Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG have announced the next instalment in The Montreux Years collection series with Marianne Faithfull: The Montreux Years and Muddy Waters: The Montreux Years to be released on Friday 27 August 2021. Available on multi-format configurations including double LP as well as download and streaming services (including Tidal Masters), the two new albums feature captivating performances from Marianne Faithfull and Muddy Waters’ multiple appearances at the Swiss festival for the very first time.
Mastering has been performed by Tony Cousins at London’s Metropolis Studios, incorporating MQA to capture the original sound of these special live performances. Similar to the first albums in the series, Nina Simone and Etta James, the Marianne Faithfull and Muddy Waters albums will be accompanied by exclusive liner notes and previously unseen photography.
Instantly recognisable with her raw, varied vocal talents and tangible charisma, Marianne Faithfull has been a long-time friend of the Montreux Jazz Festival, appearing five times over a nearly 15-year period: 1995, 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2009. The first live album of Faithfull in over 10 years, ‘Marianne Faithfull: The Montreux Years’ opens with a rendition of Van Morrison’s Madame George, recorded live at Auditorium Stravinski on 10th July 1995, where her powerful range and unfaltering dynamism is instantly apparent.
Muddy Waters was the hot ticket during his run of appearances at the Festival in the 1970s. Already a cultural and musical force to behold when festival founder Claude Nobs first caught him live in 1965, Waters found critical acclaim outside of the US, sparking the blues revival in the UK and finding a clamouring crowd in Montreux.
The Montreux Years brings together an impressive repertoire of Waters’ blues classics, from the chugging standard Mannish Boy and genre defining I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man to the stripped-back majesty of Rosalie, all oozing with effortless style and Delta swagger.