Day Three in Montreal: Gretchen Parlato and Tigran Hamasyan

My favorite way to begin each day while attending the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal is to take a morning walk through the streets of the city and walk ever upward until I come to the corner of Rue Peel and Rue Pins where the steps lead up through the woods to the top of the mountain that gives the city its name, Mont Royal. There, after what can be a nice little workout if you want to walk, run or bike up through the trails, is quite a nice payoff and that’s the beautiful view overlooking the city center below and the curves of the St. Lawrence River. When you get there you’ll know why Jacques Cartier named this place “The Royal Mountain.” Wander through the beautiful open spaces and wooded trails of the Parc du Mont-Royal, designed by a certain Mr. Fredrick Law Olmsted who also did a similar favor for New York City called Central Park, and make your way down again for breakfast and you have the recipe for the beginning of another fabulous day in Montreal! On my third day here at the 32nd Montreal Jazz Fest I had the occasion to hear performances by a couple of artists who are fairly new upon the scene and who are making their way up the mountain too, and they are certainly headed to the very top!

Gretchen Parlato has an absolutely unique voice, really unlike anyone I’ve ever heard. It is so perfectly imperfect in the mold of Billie Holiday in that she emotes in such a wonderfully real, natural and human way as she slides above and below the notes finally arriving at the perfect point. At times she is not exactly articulating the lyrics as much as communicating the words in moans and sighs. It’s as if Gretchen is singing in English but with an accent that sounds somewhere between Portuguese and French, or maybe Martian. I imagined she was performing for us in the bar scene in Star Wars , remember that? So it was totally appropriate that she was performing in the club L’Astral for this years’ festival appearance.

L’Astral, opened just a couple of years ago on the street level of the multi-floor building that is the “Maison du Festival,” the fulltime home of the Festival offices. It’s a true jazz club created just for this glorious purpose, not like so many funky, little jazz joints that are created out of an old storefront. It’s cool, classy and intimate with a nice balcony and two bars on either side of the room that’s filled with tables and chairs loosely arranged in front of the stage.

Nicki Minaj - Feel Inside Lyrics

I wanna make you happy

It's a hundred dollar cash
Give your hundred percent
You can do the math
20 20 vision

But you just don't see it

[Nicki Minaj]
Laze up just every boot, I'm more good
Keys in that thing, interior or wood
Now ending hills is on the rearview
But piece of mon is what I don't got
You make a girl hit up the dope spot
White line, is a thin line
Prenup, been signed, so quit playing, pinch time

[Mary J Blige]
I wanna make you happy
But you just don't see it
I wanna be around babe
Baby I'm so tired up comprehend
We say all the wrong things til we make each other cry
What are we doing? will it ever get better?

Funk

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