2023-07-05 02:06:52
Diana Krall reconnected in a beautiful way Tuesday evening with her Montreal audience, as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, where she was enthroned as the main headliner.
The 58-year-old British Columbian singer took to the stage at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts almost on the sly, to a brief round of applause.
“Good evening, I’m very happy to be here tonight,” she said in beautiful French enveloped in an Anglophone accent, as she quickly sat down at her piano – which she never left. the whole concert.
On stage, the artist from Nanaimo has bite, something enigmatic and bewitching. When she sings and strums, the audience is very attentive, even static, but each time the music stopped, a roar of applause was heard.
MARTIN ALARIE / MONTREAL JOURNAL
In return, the singer’s asides to the crowd were all very brief, serving mainly to introduce her songs. “Montreal is my favorite place to do jazz. Being here brings back so many memories”, she slipped between two songs in her soft deep voice, which one might think shy, in the premise of “Isn’t This a Lovely Day Today” and “Devil May Care” .
MARTIN ALARIE / MONTREAL JOURNAL
The jazz singer – the only one to have eight albums that debuted at the top of the Billboard jazz chart – offered numerous covers during her program, including “You Call It Madness (But I Call It Love)” by Nat king Cole, “Exactly Like You” by Nina Simone and “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” by Sarah Vaughan.
Saying that she loves the rain, she also offered a touching version, all her own, of the piece “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Leonard Cohen. She did not, however, sing her huge hit “The Look of Love”.
MARTIN ALARIE / MONTREAL JOURNAL
Diana Krall was accompanied on Tuesday by Anthony Wilson on guitar, Jeff Hamilton on drums and John Clayton on double bass.
The Festival on track to achieve its objectives
The Montreal International Jazz Festival should reach a level of attendance this year specific to what it experienced before the pandemic, i.e. nearly one million visitors to its sites.
In an interview last week, Maurin Auxéméry, the new programming director of the FIJM (and the Francos) – to whom Laurent Saulnier passed the torch last year – said he was optimistic, although this variant was difficult to be evaluated and that the Festival set itself more financial than human objectives.
“Last year we had a lot of people at the Festival, but we felt we were missing the tourist aspect. I think that these people we will find them this year with the reopening of the American borders unconditionally, ”he explained, specifying that the weather also weighed in the balance.
The director of programming also indicated that the hotels for the first weekend of the festival were “almost all full since November”. The organizers also consider that a little less than a third of festival-goers (28.7%) would be tourists and excursionists.
As for indoor concerts, Mr. Auxéméry expects to sell 90% of the tickets on the market.
The 43rd edition of the Montreal International Jazz Festival continues until July 8. For all programming: montrealjazzfest.com
Diana Krall will be back at Place des Arts on Wednesday evening.
A rejuvenation treatment
The organizers of the Montreal International Jazz Festival have observed a big rejuvenation of the crowd since the last year, when there were nearly 50% of people who were under the age of 35 on the site.
“It’s a good trend. We feel that it is renewed, the jazz style is renewed and this is good news for us! There is a breath of fresh air in jazz, which remains niche music, but which is once again becoming a cool niche,” said programming director Maurin Auxéméry.
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