The 36th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal took place June 26-July 5, welcoming thousands of the world’s greatest jazz artists into one 10-day musical celebration with more than 600 concerts.
Solotech of Montreal was, once again, the official sound provider of the Festival with over 25 Yamaha consoles, from CL, QL to PM5D and M7CLs
A range of consoles were used for the festival, many of which are Solotech-owned, ad some were provided to Solotech by the Yamaha Professional Audio Division’s commercial audio products team.
Pierre Perreault was the front of house engineer at the Theatre Maisonneuve for the entire festival and, along with guest engineers, used one of two Yamaha CL5 digital audio consoles along with two Rio3224-D stage boxes, with the second CL5 used for monitors and sharing the Rios.
Perreault had the unexpected pleasure of mixing Dee Dee Bridgewater with Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra in the 1500-seat theatre.
Several complications had arisen, including multiple flight delays, so he was asked to step in right before the show was about to begin and mix. No stranger to the Yamaha CL5, Perreault has mixed on the console upwards of 25 shows.
“Doing a show you don’t know anything about, with no sound check for the main artist and 20 additional musicians onstage, you need to have a console that is easy to mix on so you can react quickly. The CL5 was the perfect console for making my life easier that night while sounding great at the same time.”
On the night of the Bridgewater show, Perreault said a familiar user interface, some Premium Rack effects, and especially the CL custom faders layers, were all a big plus, along with in-person support received from Yamaha all festival long. “More and more venues in Québec are upgrading their M7CL to CL5, says Perreault, which for me is a really big plus so I am able to import my M7CL shows into the CL5. It saves a lot of time while also gaining access to the new tools of the CL5.”
“Everyone, including Dee Dee herself and Irvin Mayfield, was really happy after the show and I’ve had my fair share of congratulations about the sound from spectators as well as from their tour manager.”
Perreault has been an independent engineer for over 23 years and for the past few years has mixed in this venue during the jazz festival such acts as Esperanza Spalding, the late Dave Brubeck, Montreal’s great Oliver Jones and many more.
Yamaha Professional Audio’s remote training vehicle was also on the Festival grounds where demonstrations were provided to visiting engineers on the new Rivage PM10 Digital Audio Console.
