Every meal is a winner in Montreal, but some of the jazz concerts bomb

Jazz piano master Kenny Barron and Elena Pinderhughes delivering a mean, low-down, dirty blues on July 4 as their encore during the 37th edition of the International Jazz Festival in Montreal. Critics call the 20-year-old singer and flutist a "prodigy" 

Editor's note: With hundreds of free and paid concerts over 11 days, you'd expect a clunker or two at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. But I was really disappointed in two of the elaborate acts I paid more than $100 Canadian a ticket to see.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- You'd have to go out of your way to have a bad meal in this sophisticated French-speaking city, but a bad concert seems unavoidable.

In attending eight days of the International Jazz Festival, I noticed the scent of marijuana was in the air at free outdoor concerts, and joints were readily available for sharing or purchase as Canada moves to legalize pot next year.

So, I'm wondering what the organizers were smoking when they agreed to stage a French opera or indulge a rap artist who didn't sing a note until two and a half hours after the scheduled start of her concert.

Singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright thanked everyone from the tailor who made his elaborately brocaded suit to his husband, who was sitting in the audience.

With nearly 3,000 seats, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier is the biggest concert hall used during the Montreal festival, which ends on Saturday. Rufus Wainwright and rapper Lauryn Hill performed there on July 2 and July 5, respectively.

Rufus Wainwright

I didn't have much to go on a couple of months ago when I purchased three tickets for $118.75 Canadian each to Opera Primadonna & Rufus Wainwright Symphonique.

What a bomb.

The first half of the show was an opera sung in French that seemed to be a homage to soprano Maria Callas, one of the most influential and renowned opera singers of the 2oth century.

Enough musicians for two symphony orchestras appeared to be crammed onto the stage, and a large movie screen behind them showed framed photos of Callas, as well as an older actress removing her makeup in a dressing room. 

Wainwright sung during the second half of the concert, switching between a piano and a microphone stand at the center of the stage.

He also brought out a sister, nephew and niece to sing.

One of his angst-ridden songs went:

"My phone is on vibrate for you.

"Who knows what all these new drugs do?"  

Rapper Lauryn Hill finally started singing at around 10 p.m. after her disc jockey played a dozen reggae tunes and exhorted Canada to "legalize ganja." The concert started with a singer, bass-guitar player and drummer who weren't advertised. My teenage son dismissed them as a high school-level band.

The crowd waited and waited and waited for Hill to appear on stage at a concert that was scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m., and booed several times.

Ms. Lauryn Hill

After keeping the audience waiting for more than two hours, Lauryn Hill finally appeared on stage playing a guitar in front of a wailing, highly amplified  nine-piece band and three backup singers.

I couldn't understand most of the lyrics, heard only noise and soon inserted the earplugs I brought from my hotel room.

She had technical problems with the guitar and when they couldn't be solved, she put it down and just sang. But I still couldn't make out most of the words.

This concert, which also cost $118.75 per ticket, was a waste, though my teenage son enjoyed it.

The best part for me and my wife was Hill's disc jockey and his repertoire of recorded Jamaican music.

Elena Pinderhughes

I bought tickets to see the Kenny Barron Trio & Elena Pinderhuges on the strength of her being described as an accomplished jazz singer.

Unfortunately, she performed only three songs written by a friend of Barron's, and all of them sounded the same.

Why she didn't sing any of the great jazz classics eludes me.

Ticket prices

The pricey tickets to the Wainwright and Hill concerts were the exception, and most events were far more reasonable than you'd find in Manhattan or even northern New Jersey.

Most of the concerts we saw lasted 90 minutes to 2 hours, exclusive of intermissions

Our favorite this year -- jazz singer Gregory Porter and his quartet on June 29 -- cost only $54.25 Canadian per ticket or about $38 U.S.

We paid only $68.75 Canadian to see jazz singer Emilie-Claire Barlow backed by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, which was augmented by her own quintet (her first name is pronounced "Emily").

Barlow, a talented singer and scatter,  performed Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joni Mitchell and original songs, and many of them were in French as a concession to the predominantly French-speaking audience.

And three tickets to hear jazz piano prodigy Joey Alexander, who turned 13 on June 25, cost a total of only $125.70 Canadian.

Still top festival

This was our fourth annual trip to the Montreal bash, which is widely recognized as the best jazz festival in the world.

Improvements this year include a free grandstand -- with all but 10 seats available on a first-come, first-served basis -- from where we saw and heard English jazz and pop singer Jamie Cullum.

Cullum, backed by a Montreal-based big band, dazzled the thousands of fans who jammed the plaza for his free 2-hour show with his boundless energy and great voice.

And Montreal still ranks as one of the best cities in the world to dine out.

We enjoyed sharing a big salad and two wood-oven pizzas, including this one with fresh arugula, pesto and sliced tomatoes on Wednesday at Il Focolaio in downtown Montreal. That was just one of the great lunches we had during the International Jazz Festival.

Next: Restaurant Manitoba,

 Baton Rouge,

 Pizza Il Focolaio and Brasserie T!

After 36 years, the Montreal jazz festival could entertain a name change

Jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, whose voice truly is an instrument, in front of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra on Friday night at Theater Maisonneuve in Montreal.

Editor's note: During our visit to Montreal, I keep on hearing the line from Shakespeare, "If music be the food of love, play on." That fits. We love the city's annual jazz festival, and can't resist all of the wonderful food.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- Just when I thought I've seen absolutely the best concert ever at the annual International Jazz Festival, an artist comes along and tops it.

On Friday night, that was Dee Dee Bridgewater, who surely is the world's No. 1 jazz singer, male or female.

Backed by the 15-piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Bridgewater sang both joyous and dirge-like songs associated with the Big Easy -- including "St. James Infirmary," "House of the Rising Sun" and "Treme" -- that wowed a packed house in Theater Maisonneuve.

And her scatting imitated trumpets and trombones in the band, a performance that brought the audience to its feet.

Scatting from Dee Dee Bridgewater, left, added another trumpet to the orchestra's section.

Orchestra leader Irvin Mayfield at the head of a line of musicians as they waltzed up and down the aisles to end the concert triumphantly. Encores followed.

Flamenco and gospel, too

Our first concert this year, the 36th edition of the festival, was a spirited flamenco performance, and tonight, our last will be a large gospel choir.

As soon as the gospel concert is over, we plan to rush outside for the festival finale, a free two-hour tribute to blues legend B.B. King.

So, I'm sure I'm not the first to suggest the International Jazz Festival might want to insert the words "and World Music" into the name. 

The 10-day festival scheduled 300 concerts, from noon to midnight, many of them free. Venues ranged from outdoor stages with no seating to tents to nightclubs to grand concert halls.

We had front-row seats for Lo Esencial, called "pure, authentic flamenco," close enough to see the perspiration coating the faces of dancers Ana Perez and Kuky Santiago, and feel the swish of her dress' long, ruffled train.

On Saturday night, we also were seated in the first row at a concert by jazz singer Patricia Barber, who sat down at the piano and immediately took off her shoes and socks.

For The Record is described as a "wild performance troop," and this year, the singers, dancers and musicians presented a wicked cabaret performance based on music from the films of Australian director Baz Luhrmann.

Again, we were in the first row and had to pull our feet out of the way as the performers danced between the stage and the audience.

Jamie Cullum and Jessie Cook

We saw Jamie Cullum, the jazz singer from England, backed by a 15-piece band, most of them Montreal musicians, and he introduced each one by name.

Cullum, who has the energy of a rock singer, bounded onto the stage, and played a drum and nearly every part of the piano, including the keys, case, rim and interior strings.

Toronto-bred flamenco guitarist Jesse Cook and his band recalled the Andalusian rhythms we heard at our first concert, and we loved their acoustic encores.

Last Monday, the stylish Erykah Badu packed the biggest hall, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, and soon had more than 2,900 people on their feet for her performance, which was so highly amplified I couldn't understand many of the lyrics.

I was alone, because everyone else seemed to know the words and sang along. And Badu invited her fans to turn the 10 feet to 15 feet between the stage and first row into a dance floor.

Montreal audiences have no equal. Their enthusiasm is infectious. They're thrilled when an artist speaks to them in French, even if only a few words. And they roar their approval of a great performance. 

Escaping the cocoon

Guests of the Hyatt Regency, headquarter hotel for the festival, never have leave the air-conditioned comfort of the Complexe Desjardins, an enclosed mall on which it is built, and the adjoining Place des Artes, part of a vast network called Underground Montreal.

Said to spread over 20 miles, the network, connected by the city's Metro, was developed to cope with brutal winters and unpredictable summer weather, especially a rainy June.

Everything is within a short, climate-controlled walk: Food, from fast to food court to fine-dining; shops, a supermarket, and more concert halls than in Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

On Friday night, after that incredible Dee Dee Bridgewater concert, we decided to go outside and see who was performing at 10 p.m., instead of using underground passages to the hotel.

Then, after a singer took the stage, we wanted to return to the hotel, and got caught in pedestrian gridlock for 15 minutes before we reached our hotel entrance. 

At Rambla, a new Spanish restaurant in East Montreal, my starter on Saturday night was a winner: Cooked and raw vegetables served on a bed of minced black beets and pureed avocado. They were served in a large sardine tin.

East Montreal

On Saturday, we strolled up St. Catherine Street to East Montreal, where we found an art festival, natural food stores and many restaurants with platforms for outdoor seating.

We returned for dinner by subway -- our first meal in a week outside the hotel and food court -- and chose a Spanish restaurant, Rambla.

Plenty went wrong with the service, and the tab topped $100 with two glasses of red wine, tax and tip (the U.S. dollar is worth about $1.20 Canadian), but we enjoyed the food and the lively scene, including a combo playing in front of the Metro entrance.

We discovered East Montreal, like Manhattan's East Village, is the center of gay life in the French Canadian city.

At Rambla, the waitress never asked my wife how she wanted her steak cooked, and it had to be sent back twice ($21).

I told the waitress I don't eat meat, but my marinated trout came topped with Iberico ham, which I gave to my wife ($19). We probably should have ordered a paella to share from the limited menu.

Rambla and most restaurants on St. Catherine Street East have outdoor seating, and open dining rooms.

That could mean people at indoor tables, like us, have to contend with flies.

A small tin of organic extra-virgin olive oil from Spain is on every table at Rambla. I drizzled oil over my starter of vegetables, and dipped bread crusts in it.

A glass of Spanish red wine was $8.

Details

Rambla, 1272 St. Catherine St. East, at Visitation, Montreal, QC.

Meal plan at hotel is helping fight high cost of dining out in Montreal

A platter of smoked fish served in a private lounge is part of a light dinner for guests of Hyatt's Regency Club in Montreal. The dinner -- and a groaning-board breakfast -- are included in the rate for a king-bedded room on a high floor of the hotel.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTREAL -- During the International Jazz Festival, you can easily drop $100 on dinner for two at a fine-dining restaurant, and that doesn't include an additional 15% in taxes and a tip.

Even with the favorable exchange rate for the U.S. dollar, that dinner is a splurge.

This year and last, we booked a room in what the Hyatt in Montreal calls the Regency Club, where $20 over the daily rate buys a huge breakfast and a light dinner in a private lounge.

At home, I normally eat a big breakfast, skip lunch and then have a good dinner, so the meals in the Regency Club are perfect.

The other advantage is that if you're watching your weight, as we are, there is plenty of food like fresh fruit, salads, cooked and raw vegetables, and yogurt with granola and honey that should help you keep to your diet.

A disadvantage for families is that children under 18 are barred from the private lounge after 5 p.m., presumably because wine is available.

There is some seating outside the lounge they can use.

Marinated olives, above, and sumptuous full-fat cheeses with dried fruit and nuts (not shown), below, also are part of the complimentary dinner, along with soup, salads and seafood.

Buffet breakfast

A great start to the day is a plate of fresh fruit -- with or without cheese -- a bowl of Kashi granola topped with yogurt and honey, and a made-to-order omelet or scrambled eggs, plus juices, a smoothie, coffee or tea.

All of that and more -- including bacon, ham, cold cuts, cream cheese and bagels for my wife, and potatoes and French green beans for me -- is available at the daily buffet breakfast, served in the private lounge or in Saveur, the hotel restaurant.

The breakfast, normally $25 per person, is included with a Regency Club room.

Don't go for the room

To me, the food is the biggest draw of the Regency Club.

Our room at the Hyatt Regency Montreal looks and feels like a standard one, but it's on the 11th floor of the hotel, called the Regency Club level. 

Three years running, we have had a view of the same ugly parking lot on Rue Jeanne-Mance.

Also, a few days before we left for Montreal, the hotel sent me an email, offering me a suite for a discounted fee, and I accepted.

But when we arrived late Saturday night, exhausted from a long drive, and handed over the confirmation, the desk clerk dismissed me, explaining no such suite was available.

Slow Wi-Fi

You can log into free though slow Wi-Fi, but the room also has an Ethernet port, useful if you bring a cable for your laptop.

The hotel won't provide one, and when I asked to borrow a Blue-Ray player to watch a Netflix disc I brought from home, I was told I would have to rent it for a high fee.

But as the headquarters hotel for the 10-day jazz festival, which runs through Sunday, the Hyatt is close to nearly all of the free and ticketed performances in or near the Place des Arts, and it's where many musicians stay.

Today, I chatted briefly with Jamie Cullum, the jazz singer from England who, along with a 15-piece big band, rocked the Maison Symphonique at a concert I attended on Wednesday night.

Details

Hyatt Regency Montreal, 1255 Jeanne-Mance, Montreal, QC, Canada; 1-514-982-1234.

Valet parking is $30 a day; self-parking is $20 a day.

Raw vegetables, above, and macaroni salad, below, are typical of the dishes served starting a 5 p.m. Perrier, still water and soft drinks are complimentary, but wine is extra and can be charged to your room.

Two days this week, a cold seafood salad was put out in the Regency Club. Several desserts and espresso or tea also are served.

Great salads are part of the complimentary dinner.

Sinfully rich cheeses.

Breakfast can begin with fruit salad, sliced cheese and a smoothie.

I usually follow with a bowl of Kashi granola topped with plain yogurt, dried fruit, nuts and honey.

Two made-to-order eggs with skin-on roasted potatoes, French string beans and cauliflower.

Fresh fruit salad and two kinds of yogurt.

Roasted ham at breakfast.