Arriving at the Montreux Jazz Festival to put the finishing touches on Freakout! Montreux
Freakout! Montreux was a show that I curated at the 2012 Montreux Jazz Festival. It started on the evening of July 13 and ended in the wee hours of the morning of July 14. It featured a huge roster of multifaceted talents that pushed the boundaries of the musical status quo.
Over the next few days I'll feature some lo-res unedited clips to give you a sense of one of the greatest days of my life. It took months to plan but the vibe was so amazing that I'm already working on next year's version.
Many of you may not know that I was attacked by very aggressive cancer about twenty-months ago and it's been the greatest struggle of my life. But I'll just keep planning for the next gigs - because Death Has It's Own Plan.
Mark Ronson said it would be his dream for Alison Moyet, Johnny Marr and CHIC to play his arrangement of "Stop Me" - He said that Johnny and I are his two fav guitarist - Here's a little snippet
After months of planning I could see my vision starting to come true
The Freakout! Montreux plan included legends Dimitri from Paris & Ultra Naté
The team worked like a well-oiled machine - Ultra Naté ripped it up while I was in heaven
The A-Team Sooze, Claude, & Tess
Every detail was planned
We even designed the fruit
Going over last minute details with Scarlett Etienne who played keyboards, sang, and DJ'd in the opening
The one and only Martha Wash sound checking
Me and French disco legend Marc Cerrone having a laugh at sound check
La Roux's Elly Jackson going "In For The Kill"
Me and Tavares go over the opening number
Felix da Housecat assuring me that he's got it covered
And Grace and her son Paulo turned it out!
The whole team WORKED HARD to make this night perfect