(***1/2) 

The “who’s who” of the music industry, over the last six decades, are on view in this loving tribute to Claud Nobs, the founder of the world-class, world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival. As he gets his flowers, music lovers get vivid clips of iconic musicians in performance, backstage and being casual.  

You can’t beat the setting. Montreux, a resort town, sits on the banks of powder-blue Lake Geneva, Switzerland and is backdropped by the Alps. In the 1960s Nobs worked in the tourist office and sought a way to get more travelers to come to his hometown. Young, gutsy and in love with American blues and jazz, he made a deal with Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic records to procure their artists and the rest is history. Well documented history. Over the years Nobs was a fastidious collector of festival videos of the greatest musicians. Videos that were turned into digital footage for posterity and all to see.  

In 1967 Miles Davis, Nina Simone and a very sweet and humble Ella Fitzgerald inaugurated the first fest. Nobs was their host, the MC and known for welcoming performers into his own home. That became a tradition. Come to Montreux, drink and eat at Nob’s, perform and mix with other musicians from around the world. As the years went by, rock, folk, R&B, pop, juju, Brazilian music and a multitude of genres were embraced. A three-day fest turned into a two-week extravaganza and in the 1990s, for a while, Quincy Jones became a co-producer and brought the classiest superstar performers to Montreux. 

Jones is an executive producer on this doc, which is helmed by Brit director Oliver Murray who’s previous documentary Ronnie’s, about saxophonist Ronnie Scott’s famous London jazz club, helped prepare him to master all the moving parts involved with this ambitious project. In many documentaries the filmmakers are lucky if they even have old grainy footage and blurry photos as their raw materials. Since Nobs was a supreme archivist, Murray, along with editors Janka Troeber and Tim Thompsett, gets a great assist from very graphic footage.  

The concerts started in the original Montreux Casino, which burned down in 1971 during a Frank Zappa concert. The rock group Deep Purple told their interpretation of that fiery event in their famous song “Smoke on the Water.” The new Montreux Casino, built in 1975, hosted the fest until 1993, when it switched to the Montreux Convention Centre. Those years in the new casino may be the most legendary. 

E.g. in 1991, it featured the reunion of Miles Davis and the Gil Evans Orchestra, conducted by Jones, for a live performance of their classic, beautiful Sketches of Spain album, originally recorded in 1960. Davis’s playing was slightly hampered, but heart felt. He died months later, and few even knew at the time that he was so sick. That concert was recorded and became the Grammy Award winning album Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. The record was released in August 1993 and won Davis his seventh Grammy, this time for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance. That’s the kind of impact the festival has had on the music industry. 

All of the details of the fest, its performers and Nobs are captured, assembled and arranged by the filmmakers in the most artful ways. Every frame is visually fascinating and an historic record of artists at their peak. So much so, watching these musicians display their talent and mingle with others who are equally brilliant becomes a profound experience. The cast list is as astounding as the music being played and heard — Etta James, Carlos Santana, Prince, Sting, Aretha Franklin, King Sunny Ade…

Discovering the scandal that almost destroyed Claude Nobs’ career, his resurgence and the weirdness surrounding his death makes the footage engaging. The challenges he faced as the festival’s founder and enduring director, coupled with the legacy he left behind, is as involving as it is worthy of respect. Hard to think of anyone, beside veteran concert promoter Bill Graham (Fillmore East and West), who had this kind of impact on live concerts and the artists who wanted to share their music at an international venue.

Thank heaven for the Swiss impresario who magically brought artists and fans together to an annual celebration that brings 250,000 music lovers to picturesque Montreux every July. The Montreux Jazz Festival and the person who gave it birth, Claude Nobs, deserve this eloquent tribute. Carlos Santana recalls, “Claude was the Merlin of the jazz festival.” Now that’s been duly noted.       

For information about the Tribeca Film Festival go to: https://www.tribecafilm.com
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.