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Festival de Jazz de Montreal : August 12-25 , 1963

 

By LEN DOBBIN (19/06/97)

In the summer of 1963 we were informed of the details of the third Montreal jazz festival, scheduled to run August 12 through 15 at a new locale, Loews Theatre (954 St. Catherine Street West). Concerts were at 6:15 and 9:15 and tickets were priced at $1.00, $2.00 and $3.00.

August 13 :

The early show of August 13 was late in getting started. The Rene Thomas trio (Fred McHugh and Pierre Beluse) chose Bird's Au Privave as an opener. The performance was not too inspired. On the first of two Tadd Dameron compositions , John's Delight , Thomas sounded a little better , but McHugh's bass solo was the highpoint. Our Delight proved to be the best of the night , with drummer Beluse playing particularly well on the head , but it was still below par Thomas. The beautiful Django piece , Nuages , on which Thomas was almost at the top of his form , was cut short as the trio had used up the time allotted to them. It's too bad as the trio was just getting warmed up when the concert ended. It should be noted that although this was Thomas' regular trio when he resided here , they had not played together in nearly two years.

PERSONNEL : Rene Thomas (guitar) , Fred Mac Hugh (bass) , Pierre Beluse (drums)

PARTIAL SETLIST :

1. Au Privave (Parker)
2. John's Delight (Dameron)
3. Our Delight (Dameron)
4. Nuages (Reinhardt)

 

REMARK : You can find the complete Montreal Festival report on www.jazzmontreal.com

 

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