Prince Signs On for Three Nights at Montreux Jazz Festival
Prince will perform three concerts at this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
The concerts will be held July 13-15 at the festival, which runs from July 5-20 this year. Prince will be considered one of the headliners of the festival, and the rest of the lineup will be announced April 18.
This is the 47th incarnation of the Montreux, Switzerland festival, and the first since the death of the event’s founder, Claude Nobs, last month following a skiing accident. Nobs was immortalized by the Deep Purple song “Funky Claude.”
“Groovy, funky and the undisputed master of improvisation, Prince’s performances are all unique and unpredictable,” is how the Swiss festival described the artist in a statement.
Tickets for the Prince concerts are on sale now, and start at 175 Swiss francs for standing room and 395 Swiss francs for a seat. A Reuters article implies that this is a lot of money.
This will be Prince’s third appearance at the festival. During his first in 2007, he played his scheduled appearance at the festival and later appeared at a late-night jazz café on Lake Geneva for a 3 a.m. jam session.
He also appeared at the festival in 2009, playing two back-to-back shows on the same night.
Prince has been relatively active lately, recently performing a few gigs at the 300-seat Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, and also releasing a new song. “Screwdriver” was released as a video on his new website and features Prince performing the song backed by an all-girl band. Despite his well-known aversion to the internet, he has created both a Twitter and YouTube account.
However, there’s been no official word if he plans to release a new album in the near future, though it would seem he’s gearing up for something. But with Prince… you just never know.