MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL AND BMG SIGN GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
Montreux/London – March 18, 2021 – Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG have announced a multi-faceted global partnership. The deal includes the launch of a brand-new collection series, The Montreux Years, and a definitive three-part documentary series celebrating the history of the music festival.
The Montreux Years uncovers legendary performances by the world’s most iconic artists alongside rare and never-before-released recordings from the festival’s rich 55-year history, remastered in superlative audio. The releases will be accompanied by exclusive liner notes and previously unseen photography. The recordings are taken from founder Claude Nobs’ extensive collection of audio-visual material (Montreux Sounds). Full details of the first albums in the series will be announced in April.
Thierry Amsallem, Chair of the Claude Nobs Foundation: “The Montreux Jazz Festival has always been a leading showcase for the international music scene, as well as a meeting place for musicians and music lovers. The magic of Montreux lies in the encounters between musicians. They were unique events that will never be repeated. The idea was always to allow artists to get off the beaten track and avoid replaying their usual repertoire. Here, we treated them like kings and offer them the best conditions in the world, in terms of sound quality and audio-visual recording technology.”
Montreux Media Ventures, the media subsidiary of the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival, BMG, and Beyond TNC are also set to produce a definitive three-part documentary series celebrating the history of the music festival and the life of its inspirational founder and creator, Claude Nobs. Swiss Public Broadcaster, RTS, is also on-board as a co-production partner.
CEO of Montreux Media Ventures, Nicolas Bonard, said, “We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to experience these historic and culturally significant musical performances and, through the preservation work of the Claude Nobs Foundation we hope to bring a bit of Montreux magic directly to fans around the world.”
Peter Stack, BMG EVP Global Catalogue Recordings, said, “The Montreux Jazz Festival is an institution in music. From Nina Simone and Etta James to Dua Lipa, jazz legends and pop icons alike have honored the Montreux stage with their performances over the past 55 years. This partnership takes viewers and listeners on an intimate journey through time, looking behind the scenes of the legendary festival. Putting together a detailed homage, this is a unique project with the rare opportunity to use audio and audio-visual footage of the highest quality.”
They All Came Down to Montreux (working title) will follow the story from the early days of the festival up until Claude’s untimely death in 2013. It will include never-released material and rare interviews with artists including Jack White, Carlos Santana, Quincy Jones, George Benson and Questlove, and many of the most iconic performances capturing the festival’s rich history. The Zurich Film Festival 2021 will host the world premiere of the film version of the documentary.
The three-part documentary series is directed by archive specialist Oliver Murray, whose recent releases include the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary Ronnie’s. It is co-produced and co-financed by BMG and Beyond TNC in association with Orofena Films. Distribution is through the highly respected US outfit, Submarine.
Said Oliver Murray: “I could not be more excited and honored to bring Claude’s story to the screen. The festival’s standing in the music industry makes this a unique opportunity, and we’ve been blown away by the positive response from the artist community to the project. We need to remember people like Claude; it’s the visionaries and the mavericks who make the world a better and more interesting place.”
Executive Producer for Beyond TNC, Bill Lord, added: “It’s a rare privilege to be able to delve into an archive such as this – one which we believe is completely unprecedented amongst music festivals. It’s equally rare to find someone in the music industry so universally loved as Claude, and the two together are a potent combination for a skilled storyteller like Ollie.”
The documentary is the latest project in BMG’s fast-growing line of music-related films and television projects including the critically acclaimed David Crosby: Remember My Name, the Joan Jett documentary, Bad Reputation: The Show’s The Thing, a film about legendary concert promoters and the early days of the live music business, Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records, and Echo In The Canyon, one of the top-grossing documentaries of 2019.
ENDS
About the Claude Nobs Foundation and its Archive
Founded and presided over by Thierry Amsallem, the Foundation oversees the preservation and valorization of Claude Nobs’ legacy including the audio & visual archives, which is one of the World’s largest private collection of live music recordings – all of which were recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) since 1967 and inscribed in 2013 on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. In 2007, Thierry Amsallem and Claude Nobs joined forces with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) to create a unique, first of its kind, high resolution digital archive for the future. Considered both an educational tool and research infrastructure, this audiovisual heritage has become a unique platform for students and researchers to innovate in fields such as acoustics, data science, archiving, musicology, museology, or neurosciences. For more information, visit: www.claudenobsfoundation.com
About Montreux Sounds
Founded by Claude Nobs in 1973, Montreux Sounds owns a collection of 5000 concerts “Live at the Montreux” recorded both in audio and video (More than 2000 performances were filmed in High Definition since 1991) and has published already more than 450 major artists, live on the same stage, including shows dating back to the late 1960s. For more information, visit: www.montreuxsounds.com
About Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival is a world-renowned music festival created and directed by Claude Nobs until 2013 and held annually in Montreux, Switzerland across two weeks in July. Now in its 54th year, the festival draws 250,000 music lovers from all across the world to the Lake Geneva shoreline. It celebrates the industry’s emerging and contemporary acts, whilst paying homage to music’s legendary acts. Originally a pure jazz festival since inception in 1967, Montreux began showcasing other styles of music throughout the decades and today presents artists from every genre imaginable. Artists that have graced the stage of Montreux include Etta James, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Prince, Lauryn Hill, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, James Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Nina Simone and many more. Mathieu Jaton serves as CEO of Montreux Jazz Festival, after taking over in 2013.
About Montreux Media Ventures
Montreux Media Ventures (MMV) is a media, production and content creation company and subsidiary of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Part of MMV’s mission is to extend the festival’s music content production capabilities to create and distribute MJF branded music content. MMV aims to develop the festival’s key activations and engage with its audiences, consumers and partners all year round, through targeted digital, branded content and musical experiences.
About BMG
BMG is the new model music company founded by Bertelsmann in 2008 as a direct response to the challenges of music’s digital revolution. Key to its innovative approach is the fact it represents the traditionally separate music publishing and recording rights off the same state-of-the-art platform internationally. BMG is already the world’s fourth biggest music publisher and the first new global player in the recordings business in decades. BMG’s pitch is unique – a relentless focus on fairness and transparency and service to its artist and songwriter clients. BMG’s 19 offices across 12 core music markets now represent over 3m songs and recordings, including the catalogues of Chrysalis, Bug, Virgin, Mute, Sanctuary, Primary Wave and Talpa Music, as well as literally thousands of artists and songwriters attracted by its fresh approach. BMG is owned by international media, services and education company Bertelsmann, which also includes the broadcaster RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr, the service provider Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. With its multi-platform perspective, integrated technology platform and commitment to help artists maximize their income, BMG aims to be the best company in music to do business with. www.bmg.com
About Beyond TNC
BTNC specializes in developing, financing, producing and distributing music related documentary features and series. A division of Beyond Entertainment, a publicly quoted production and distribution business headquartered in Australia, it has numerous high-end series and features to its name and on its slate.