Montreux Jazz Festival’s founder, Claude Nobs, began the festival in 1966, and almost immediately started recording and archiving all the festival’s performances. Over the years the Montreux Festival’s musical collection has expanded into a rich library of performances that document the artistic evolution of many musical greats. Finally, through an arrangement with BMG, these historic moments will become far more widely available. The first releases from what will be an extensive series of albums are by Etta James and Nina Simone. The albums will be available in a multitude of formats, including a double LP, a 2-CD set, and streaming (with MQA on Tidal, FLAC on Qobuz). The next three artists in the featured in the series will be Marianne Faithfull, Muddy Waters, and John McLaughlin, and the plan is to put out ten titles in 2022. In most cases listeners will have the options of choosing between a 2-LP set and a single CD.
Executive producer Fraser Kennedy enlisted mastering engineer Tony Cousins to handle the project. According to Cousins, “The audio quality of some of these recordings was extremely variable. The different formats of the original recordings included ¼”, ½”, DAT, U-matic, and 1″ Betacam. Some used multi-track for mixing later, some came from a feed to the mixing desk, and others were taken from Swiss radio broadcasts. The analogue audio was mostly transferred to the archive at 96k.” While I was writing this review, the CDs and LPs have not yet been released, so I was sent 16/44.1 WAV files to audition. Judging by the hooded character to the crowd clapping on the earliest tracks, I suspect a couple of selections were taken from an original cassette recording, but even the tracks with the least fidelity are more than listenable, while the best-sounding cuts are near-reference quality.
Etta James: The Montreux Years
There are two versions of this release. The LP contains 13 cuts on two LPs while the CD and streaming versions have 21 tunes on two CDs. Since I hadn’t received the LPs, I listened to the CD/streaming release version. The first of the two CDs has selections from 1977, 1978, 1989, 1990, and 1993. The newest material contained therein has three songs from a July 15, 1993, show. The second CD of the two-CD set contains all nine tunes from a show that took place on July 11, 1975. While the later material displays more showmanship, the earlier material demonstrates how strong and flexible Etta James’ voice was during her “prime.” Also, the later songs have more solos and longer solos, with Ms. James sharing the limelight with her most excellent band.
Two songs sequenced next to each other on the first CD, “Tell Mama” from 1977 and “Running and Hiding Blues” from 1990, show how Etta James’ band sound changed over the years. In 1977 the band featured a horn section and more of a traditional R&B sound. By 1990 her band was more rock and roll, driven by guitars and a harmonica soloist rather than horns. Regardless of whether the performance is from the late 70s or early aughts, one thing remains the same—James’ energy and ability to connect with the audience.
Nina Simone: The Montreux Years
Like the Etta James release, the Nina Simone album is available in two versions. The LP version contains 16 tracks. The earliest is from 1968 while the latest are from 1990. The 2-CD digital version has 29 tracks. The first CD has 15 tracks that duplicate the LP, while the second CD has the complete concert in Kursaal from June 16, 1968. On the LP and first CD you can hear how Simone’s performances changed over the years. The earliest selections have far more singing and shorter spoken word sections than later performances. The 1990 selections are more like spoken words to music than songs.
After listening to the first CD, which displays the wide arc of Ms. Simone’s different performances, the second CD (and the streaming versions available via Tidal and Qobuz) delivers one complete set from the time when Ms. Simone was more into music than activism, which I suspect some percentage of her audience may prefer to her later shows. Although the distortion on the organ and other instruments is quite noticeable, Ms. Simone’s vocals are clear and up front and from her first notes her unmistakable timbre is abundantly present.
I will admit that I spent far more time listening to the second CD than the first. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing this set’s much tighter orchestrations and Ms. Simone’s voice when she was in her prime, which gives those of us who never had the opportunity to hear her live during this time a chance to experience the measure of her true greatness.
By Steven Stone
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