Word: montreux
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at Montreux...
Listening to the first of the double-disc album Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985 is a singularly surreal experience. When the legendary electric blues guitarist took the stage at the Swiss jazz festival on July 17, 1982, he was a relative unknown, receiving third billing under drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon. Throughout that night, Stevie Ray unleashed a torrent of blistering, fiery blues, but in a bizarre historical turn, the audience’s reaction mixed applause and jeers in equal parts. The story goes that Vaughan left the stage in tears...
...double album, the sum of Vaughan’s first Montreux performance and his triumphant return in 1985, represents the first comprehensive collection of those celebrated live performances. Needless to say, the compilation is simply glorious. Vaughan was as adept at funneling rip-roaring blues through his guitar as he was pulling out smouldering riffs from its strings, and the first Montreux outing provides a brilliant sampler of his stunning—if then still raw—talent...
What a difference three years makes. When Vaughan returned to Montreux in 1985 (the second of the two-disc set), audience reception was markedly different the first. Two top-40 albums later, Vaughan was a known commodity—when he graced the stage in 1985, the Swiss hailed him as conquering hero. Fueled by an audience eruption, Double Trouble positively tears into “Scuttle Buttin,” soaring with impossible runs over Layton’s fast and loose percussion. While maturity had refined his playing, Vaughan clearly hadn’t lost his competitive fire...
...what seems like a nonstop tour in recent years. Perhaps he's still trying to redeem himself from his 1966 U.K. performances, when he was greeted with catcalls and boos. This year, his eight-country European swing will have a much warmer reception at stops that include the Roskilde, Montreux Jazz and Stimmen Festivals...