Who: Stacey Kent Symphonique, Melody Gardot
Where: Place des Arts, Montreal QC
When: June 30th 2019
Yesterday marked the halfway point of the long Canada Day weekend, and also the halfway point of the Montreal International Jazz Festival! The shows we checked out last night were a celebration of amazing women in Jazz, starting with Stacey Kent. We made our way to the gorgeous Maison Symphonique de Montréal, taking in the gorgeous architecture in while waiting for the show to start. Accompanied for the first time by a symphonic orchestra, the American jazz singer drew the audience into a sweet reverie to the sounds of her sensual, limpid and fluid voice coloured to swing and jazz tunes.
Next, we headed to Salle Wilfrid Pelletier for the last night of Melody Gardot‘s two-show run! Earlier this week, the festival awarded her the Ella Fitzgerald price, to celebrate her 10 years of career since she first performed at the festival in 2008. Melody arrived on stage all dressed in black and wearing sunglasses, and stood in front of her band: her usual guitar, drums and bass, and a 12-piece strings section no less! Despite all the instruments, the stage setup felt minimal and intimate, as to draw most of the attention of Gardot’s incredibly sultry voice, which charmed the audience as soon as she hit the first notes of the popular folk tune “Wayfaring Stranger”, and all the way through the rest of her set.
For more photos of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, head over to our Facebook page!