It's billed as "the story of the Montreux Jazz Festival," but this breezy documentary too often plays like an infomercial for promoter-impresario Claude Nobs and the gathering he founded and has presided over for some four decades. Nobs is a pretty decent musician himself, as well as an engaging storyteller and a devoted music lover who's earned the loyalty of the scores of performers who've played at various venues in Montreux, a picture postcard of a town on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. But with Nobs having recorded (both audio and video) every single festival since the first (that was in 1967; these days there's far less jazz than pop, rock, soul, and other contemporary styles), it's hard to fathom how director/co-producer Christopher Swann and the others who worked on this 1999 documentary could make a film that contains so little music. We see a few short clips of Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, and B.B. King, along with relative unknowns such as British soul singer Beverley Knight and pianist Kenny Drew, Jr.; yet with the exception of REM's "Losing My Religion," we don't hear a single tune in its entirety, and the list of great Montreux performers who don't appear at all is way too long to recite here. DVD extras include an additional 50-minute-plus complete presentation of the '99 version of King's annual guitar workshop, but the best moments are already excerpted in The Montreux Dream, and while King is undeniably a great guitarist, comments like "many great jazz musicians played blues" provide precious little enlightenment. Optional. Aud: C, P. (S. Graham)
The Montreux Dream
(1999) 125 min. DVD: $19.99. Kultur International Films. Color cover. ISBN: 0-7697-8232-9. Volume 21, Issue 5
The Montreux Dream
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