Van Morrison and Steve Winwood, two historic faces of the blues at Montreux

Montreux Jazz Festival - Jonas Follonier

On Wednesday, July 11, Montreux welcomed two musical monsters to its famous auditorium, each in turn having this in common They all share the common trait of having an unbelievable career rooted in the blues and the sixties: Van Morrison and Steve Winwood. Here's a look back at another magical evening.

«All the music I love comes from there, it comes from the blues», said another. Yes, the blues is at the origin of all the music that has really counted in recent years, relegating (alas!) classical music to the rank of distant inspiration or distraction for people of a certain age. But the world is divided into two categories: those who love jazz and those who love rock.

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Last night's event at the Montreux Jazz Festival had the power to bring together two groups of people who are apparently close, but who in fact differ fundamentally in their relationship to music. Radically distinct, the jazz men and rock men are cousins, since they are all descended from mister blues man. So it was a sort of family celebration for us at the Auditorium Stravinski, as the venue was the scene of Van Morrison's first performance, the blues jazz legend, and Steve Winwood, the blues rock legend.

Van Morrison, the unclassifiable, sober voice-instrumentalist

George Ivan Morrison, a.k.a. Van Morrison, is that jazz purist with the look of a redneck, whose ray-bans seem to have robbed him of the ability to perceive his time. Completely out of time and out of the world, this Irish character has been intriguing a wide audience for fifty years, cultivating a sense of secrecy and a rhythm'n'blues music that honors traditional jazz and blues. The bearer of a limpid voice that seems to have always expressed itself through blue notes, Van Morrison is so consistent and precise that it's almost tiresome.

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It's this paradoxical impression that will remain with us from last night's concert by «Van the Man», forcing us to assume a mixed assessment. The artist is undeniably brilliant, mastering his musical genre like no one else - since no one else dares to play such music in 2018 - but we have to admit that we start to yawn after the tenth track. Despite Van Morrison's dazzling saxophone, harmonica and piano solos between verses, despite his voice itself being an instrument of improvisation and despite the excellent solos of his musicians, boredom sets in: it's the same pattern every time.

Steve Winwood, his electric guitar, Hammond organ and glass of wine

After some refreshments, it's time for the other branch of the blues tree, rocker Steve Winwood. Doesn't his name ring a bell? Well, he deserves to. A brief retrospective: at the age of fifteen, he was one of the members of the Spencer Davis Group, where his virtuoso handling of the Hammond organ already left you speechless. So much so that he played with a certain Jimy Hendrix on Voodoo Chile and with others guitar heroes. In fact, he is one himself, although it was his mastery of keyboards that made him the author of numerous hits in the eighties.

Last night, the audience was able to gauge the quality of this character rooted in the british blues boom. One delightful track after another, he had us dancing to the notes of his electric guitar, which he plays as he sings, bordering on the records of a Mark Knopfler, or to the even more bewitching notes of his classic Hammond organ. Sign of the man's greatness: a glass of wine was placed beside the instrument, which he sipped while his drummer lost himself in a virtuoso solo. Montreux and its improvisations, Montreux and its good taste, Montreux and its secrets... See you next year!

Write to the author: jonas.follonier@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © 2018 FFJM - Lionel Flusin