Opening of the 59th edition
From Neil Young to Saint Levant, the Montreux Jazz in the test of politics
Anti-Trump sling for one, Propalestinian raised fist for the other. In a world in crisis (s), the displayed neutrality of the MJF becomes a virtuoso partition.
Having grown up in Gaza, the Franco-Algerian rapper Saint Levant displays his unconditional support for the Palestinian cause.
IMAGO/GONZALES PHOTO
- Neil Young presents himself to Montreux Jazz as an emblematic figure of the American musical opposition.
- The festival claims its neutrality despite politically committed artists.
- Saint Levant brings a militant voice to the MJF for the Palestinian cause. And societal questions strongly permeate its programming.
In Trump season 2 America, the most alert opposition from the musical world came from a 79-year-old man playing on an ancestral Gibson of the Odes to the revolt born half a century ago. His name is Neil Young, he arrives at Montreux Jazz en legend, Sunday July 6. Whether he walks alone or almost against President Honni said a lot about the state of political protest in the United States on the part of pop stars now exsangues, silent or submissive. That he is welcomed at the head of the poster and undeniable star of the 59e Edition, however, does not tell little about the political nature of the festival created by Claude Nobs in 1967, the year of all utopias.
Emancipation festival
On the quiet Riviera of these years, inventing an international jazz rally was already a revolution in itself, which did not need the additional handicap to assert itself openly committed. The MJF is a place of celebration with intrinsic progressive convictions – the most effective because it is invisible. By inviting from his first editions Black American musicians from jazz and bluesby offering them a royal gîte and a planetary impact where the European club circuit operated them too often, the baby of Nobs played an educational and emancipatory role without ever brandishing flags. Ditto when he had the pop heralds early on which were awarded the old conventions with large strokes of electrified guitars.
“The Montreux Jazz is a public manifestation with a certain neutrality, to speak in Swiss terms, concedes the current director, Mathieu Jaton. But in a world with always more resolved societal and geopolitical issues, festivals become very publicized resonance funds where always more artists are tempted to get messages. This can make our mission, which is to organize a gathering of apolitical music, a little bit complicated … “
At the end of June, the English group Bob Vylan thus saw its entry visas in the United States canceled after making the crowd of Glastonbury “death, death to the IDF!» (Editor’s note: Israel Defense Forces). The main British rally has dissociated itself from the Punk group by taxing it outright with anti -Semitism. The summer of festivals promises to be hot.
Last July, the massive Trip-Hop collective Attack set fire to the lake with, in the background, the images of Bombardé Gaza.
KEYSTONE /VALENTIN FLAURAUD
Last year at the MJF, the performance of Massive Attack on Lake Geneva mixed for two hours, in an equal deflagration of sounds and lights, music and Propalestinian manifests. Nothing here surprising on the part of the Bristol group, whose political component has been part of DNA since its beginnings in 1988. But a concert apart in the neutral line of the festival, which received a handful of complaints in return – a minimal, but unprecedented number concerning a political theme.
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And this year, Neil Young. Unlike Massive Attack, its militant virulence will be less demonstrative. Here again, his presence itself is political: the “loner” symbolizes a certain idea of rock authenticity since the Canadian (he has been an American citizen since 2020) embodied a facet of flower poweras an electric adventurer at the microphone of Buffalo Springfield then the “Supergroup” Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
The time was at a certain idea of individual freedom made of large spaces, liberated sexuality and legalized dopes. “Easy Rider” at the cinema, “Ohio” in the speakers, the first great folk song drawing its electric guitars to, in 1970, convene President Nixon namely in the History Court, after he had angry students shoot. Four dead, a hymn.
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The same year as “Ohio”, Young came out solo “After the Gold Rush”, for many his masterpiece. Again, the American West is the occasion for songs linking tradition and contemporary subjects – racism, drugs, the destruction of natural resources, already. He settles in a ranch, brings together a group of outlaws in his image as we ride a horse in Rodeo, the aptly named Crazy Horse.
His music is that of the American dream, proud of his achievements, but aware of his limits, his demons. In 1985, he did not sing against world hunger but in support of small American farmers. They will be their voice against the abuse of the oil companies and will criticize the GMOs in a dedicated disc, “The Monsanto Years”. He targets the imperialism of George Bush Father (“Rockin ‘in the Free World” in 1989) and son (“Let’s Impeach the President” in 2006). Defends the reform of a universal health system on the Canadian model. Claims the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples.
Neil Young at the English Festival of Glastonbury on June 28.
PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES
Like Bruce Springsteen, singing the American people in an ultracapitalist musical industry is an ambiguous exercise. Neil Young tried to impose his rules for him, with vacuum passages and snakes to swallow, like his waltz with Spotify, to whom he has long prohibited the dissemination of his catalog.
When he refused to Donald Trump, then candidate for his first presidential election in 2015, the use of “Rockin ‘in a free world” during his meetings, he had the right game to remind him that the singer was less begueule when he came to offer him to invest in his listening service online high resolution, Pono. Besides, Donald Trump really liked Neil Young’s music! Until the latter aligns him on the networks in early 2025, declaring him “worse president of history”, saying “to fear for his security” in his own country.
Omnipresent policy
Will we come to listen to Neil Young in Montreux as we go to the museum? If it is a tutelary figure of the music raised, it will be surrounded by more virulent emulators. For example, Saint Levant, who will no doubt never quote the Youngian heritage – it is not even certain that the rapper listened to a single note – but whose music participates in the same political position.
Born in Jerusalem, of Palestinian, French and Algerian ancestry, Marwan Abdelhamid spent part of his youth in Gaza before joining the United States. Métis in his journey, he is also in his music, mixing rap, electro, r’n’b and Arab folklore. And his concerts, especially since the Israeli stagnation on Gaza, have become so many stands in favor of Palestine. On a press photo, he holds a sax like a Kalach: the performance of Saint Levant, on July 16 at the Casino, will be abrasive.
A notch below, the societal demands innervent all contemporary music as an essential viaticum. Sincere conviction or obligatory marketing argument, questions of genres, race and environment draw a soft power whose MJF is displayed.
What will the dose in the Iseult concert be? The French singer, winner of the “New Star”, became a champion of minorities in the fight against grossophobia and racism, both systemic – but her more than privileged social origins and a solid contract with L’Oréal did harm her credibility. The two themes should nevertheless dress his concert on July 12, before Grace Jones, a real figure of black and female emancipation.
Feminism and festival
The banners will undoubtedly be absent from the concerts of Jad, Raye, Fka Twigs and Nathy Peluso, whose feminist themes rather innervent the songs. The French Solann, revelation of the 2025 music to discover at the casino on July 9, is more frontal: her song “Rome”, a long cry where she imagines the ancient city born of a dog rather than a wolf, rocked conventions.
The American Brandi Carlile asserted herself in the LGBT figure of the year in her highly publicized duo with Elton John. Yoa, who will play before Saint Levant, sing mental health and eating disorders … apart from the Diana Ross concert, and again, you will not escape the subjects of social.
Especially not on July 18. We would have almost forgotten it, both his commitment was more symbolic than explained, but still … Santana will be there, and with him the memory of another festival: Woodstock! At the MJF as elsewhere, politics is everywhere, it is enough to pick it up.
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