Sofiane Pamart

A pianist as headliner

Seeing a solo pianist headline a major festival is far from ordinary. Yet that is what happened to Sofiane Pamart on 5 July 2021, in Montreux.

Conservatory-trained, he first accompanied French-speaking rappers before establishing himself under his own name with “Planet”. His playing, melodic and direct, brought the piano within reach of an audience that did not go to classical concerts, and it is that audience which followed him to Montreux.

A video shot by the festival itself

That appearance gave rise to an unusual collaboration. On 3 September 2021 came “Solitude Solo”, a single credited “ft. Montreux Jazz Festival”: it was the festival’s own teams who produced and filmed the video.

The shoot was split between two places in the town. The grand piano was set straight onto the boards of the pier at the Place du Marché, facing Lake Geneva and the Alps, and further shots were filmed inside the Montreux Palace. The piece is a waltz, a solo piano version of a track recorded with the Belgian rapper Scylla.

A rare example of a festival that does not merely host an artist, but produces with him a work tied to its own settings.

A track named after a grand hotel

The town inspired a second, even more explicit title: “Montreux Palace”, recorded with Ferdi. The track takes its name from the grand hotel on Avenue Claude-Nobs, the very one where Michael Jackson stayed in the Tower Suite, since renamed the Quincy Jones Suite.