From Saratgoa, Sherry and I headed up to the Montreal Jazz festival. Ostensibly we were there for the music, but it is the people who made this trip worthwhile. Oh yeah, Trombone Shorty tagged along too!
Sherry’s college room-mate Sabine lives in Montreal with her husband Jacques and children Julian and Elise. Carol and Roger, college friends from Westchester also made the journey north as well and stayed in the same hotel as us. We all enjoy jazz, so the visit was arranged in synchronization with the “Festival International de Jazz de Montreal.”
On our way up Sherry scouted out a gem of a Czech restaurant just north of the border in Brossard called Bohemia. Excellent food, great friendly service (in English!) and substantially better than stopping at a fast-food place!
Montreal is a great city in the summer, and everyone was on the streets to celebrate the great weather, Canada Day and the jazz festival. Sabine & Jacques live near old-town, so we enjoyed walking around, and seeing the ropes park where Elise works and enjoying the scenery and some local restaurants.
We also took many trips on the excellent Montreal metro system. Quiet, clean and full of art, it made getting around easy.
Our first evening we saw a performance by Jeff Goldblum (yes, THAT Jeff Goldblum) and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. We had done some research prior, and despite being an actor, Mr. Goldblum seemed to have some jazz chops as well.
He was proceeded by warm up act Tyreek McDole, whose music was too avant-garde for us, but featured Victor Gould on piano who was superb.
Jeff came out between acts to warm up the audience while the stage crew reset the percussion section, and then was joined onstage by his orchestra.
All of it was a bit too improvised for us, and some of the themes were incoherent. This included Jeff’s unscripted comedy and the choices of music, but we greatly enjoyed hearing vocals featuring Khailah Johnson and Tyreek McDole.
Later that evening we walked through the outside venues and once again danced to Trombone Shorty, who was performing a free concert at the TD Theater.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was taking a short detour to visit Sherry’s cousin Adrianne Sklar. Sherry had not seen her in more than ten years, since her husband Ronnie passed away.
Adrianne is a former college professor (as was Ronnie) and at 83 is still sharp and a joy to be with. Her daughters, their families and grandchildren are all nearby and they get together frequently.
That afternoon, Sherry and I headed back to the jazz festival and we enjoyed Basement Brass, Streetnix, and The Jeremy Ledbetter Trio. Our group rejoined for a nice dinner at Sho-Dan, and an evening performance by Branford Marsalis.
I enjoyed getting to know Montreal better, exploring the metro system and being there during such a fun week. But once again, it was the people who made the trip special: Catching up with Adrianne and enjoying the company of Sabine, Jacques, Carol and Roger. A great trip!