Prince

16 July 2007: the Jazz Night at the Stravinski

On 16 July 2007, Prince was the festival’s surprise guest, kept secret until late in the edition. The announcement went around the world: the biggest pop star of the day after Michael Jackson was coming out of retirement to lead a “Jazz Night” in the intimate setting of the Auditorium Stravinski. On Wikipedia, the concert appeared in his biography several days before it took place, like an already-historic event (24 Heures ↗, François Barras, 17 July 2007).

That evening, security was extreme: no photographers, no cameras, no phones. The singer was glimpsed around 7.30 p.m., after the sound check, “very elegant, all in beige, with a big black hat,” on his way to his limousine. The concert, announced for 9 p.m., began three quarters of an hour later, in a hall two-thirds full.

A brass trio crossed the audience to the sound of “When the Saints”, in a New Orleans mood. Prince appeared in a red suit, black glasses and hat, received his musicians’ solos, tried out a guitar, sketched a dance step and left again, without saying a word: a long jazzy jam, a pop “anti-concert.” Later that night, he gave a second concert at the Jazz Café, the festival’s club.

In love with Montreux and Lavaux

Prince returned to Montreux in 2009, for a double concert, and again in 2013.

It was this 2009 visit that sealed his bond with the region. Simon Tomei, the festival’s head of transport, had picked him up at the airport: “Prince did not want to go straight back to the hotel, so I offered to show him around the region. We took the Chexbres exit to reach Vevey by road, through the vineyards,” he told the ATS news agency. “I explained the UNESCO label, the wines, the extent of the vineyard. He showed great interest and took notes, asking me to spell certain names, including Lavaux.”

That drive gave rise to “Lavaux”, one of the ten tracks on the album “20Ten”, released in 2010. The song also mentions “the chocolates of Vevey”: the Nestlé building had amused the singer. The story, first revealed by 24 Heures, was confirmed by the festival’s spokesman Francesco Laratta (swissinfo.ch ↗, ATS, 15 July 2010). That evening, Prince had met the Vevey sculptor Zapoff, at the MAD, in Lausanne.

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2010: Prince as a spectator

The following year, in 2010, Prince returned to Montreux as an ordinary spectator, with no special security. He followed Janelle Monáe’s concerts, at the Miles Davis Hall and then at Funky Claude’s Bar, then called Harry’s Bar. Between the two, he shared a bite with Quincy Jones and Shania Twain in a public establishment in town (20 minutes ↗, Julien Delafontaine, 12 July 2013).