Montreux 16 July 2007

 Superficially the recording of Prince playing the Montreux Jazz festival in 2007 seems to be something unique, a chance for Prince to display another side of his catalog and his more jazzy orientated oeuvre. However, when we look at the other shows of 2007 we can see that this show is much more of a stepping stone between the two halves of 2007, as Prince comes off his run at Las Vegas and heads to his residence at the O2 for 21 nights. Many of the songs heard at Montreux are familiar to us from his concerts in the previous months, and later in the set Prince moves to a performance that is much more in tune with what is heard during his 21 nights concerts. The real magic with this bootleg is that it is the Montreux Jazz festival, one of the gold standard festivals in the world, and this occasion is matched with a soundboard recording, giving us an intimate ear on a luxurious sounding performance. It’s been a heck of a week, I look forward to losing myself in the music and magic for a couple of hours as I disappear into Prince’s world and the Montreux festival. 

16th July 2007, Auditorium Stravinski, Montreux, Switzerland 

A jazz festival needs horns, and here they are right at the start of Prince’s performance as Greg Boyer, Mike Phillips and Lee Hogans play a bombastic take on “When The Saints Go Marching In,” a song I haven’t always enjoyed in Prince’s live canon, although in this case it is entirely appropriate and provides an enthusiastic start to the concert. 

 

The concert settles and quietens, a sense of intimacy embracing the recording as the “Footsteps” emerges from the speakers. It is thoughtful in its delivery, the band washing it around the auditorium, building power and momentum not just from themselves, but the audience as well as they provide a handclap for the beat. The music comes as waves, washing in and out on the back of some skillful horn work that has me in admiration for the band who seamlessly brings a fresh sound to a style and song that is all too familiar. It is the final appearance of Prince and his bold guitar sound that brings this all to a sharp focus, the music once again accelerating and burning up under the guidance of this master craftsman. 

“The World Is A Ghetto” was covered by Prince only through 2007, and this version is skittery and unsettling, completely suiting the title. It is the keyboards that sketch out the bones of the song, the other instruments secondary to this landscape of unease created. The contribution of Mike Phillips and his vocoder is completely representative of the era, and there is very little surprise registered as he crops up midsong to provide a detached vocal. 

The horns and bass come together in a potent brew for a furious “Mind In 7” that picks up the jazz theme of the evening and pushes it further than anywhere else heard on the recording. This is the pinnacle of this first section of the show, with no vocals, the music itself dominates, as does Prince’s forceful guitar that overwhelms the second part of the song. It is briefly out of balance, but Prince does pull back and the equilibrium is restored with further horn solos. After this, the show will take on a more traditional form with Prince's compositions being the mainstay of the concert, and this song is one last chance to indulge in a less familiar sound. 

 

There is plenty of light and breeze to the impulsive sounding “Down By The Riverside.” I have always heard this as filler in Prince’s main shows, in this context though it takes on a new life, and although lighter in touch than the previous songs it still insists you listen, especially Greg Boyer’s trombone that serves as a call-to-arms midsong. It is not just the horns that catch my ear, Renato Neto once again flashes across the keys, delivering up a solo that, although not memorable, is a lot of fun. 

The first real vocal performance of the evening is a sultry “Satisfied,” even if it is undone initially by the appreciative audience. Prince’s opening “Awww” immediately sets the tenor of the song, he is going to be loud and in your ear throughout. That thought stays with me for the first minute of the song, Prince is considerably louder than the rest of the band, and it’s not until the mix is corrected later in the song that I can properly sit back and indulge in its smoking late-night sound. Prince’s vocals aren’t the standout for me, it is Morris Hayes and his organ that grab all the headlines with his break, his organ adding a sense of depth and sexiness that Prince’s clever lyrics don’t quite capture. Prince is almost too smug and aloof, while Morris Hayes grounds the song and adds the organic feel that it is otherwise lacking. With “Beggin Woman Blues” drawing from the same well, Prince neatly wraps up the song in a satisfying package. 

 

The concert takes wings and flies with a fiery rendition of “Girls And Boys,” the wheeze of the keyboards giving it a sense of urgency and here and now. Prince and Shelby do the stomp, and that is what this song sounds like, a gleeful stomp through a song I thought I knew well. Renato adds a new dimension with his intergalactic keyboard beaming in, updating the song while acknowledging its 1980s roots. 

We stay firmly in the 1980s with an abridged rendition of “Purple Rain,” Prince acknowledging his most famous song without being beholden by it. Prince crams a lot into its six minutes run time, we get all the verses and choruses and a guitar solo that hits all the right spots. It’s not the dragged-out epic we often hear, but it is close enough to appease most fans and its appearance in the show nods to his past without ever detracting from what has come in the half-hour previous. 

“What A Wonderful World” serves the same purpose as “Down By The Riverside,” giving Prince a break from the stage, and as a standard, it is almost invisible to me. I do enjoy parts of it, but it suffers from over-familiarity and without the focus of Prince there is nothing really to hold my attention here. 

 

I am brought back to the concert with “Gotta Broken Heart Again,” Prince still suffering for his art twenty-five years after he wrote the song. It comes as a downbeat lament, Prince’s melancholy long-distance call tortured through the empathetic music and tearful horn solo. It may not be the standout of the evening, but it is a poignant moment that shines brightly in this new context and surroundings. 

With Shelby J at the helm, “Love Is A Losing Game,” takes “Gotta Broken Heart Again” and raises the stakes, the melancholy turned upon itself, the protagonist no longer wallowing in his loss, but now recognizing it for what it is, a game that can never be won. Prince’s guitar adds to this sense of drama and hopelessness, it doesn’t shine out of the darkness, but rather spirals and turns within it, never quite making sense of the loss and heartbreak. It can’t come close to the rendition that Prince plays with Amy Winehouse later in the year, but it is a stepping stone towards that concert and that final heartbreaking duet with Amy before she passed. 

There is recovery and the sweet balm of “Sweet Thing” to lift us from the previous songs, Shelby’s voice singing us out of the gloom on the back of some shining guitar cascading through the song. It is Prince’s final guitar break that tips the song right over the edge, it sings out in hope and positivity, his music lifting us far beyond the reach of Shelby and the lyrics of the song. 

 

Very few surprises lurk in the creases of “Musicology,” it is a song that had been stretched as far as it could go since 2004, and the emergence of different instruments and players throughout the song doesn’t offer the same sense of purpose as it did in 2004. There is no need for Prince’s mantra of “real music by real musicians,” in fact, he doesn’t resort to that here at all, it is all apparent by the quality heard onstage, and indeed on the bootleg. Prince on the bass is what my ears are listening out for here, his moment cool enough, but not as earth-shattering as one would have hoped. There is a sting in the tail, “Prince And The Band” blindsiding me with a sharp ending. 

The snarl of Prince’s guitar buries the funk of “Play That Funky Music,” the groove merely the vehicle for Prince to show off his guitar prowess. It is a venomous solo that vanishes any other thoughts I may have about the song, even the music bowing down before his immense talent and guitar fury. 

With just the beat, Prince builds a quickfire “I Feel For You,” a song that he rips through like a twenty-year-old man with places to go. It’s poppy, bright, and youthful, giving the concert another lift as we head into the final third. 

Following this kick start, the concert is again reinvigorated by a lively “Controversy,” bursting forth into the arena. Its stark funk is sacrificed for an all-inclusive sprawling arrangement, one that is guaranteed to get the party started, as well as providing Shelby plenty of time to extol the crowd to clap their hands and stomp their feet. It’s covering old ground, but I care little as its inner energy energizes me and for a few minutes the worries of the world are forgotten as I clap my hands and stomp my feet here at home. 

 

The cover of “Crazy” is pure 2007, and immediately takes me to that year. Although the song was released in 2006, Prince’s cover came to prominence in concert throughout 2007, and as such, I cannot disassociate the two. Shelby doesn’t quite make the song her own, but she gives it a good shot, and it is more than a karaoke rendition that it may have been in lesser hands. The reappearance of the vocoder for “One Nation Under A Groove” adds to the moment, giving it funk credentials buried deeper in the mix. Another song that is light on Prince, it nonetheless has its moments and deserves its place in the set. 

Prince reclaims the microphone for a “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the partnership with Shelby is still in the making so what we get here is Prince singing alone, while it is Mike Phillips who provides an anguished counterpoint on his saxophone. It’s not the most striking version in his canon, but he hits enough of the emotional marks in the song to make an impact, even if it is not long-lasting. 

“Take Me With U,” starts brightly, but after the first chorus it is abruptly brought to a halt, for reasons unclear, and Prince instead delivers a driving version of “Guitar.” While the opening of the song fails to inspire any sort of strong feeling within me, Prince’s later guitar solo grabs me by the shoulders and gives me a damn good shaking as he delivers fast and furious. It’s great to listen to, but it does lack the heart and soul that so often give Prince’s breaks a killer edge, and as such I must relegate it to an “also-ran” of Prince guitar solos. 

 

A strong bassline dominates “7,” the song out of balance on the bootleg with Prince’s vocals equally loud. However, it is only short and soon enough it segues naturally into “Come Together,” a song we heard plenty of times through 2007. There is the spirit of coming together in the song’s coda as the music disappears and leaves the audience singing the main refrain for the final three minutes. It is perhaps the best way to finish the show and leaves the main part of the concert with the feeling of togetherness that live concerts often give us. 

The sound of the acoustic guitar sets the scene for the final two songs of the night, first “Little Red Corvette” crawls slowly from its garage as Prince delivers a carefully pitched solo version. It isn’t as quite as effective as it was on the Musicology tour, but on this soundboard recording, there is enough nuance and delicacy for me to appreciate not just his songwriting, but also the intricacy of his guitar playing. 

Ending the concert strongly is an equally delicate “Sometimes It Snows In April,” a song that has taken on a deeper meaning since Prince’s passing. Prince’s vocals sit stark at the center of the recording, so clear that I almost feel I could reach out and touch them. The song is temporarily forgotten as I indulge myself in Prince’s vocals, and I can think of no better way to end the concert than this gently crafted moment of emotion. 

Asides from the name “Montreux” being attached, this concert is no different from many of the others we heard in 2007. The key thing that makes this bootleg what it is, is the fact that it is a soundboard. With a more jazz-influenced sound coming to the fore, a soundboard recording is the best way to catch the more intricate and subtle sounds that the band brings to the music. 2007 isn’t the year I go to first when I want to hear a bootleg, but this concert would be one of the first I would choose from that era, based on the quality of the recording and the performance.