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American pianist Bill Evans (1929-1980), one of the most influential in the history of jazz, left his mark on Montreux from the festival’s earliest editions. On 15 June 1968 his trio (with Eddie Gómez on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums) played a concert at the Casino that was recorded live. Released as “Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival”, it won the 1969 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. Its cover is illustrated with a photograph of the Château de Chillon by Gene Lees, tying this jazz landmark to the shores of Lake Geneva.
The festival was only a year old when Bill Evans played there for the first time. On 15 June 1968, at the Casino, his trio (Eddie Gómez on double bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums) gave a concert recorded live.
Released as “Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival”, the record won the 1969 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. For the cover, Evans chose a photograph of the Château de Chillon: American jazz adopting a Vaud landscape.
Evans came back. On 19 and 20 June 1970, again at the Casino, he recorded with Eddie Gómez and drummer Marty Morell the album that would be released on CTI as “Montreux II”.
Then, on 20 July 1975, he returned a third time, this time as a duo with Gómez, without drums. That became “Montreux III”, released on Fantasy.
Three concerts, three line-ups, three different labels, and three albums whose titles carry the name of the town. Few artists have left a discographic trace so explicitly tied to Montreux.
Eddie Gómez is present on all three Montreux recordings, from 1968 to 1975. In 1968 it was a trio with Jack DeJohnette on drums, the album that won the Grammy. In 1970 another trio, with Marty Morell, produced “Montreux II”, on CTI. In 1975 only a piano-and-bass duo remained, with no drums: “Montreux III”, on Fantasy.
Bill Evans died in 1980. His three visits to Montreux thus span half of his last active decade.
Switzerland’s most famous castle: pianist Bill Evans chose it for the cover of “At the Montreux Jazz Festival” (1968), the first record made in Europe to win a Grammy.
The heart of the festival since 1993: under one roof, the Auditorium Stravinski and the halls that host half the history of music every summer.
1968
Recorded at the Casino on 15 June 1968, with Eddie Gómez on double bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The album won the 1969 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album; its cover shows the Château de Chillon.
1970
The second Montreux album, recorded at the Casino on 19 and 20 June 1970 with Eddie Gómez and drummer Marty Morell, released on CTI.
1975
The third Montreux album, recorded on 20 July 1975 as a piano and double bass duo with Eddie Gómez, without drums, released on Fantasy.