Famed Jazz Festival Celebrated In ‘They All Came Out To Montreux’ Documentary

A new three-part documentary mini-series that tells the story of the Montreux Jazz Festival, directed by British filmmaker Oliver Murray and executive produced by Quincy Jones, is to air on UK television this week.

They All Came Out To Montreux, which of course takes its title from Deep Purple’s rock anthem “Smoke On The Water,” which was inspired by the fire at Montreux Casino in 1971. The series will air on BBC Four on Friday (16) at 10.15pm local time, and features more than 70 contributions, either in the form of performance clips from the Montreux archives or testimonials.

Episode 1 featuring interviews and music from Aretha Franklin, Keith Richards, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Ten Years After, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Roberta Flack, and Deep Purple. Episode 2 features Carole King, Muddy Waters, Monty Alexander, Etta James, Gilberto Gil, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, Talking Heads, Van Morrison, and James Brown. Episode 3 includes Marvin Gaye, George Clinton, Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Sting, the Roots, ZZ Top, Bowie again, Alicia Keys, Prince, and Wyclef Jean.

The documentary takes the form of three one-hour episodes and is produced by BMG and Beyond TNC in association with Montreux Media Ventures. All three episodes will be available immediately after Friday’s broadcast on BBC iPlayer. Says Quincy Jones: “They All Came Out To Montreux is a wonderful testament to the story behind what I consider to be the ‘Rolls Royce of music festivals,’ and how it came to be.”

Central to the story is festival founder Claude Nobs, and his struggle to make Montreux into the world-famous event it became. The films document his tireless efforts to give a European platform to many artists from the world of jazz and far beyond, and demonstrates how the reputation of the festival would also lead to the participation of world-famous rock stars such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Santana. Nobs died in 2013.

The exclusive footage from the festival was captured by Nobs and by Montreux Sounds, who meticulously recorded all of its events from the late 1960s onwards. The archive of more than 11,000 hours of live music has been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register since 2013.

Says director Murray in a statement: “In many ways I feel a certain inevitability that my career path has led me to the doorstep of the Montreux Jazz Festival. After five years telling stories about musicians and specialising in archive filmmaking I think that Claude’s story is the top of the mountain – a very beautiful Swiss mountain! I could not be more excited and honored to bring Claude’s story to the screen.

“From Nina Simone in 1968 to Wyclef Jean in 2013, it’s a mirror of the times we’ve lived through and this series is a time machine to take us back so that we can hear the story from the voices of those who made it all happen.”

Before the broadcast on Friday, at 9pm, BBC Four’s themed night in celebration of the famous annual event on the shores of Lake Geneva will also feature Nina Simone: Live at Montreux 1976.

Read more about the 2023 line-up at Montreux and listen to the Montreux Jazz Festival 2023 playlist on Spotify.