« They All Came Down To Montreux »
From Aretha Franklin or Ray Charles to David Bowie or Prince, more than 4,000 concerts have been recorded LIVE both in audio and video at the Montreux Jazz Festival between 1967 and 2012.
“It’s the most important testimonial to the history of music, covering jazz, blues and rock.”
-- Quincy Jones
PRESERVE
In 2013, UNESCO inscribed Claude Nobs' audiovisual collection from the Montreux Jazz Festival (1967–2012) on the international Memory of the World Register under its official title « The Montreux Jazz Festival — Claude Nobs' Legacy » - the documentary equivalent of « World Heritage ». The Claude Nobs Foundation is the institution designated on the UNESCO certificate signed by Director-General Irina Bokova on 18 June 2013.
VALORIZE
A patrimony received worldwide
The audiovisual collection of the « The Montreux Jazz Festival — Claude Nobs' Legacy » is today experienced by a global audience exceeding two billion views on streaming platforms. This continuously growing reach attests to the universal significance of the collection and to the Foundation's mission of preserving and sharing this heritage for current and future generations.
A LIVE DIGITAL HERITAGE
Claude Nobs Legacy
a Swiss Foundation recognized as public utility by the Swiss authorities.
The Claude Nobs Foundation oversees the conservation, curation and valorisation of Claude Nobs' audio & visual archives — one of the World's largest collections of "live" music recordings, all recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) from 1967 to 2012. Starting with jazz in its early days, the collection has grown and enriched itself over more than five decades with new genres of music ranging from blues and rock to rap, soul, Latin and many more.
Where the legends played — and remain.
UNESCO Memory of the World
A unique audiovisual heritage of universal significance for current and future generations. In June 2013, the collection was inscribed on the UNESCO international Memory of the World Register — the documentary equivalent of "World Heritage" — under the title « The Montreux Jazz Festival — Claude Nobs Legacy ».
The Montreux Jazz Digital Project
In 2007, Claude Nobs and Thierry Amsallem partnered with Patrick Aebischer, then President of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), to create a high-resolution digital archive of the Festival — a first-of-its-kind initiative designed from the outset for both preservation and research, which paved the way for the UNESCO Memory of the World inscription in 2013.
Now in its 18th year, the partnership has transformed the digital collection into a living corpus for students and researchers, used in fields ranging from acoustics, data science and archiving to musicology, museology and neurosciences.
Co-founded with the EPFL Cultural Heritage & Innovation Center — now an official EPFL Technology Platform — the “Montreux Jazz Digital Project” is an accelerator for innovation in technology, culture, social sciences and open science.
THE MJDP TODAY
4,000+ concerts (1967–2012) — Claude Nobs Collection, inscribed by UNESCO Memory of the World,
1,000+ Festival editions (2014–) — Montreux Jazz Festival Foundation, integrated into the MJDP since 2024
= ~5,000+ concerts in the Montreux Jazz Digital Project today. The largest live music audiovisual collection scientifically preserved in the world.
FOR RESEARCH & INNOVATION
DNA Data Storage Alliance
As member of the DNA Data Storage Alliance, we are committed to the future use of synthetic DNA to solve global data storage problems. We contribute to inform about this exciting new way of preserving and accessing the zettabytes of valuable information needed in the world to preserve our unfolding human narrative. Iconic performances of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and Miles Davis’ “Tutu” performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival were stored on DNA for the first time in 2017.
FOR CULTURE AND EDUCATION
AND FOR THE ARTISTS.
The Claude Nobs Foundation preserves the audiovisual legacy of the artists who made the history of the Montreux Jazz Festival from 1967 to 2012 — among them:
Nina Simone · Miles Davis · Aretha Franklin · Ray Charles · Ella Fitzgerald · B.B. King · Marvin Gaye · Prince · David Bowie · Carlos Santana · Deep Purple · Quincy Jones · Herbie Hancock · Etta James · and many more.
These performances — and several thousand others from Claude Nobs' collection — have been inscribed in 2013 on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register under the title « The Montreux Jazz Festival — Claude Nobs Legacy ».
Where the legends played — and remain.