Everything We Saw at Montreal’s Jazz Fest 2025.
Shot and written by Sarah Evangelista, Eva Lynch, and Marianna Georgiadis
Ten days of (mostly) free shows and good food in the heart of Montreal? Count us in.
Here are all the sets we caught at this year’s Jazz Festival in Montreal.
Victor Diaz Lamich
Léonie Gray @ Club Montréal Loto-Québec, June 26th
Photos by Marianna Georgiadis
The first show we caught at the festival was Léonie Gray, who’s an indie pop artist from Montreal. A lot of people had the same idea and watched Gray grace the stage on the festival’s opening night. The audience was excited to see her, which was returned with fan interactions. Her and her band played songs from her new album Crève-Coeur, while adding some older songs from self ish.
Wynton Marsalis @ Place Des Arts, June 26th
Photos and review by Sarah Evangelista
Fresh off a performance with the Lincoln Center Orchestra the night before, American trumpeter and LCO Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis sat down with newer LCO members Alexa Tarantino and Chris Lewis for a conversation with Samuel Blé about the state of jazz today, and what it means to be a jazz musician in a hyper-digital world. Quite quickly, the discussion focused itself on the tension between tradition and modernity. Blé’s questions tended to focus on social media and the consumption of music as content, which sometimes felt trite, however the responses from the musicians were thoughtful and refreshing and able to offer something new to the flood of discourse.
Clown Core @ MTELUS, June 26th
Photos by Sarah Evangelista
The most clown costumes I’ve seen in one room were at MTELUS the night Clown Core headlined. Clown Core, an anonymous experimental jazz group stunned an audience of two thousand people by simply playing instruments and screeching into their microphones. People who get Clown Core’s music, get it.
Natalia Lafourcade @ Place Des Arts, June 26th
Review by Eva Lynch
As the lights dimmed in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, someone in the back yelled “Viva Mexico!” and the hall erupted into cheers. Moments later, Natalia Lafourcade stepped onto the stage, carrying a suitcase and a freshly picked flower as we prepared to embark on a journey together. Bathed in warm red and orange light, Lafourcade's voice immediately cast a quiet spell over the audience. Her performance was intimate, her voice in perfect sync with the guitar and her hands in constant motion even as she sang with eyes closed. Despite the hall’s large size, her voice carried to every corner and filled the room with an immediate warmth. She brought us to the seaside with her song “Soledad y el Mar ” saying she loves to go to the sea and be alone, because with the sea as your companion, you’re never really alone. We shared a glimpse of her hometown as she sang her song “Veracruz” which she dedicated to the beautiful latin community in the room, as she missed Mexico. The concert steadily grew in energy, with the audience singing along as the set evolved from delicate ballads to more rhythmic, celebratory pieces. Midway into the set, while introducing a more romantic song of hers, she asked if anyone in the room was recently engaged or married, to which a man stood up and proposed to his girlfriend on the spot. The room was full of cheers and tears, which added to the night’s beauty and emotional resonance. Lafourcade spoke a lot about her latest album, Cantacion, which is a rich blend of bolero, dance, and love songs. Before the final notes faded, Lafourcade was visibly moved and surprised as she received the festival’s Antônio-Carlos-Jobim Award, honoring her contribution to “world music” and her artistry as she carries on longstanding musical traditions while weaving together traditional Latin American roots with contemporary music.
Budos Band @ MTELUS, June 28th
Photos and review by Sarah Evangelista
The Staten Island based instrumental group graced the MTELUS stage after Secret Chiefs 3 on Jazz Fest’s second night. A crowd of rock-soul music lovers joined in celebration of their new project VII. The eleven piece ensemble played popular tunes heard in The Bear and more, which the crowd adored. All of them are multi-talented musicians, and they played a handful of instruments from the trumpet and percussion. It was a loud show from the wind instruments, but that was mirrored with the audience’s cheers.
PJ Morton @ TD Stage, June 29th
Photos and review by Sarah Evangelista
PJ Morton, the multi-talented artist walked on Jazz Fest’s main stage and was welcomed with open arms and cheers. He sat by his piano while playing original and cover songs, which was sung along by the hundred thousand capacity crowd. It’s safe to say Montreal was charmed by him.
Nai Palm + Hawa B @ Club Soda, June 30th
Photos and review by Eva Lynch
The moment Hawa B.’s set begins, the atmosphere shifts. The set opens with a three-woman choir delicately harmonizing, before Hawa B makes her entrance. Her operatic voice is enchanting and transportative but within a song or two she sheds her skin as the night begins to twist and turn. Hawa B. is sure to subvert your expectations but the night affirmed her incredible vision and talent as a performer, her voice was unfaltering and powerful, and her energy was infectious. Accompanied by a saxophone and singing across multiple languages, the show reveals itself to be more of a performance art as she gets experimental and angry on stage: shedding layers of clothing; interpretive dancing to the music; stopping the music with an alarm which blares the word “silence” over and over; whipping her long braids in a circular motion; playing both with the audience and making a statement on society’s imposed expectations. When she disappears for a moment in the middle of the show, she emerges from the wings having dawned a veil, and sings while chewing up a cucumber which she spits into a pile on the floor by the end of the verse while making a powerful social statement about modesty and not needing to cover her hair or dress differently to be treated with respect. For me, this moving and completely surprising performance was one of the hidden gems of the entire festival.
Nai Palm’s voice is unlike anything else on this planet. The powerhouse vocalist is most commonly associated with the band Hiatus Kayioke, however, they are currently on an Australian tour so she is alone for the night, yet this gives Nai Palm all the more space to shine. In a stripped back set with only Nai Palm and her guitar, alone on stage, it’s impossible to tear your eyes away. Her voice flows out of her and is soulful and powerful. She takes to the stage with a lightness as she chats with the audience and launches into the music, casually shaking her hair side to side, smiling and laughing as she sings, as if she’s not singing impossible riffs like it’s nothing. Her guitar playing is second nature, loosely plucking at the strings with a verve and ease which creates a powerful and dream-like sound. I’ve been a fan of her solo album for years, but in person her music is electrifying, bold and raw in a way that floors me. It has an edge and a wonder to it which enchants the entire room with ease. Between songs, Nai Palm engaged the audience warmly, cracking jokes and chatting as if they were old friends. Her unguarded genuine charm and conversation throughout the night made the performance feel all the more intimate.Her presence was magnetic, and you feel every emotion she layers into the music, flitting between raspy croons and intricate harmonies which blends jazz, funk, soul influences to create something undoubtedly unique.
Thundercat @ Place Des Arts, July 1th
Review by Eva Lynch
Thundercat is no stranger to Montreal. He has played to tiny stages and massive festival crowds, but tonight is a special show. Accompanied by percussionist Justin Brown and keyboardist Dennis Hamm, the trio treated the audience to a performance of majority unreleased music, leaning into the opportunity to show his funk and jazz roots and play off of one another, while saving some of his better known hits for the very end. Despite his seriousness when it comes to the integrity of the music and masterful playing, Thundercat is equally down to earth and silly onstage in between his impressive runs. He might be the only artist who will make an entire audience meow and talk about farting onstage, yet astound them with his classically-trained skills in the next breath. For his final two songs, Some Changes and Funny Thing, he invites a young man named Milo onto the stage with him to dance alongside, as he urges the crowd to let loose and get up and dance to the music. It was the perfect end, to watch Thundercat and his young fan dance it out in a circle on stage, before Thundercat was presented with the festival’s Miles Davis award.
Violent Femmes @ Place Des Arts, July 4th
Review by Eva Lynch
Tonight, the Violent Femmes are back in Montreal and in top shape for a killer folksy, fun and spirited show. Tonight's performance is like unwrapping a double disc LP, and being transported back to the early 80s as they play through their two earliest albums. They treat tonight’s event like a double disk record. They begin by playing their 1984 hit record, Hallowed Ground, and jokingly “flip the record” to play SIDE B at the halfway point, running through the tracklist as it was envisioned on the album. They then took a brief intermission before re-emerging on stage, lead singer Gordon Gano cloaked in his classic paisley bathrobe and sunglasses, to play their highly revered first-ever album, Violent Femmes. They’re joined for the night by their friend and accordionist Kevin Hearn, of the Barenaked Ladies, who was their opener on their last tour. He played alongside the Violent Femmes, starring in a solo during “Jesus Walking on the Water,” amidst all their other instrumentation. After they close out with “Gone Daddy Gone,” the final song of Violent Femmes, the crowd is unrelenting as they are called out for an encore. They say it’s Kevin’s Birthday so for an encore they play his favourite song, “Life Is an Adventure” and a cover of “Danse Avec Moi” for the French crowd, which Gano says was written by his sister. The crowd still calls for more and the Violent Femmes re-emerge for their first second encore in what they say ‘has been a while’, clearly shocked by the amount of love, to finish the night with “Gimme The Car” which a fan had called out for earlier.
Tonight is a full circle event for many reasons. The Violent Femmes are no strangers to Montreal and it was at the Montreal Jazz Fest many years ago that their drummer John Sparrow first played a BBQ as a drum, which. Similarly, it was 12 years earlier at the Montreal Jazz Fest that they first played with their saxophonist Blaze. Tonight’s show adds to their rich, growing history at Montreal’s Jazz Festival and we hope to see them back again soon.