Memorials & tributes

Jardin du Montreux Palace

Type: Public garden & jazz pantheon
Address: Jardin du Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, Montreux

In front of the Belle Époque façade of the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace lies a garden open to all, along the lakefront. Set in the grass and under the trees are the bronze busts of the artists who made the legend of the Montreux Jazz Festival: B.B. King, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Carlos Santana and Quincy Jones. At the centre, the life-size statue of Claude Nobs, harmonica to his lips, watches over this open-air pantheon. The jazz musicians’ busts are the work of the sculptor Marco Zeno; close by, those of Miles Davis, Richard Strauss and David Richards are by Bernard Bavaud. Admission is free, a few steps from the Montreux Jazz Café.

The Montreux Palace garden, an open-air pantheon of jazz

An open-air pantheon of jazz

Along the lakefront, in front of the Montreux Palace, a public garden gathers the bronze busts of the giants who marked the festival. B.B. King and his guitar Lucille, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Carlos Santana, Quincy Jones: you move from one to the next as in an open-air gallery, a few metres from the lake. Access is free, by day and by night.

Claude Nobs at the centre

Among his guests stands Claude Nobs, the festival’s founder, shown full-length, harmonica to his lips, in the pose of “Funky Claude”. Behind him, the yellow awnings of the Palace and the Montreux Jazz Café, where the visit can continue. It is in this garden that the town, the lake and half a century of music come together.

Marco Zeno and Bernard Bavaud, the sculptors

The busts of the jazz legends are the work of the sculptor Marco Zeno, who gave their bronze features to B.B. King, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Carlos Santana and Quincy Jones. Close by, other figures in the garden, Miles Davis, Richard Strauss and the producer David Richards, come from the chisel of Bernard Bavaud. The pantheon keeps growing with each new tribute.

At the foot of the Palace

The garden belongs to the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, a Belle Époque grand hotel opened in 1906 and the festival artists’ headquarters from the very start. From its balconies the eye takes in Lake Geneva and the Alps; below, the garden offers everyone, with no ticket, the company of the legends.