Montreux Jazz Festival

At the time of writing, it’s 11 AM on Sunday, July 11, 2010. I dedicate this post to my beloved cousin Derrick who would be 43 years old today if he were still living. The way D lived and even the way he died taught me valuable lessons about how to make this life--be it long or short--count.

John and I are on a train approaching Milan, Italy. We’ve just spent 3 fabulous days in Lausanne, Switzerland. While there, we went to the Montreux Jazz Festival. This post will describe our experience at the jazz fest, thus, it’s fitting that I happen to be listening to a very nice version of “Edith and the Kingpin” by Herbie Hancock, featuring Tina Turner, on my iPod.

We took the 5:20pm train from Lausanne to Montreux on Friday, July 9. It was sunny, humid and close to 90 degress F. The train was crowded and, in the 2^nd class cars, without air conditioning. I listened to my iPod and amused myself at the spectacle of John taking still shots and HD video of EVERYTHING with our fancy new Canon PowerShot camera.

The train ride was only 23 minutes long. We disembarked in Montreux and headed downhill from the station toward the lake. At the lakefront we encountered vendor stalls, restaurants, street artists and musicians, and lots and lots of people. We strolled along the embarcadero in search of something good to eat. We took some great shots of the lakefront and the mountains across the water in France. Then we headed in the direction of Miles Davis Hall and the Stravinsky Auditorium which are the primary venues for the major concerts at the festival. The carnival atmosphere is hard to describe. So many people, vendors, eateries, bars, and lounges w/ DJs! We took it all in and eventually purchased a bratwurst with fries and a few drinks.

After eating, we traded our concert tickets for admission bracelets. Then we made our way to the auditorium entrance around 7pm to get good spots on the floor (standing room only) for the Angelique Kidjo tribute to Miriam “Mama Africa” Makeba which would be followed by an OUTSTANDING Youssou N’dour concert. The shows were outstanding, but the true highlight of our evening was making friends with a swiss couple called Valerie and Buba. She’s a native-born citizen of Switzerland, whereas he was born and raised in Mali. Talking to them was challenging and funny. They could speak some broken English. I could speak some broken French. Valerie and I also had some success in speaking a little Italian to each other.

Valerie and Buba were so kind. They helped me stumble through badly worded (but apparently well-pronounced) French sentences. And they invited us to their home on their next mutual day off from work, but unfortunately, we could not accept because we will have left the area by then. Together we listened to the performers and danced to the music. During intermission, Buba brought us some ice-cold bottled water which we sipped while waiting for N'dour's band to set up. I was moved when he told us that he has dreamed of walking on the Brooklyn Bridge someday. It amazes and humbles me how much of my own life experiences and surroundings I take for granted.

When the concert ended at 12:45am, John and I posed for some pictures with our new friends. Then we said good-bye (with each of them kissing me 3 times on my cheeks and her also kissing John similarly) and parted ways after having exchanged email addresses. Maybe we'll have the pleasure of getting to know them better and perhaps someday meeting up again for more good times.

Speaking of good times, the partying outside the concert halls were just getting started when we exited the building around 1am. John and I were hungry and we had a 40 minute wait until the next train, so we bought a large bowl of pasta ala carbonara (noodles, creamy parmesan sauce and flavorful pancetta) to share. As we ate, we chatted with another nice Swiss couple. These people spoke English quite well and offered many interesting insights into what life is like in their country. I shared with them my first experience of jet lag which occured when I was 12 years old and my father moved us to Italy. They shared a few fun travel stories of their own and then we parted ways. Meeting people is definitely one of my favorite parts of traveling.

Eventually, John and I made our way to the Montreux Gare for the last train back to Lausanne. we got back to our room at close to 3:30am. We were exhausted, but glad to have had such a great night out. I hope we can return to the Montreux Jazz Festival again sometime in the future.