50 summers of musics - Book of 50 years of the Montreux Jazz Festival

400 pages, 175 photographs, 60 stories

Texts by Arnaud Robert

Preface by Mathieu Jaton, director of the Montreux Jazz Festival

June 1967: a Swiss zebulon named Claude Nobs launches in his small town in French-speaking Switzerland one of the most beautiful musical adventures of his time. Fifty years later, the Montreux Jazz Festival is told by those who made it. The voice of Nina Simone, the trumpet of Miles Davis, the guitar of BB King resonate in the uncompromising stories of Quincy Jones, Carlos Santana and Lenny Kravitz. Sixty artists recount here the most beautiful pages in the history of live music. A half-century of urgency, incredible stories, incandescent beauties. Half a century of recording audiovisual archives now listed as UNESCO World Heritage.

This story, which continues to be written, is brought to life through nearly 200 photographs. Mostly new, they embody this legendary festival, back and on stage. This book does not claim to tell “the beautiful story” of this extraordinary festival. He leaves it to the artists.