jaton: “In 2023 in Montreux, we returned to normal stress”
After two years of Covid and a 2022 edition where staff and infrastructure were lacking, the director of the Montreux Jazz Festival finds the excitement he knows. Before future upheavals.
PostedJune 30, 2023, 6:42 AM
The Montreux Jazz Festival takes place from June 30 to July 15, 2023, with Mathieu Jaton at the helm for ten years.
Marc Ducrest
D-Day for the Montreux Jazz Festival. Simply Red will open the 57th edition this Friday evening, Nile Rodgers & Chic will close it on Saturday July 15. For two weeks, the party should again be beautiful at Stravinsky, at the Lab and in all places free of the demonstration. Faithful to the post, the director, Mathieu Jaton, gives us his feelings, his desires and his projects.
How do you feel just before the launch of this 57th edition?
There is a lot of excitement, the desire to finally get there. Of course, there are always little last-minute unforeseen events, but nothing to do with 2022. Remember: we’ve all experienced extremely complicated festival set-ups, with staff and infrastructure shortages. Prices continued to rise, but it’s not a surprise, we were able to work on it upstream. There, we return to normal stress. (Laughs.)
We talk again these last days in the press of the explosion of the stamps of the artists. How is Montreux doing?
It should be noted that it is not always the artist’s fee – the money he puts in his pocket – that is more expensive, but the production. There is a double effect. Artists tour more, so they become less rare and need to always have more production in their concerts, more material, more people on the road. And with the energy crisis, everything costs more. But there are sometimes groups that I see coming up with such productions, I say to myself: “Compared to your music, what is the point?” Montreux has been dealing with the problem of fees for more than fifteen years, it’s nothing new for us.
Since the record market collapsed.
So. We have always had a low capacity and an inability to pay certain fees. There is a limit at which we stop. But you can count on the magic of Montreux, the artists like to come in this setting and change their production. We are also doing a lot of work on accommodation with the support of hoteliers and the Montreux Tourist Office. The exceptional thing about the Montreux Jazz Festival is that an artist stays there for several days. And it’s a bit of the ransom of glory, some stay almost two weeks! (Laughs.) This is the case of Jon Batiste who rehearses for eight days because he is doing a unique project. We try to preserve the exceptional in a market that is very complicated, and we see that it works.
“Tickets for artists who have an attachment to the public of Montreux are always going faster”
Mathieu Jaton, director of the Montreux Jazz Festival
The opening night, with Simply Red at the Stravinsky, also went well, very quickly showing almost sold out. How do you explain it?
Yes, in order, the parties that went first were those with Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, Lionel Richie and Simply Red. It’s a double set with Tom Odell, they are two artists who attract two different generations. And Mick Hucknall has a great history with the festival, he did special projects there, came as a guest with Quincy Jones, with Ahmet Ertegün too. Tickets for artists who have an attachment for the public of Montreux are always going faster.
Conversely, the evening with Lil Nas X, Tuesday July 4, who is nevertheless a star, did not panic the counters.
The sale was not as fast as we imagined, but that’s going well. It’s typically the kind of concert that sells itself on an audience that buys later when the festival arrives. Like Maluma’s (note: July 11 at Stravinsky): we haven’t stopped selling them for a week, so it’s gone quietly. We have the same case at the Lab. Maybe it’s the Latin side, hip-hop.
Let’s not forget the free program of the Montreux Jazz Festival. A favorite?
Love Simone (note: Thursday July 6 at Lisztomania), an artist we invited to Villars at the MJF Spotlight Sessions. He’s my favorite of the year, both for his personality and his music. And I won’t miss Marcus Miller’s workshop (Friday July 14), who is awesome and so generous.
The 2023 edition is the last within the walls of the 2m2c congress center before major works. If all goes well, you will already be back there in 2025?
All the works of the City have indeed been planned so that the festival is only outside the walls during one edition. It’s not that terrible! After the Covid years and the changes we had to make, it should be fine. (Laughs.) There is a difference between having to think about a move for several years and thinking to a crazy project on an edition. In addition, in 2025, we will have to reclaim the building with all the terraces connected to each other and covered, stairs on both sides, different accesses. It is a work tool that will change our lives. We’ll have to reinvent the festival, and that’s super exciting.
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