Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2026: Everything Comes from Jazz, Everything Returns to It

Maurin Auxéméry — Montreal is one of the great jazz capitals of North America, and arguably of the world. The festival has a lot to do with that, of course, but so does the remarkable number of concerts happening here year-round. People sometimes underestimate the vitality of the city’s jazz scene. Before I moved to Montreal, the festival was actually the only thing I knew about the city.

Year after year, we’ve upheld a commitment to dedicate at least 50% of our programming to jazz in its purest forms. At the same time, jazz has always been a music of exchange and transformation. It gave rise to countless other genres—from hip-hop to rock and beyond—and we’re interested in exploring those connections.

Another priority for me is ensuring that the festival reflects the many communities that make up Montreal. Artists such as Naïka and Saint Levant bring strong cultural identities and connect with Haitian, Latin American, Algerian, Korean and many other audiences, while speaking to listeners far beyond those communities. We want to be a festival for all Montrealers. The fact that so much of our programming is free helps us fulfill that mission. In many ways, it gives us a public-service role.

Maurin Auxéméry — That’s a constant objective. The pace of discovery is faster than ever today. In 2026, an artist can emerge seemingly out of nowhere and become a global sensation within a matter of months. Part of my job—and one of the aspects I enjoy most—is identifying those artists early, bringing them to the festival and connecting them with audiences before the rest of the world catches up. Free programming is a powerful tool in making that happen.

A few years ago, we booked Cimafunk, a Cuban artist who performed before tens of thousands of people on a Saturday night when virtually nobody here knew who he was. By the end of the festival, he had become one of its breakout stars because audiences were completely blown away by the show. The response exceeded our expectations, and even his own. Those are the kinds of moments we strive to create in Montreal.

This year, an artist like Annahstasia fits perfectly into that tradition. Her album Live at Glasshaus is extraordinary, and while people are only beginning to discover her, I believe she’ll find a passionate audience here. Helping artists make that connection is one of the festival’s most exciting roles.

Maurin Auxéméry — There isn’t a jazz musician today who hasn’t studied them, it’s simply impossible. And there’s no better way to pay tribute than through the artists themselves. So we invited both local and international musicians to come and reinterpret the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane here at the festival.

The result is a constellation of very different projects. Marcus Miller, Miles Davis’s final musical director, was an obvious choice. Isaiah Collier, who I see as the closest thing we have to a modern-day Miles, will perform A Love Supreme in its entirety. Rémi Cormier will reimagine the soundtrack of Ascenseur pour l’échafaud, a score born from a spontaneous improvisation session and now one of the most iconic in film history, adding his own personal voice to it. And then there’s Super Blue, a concert bringing together Nicholas Payton and a collective of younger musicians strongly influenced by hip-hop, revisiting elements of both A Love Supreme and Kind of Blue.

Maurin Auxéméry — It marks the 50^th anniversary of the first iteration of Michel Cusson’s group, which would later become UZEB with Alain Caron, a landmark name in the world of jazz fusion, still influential today. We’re celebrating that milestone on several fronts.

There is a documentary directed by a young filmmaker, which will premiere at the Monument-National on June 29, with the band in attendance. We’re also presenting separate concerts by Michel Cusson and Alain Caron at the Gesù, each exploring their own musical universe.

And then there’s something particularly close to my heart: we’re reissuing the 1991 live recording captured at the festival, in vinyl format, available exclusively at the festival’s physical site and online. You’ll have to come by and swipe your card to get your hands on it.

Maurin Auxéméry — Okonski is a pianist who blurs the boundaries between jazz and classical music. In my view, one of the best jazz albums of the year, with beautifully crafted writing. Annahstasia is an American singer whose album Live at Glasshaus is striking. She’s about to find her audience here. Resavoir, a Chicago-based group on the International Anthem label, offers a more composed, written approach to jazz, an especially compelling project. Gotts Street Park brings British soul of very high calibre. Fabiola Méndez, a Puerto Rican cuatro player and collaborator of Bad Bunny, is a full performance in herself. And for those drawn to unexpected blends: Leenalchi, a South Korean band somewhere between rock and traditional Korean music, completely unrestrained in the best possible way.