Collins, Normal, Krall, et al. Set for 2010 Montreux Jazz Festival, 7/2-7/17

According to a report from the New York Times, this year's Montreux Jazz Festival will include performances from Phil Collins, Diana Krall, and Jessye Norman. The annual festival will take place from July 2 through July 17.

Phil Collins, the multi-talented, eight-time Grammy Award-winning British singer, drummer, composer and actor, will honour the Montreux Jazz Festival with an exclusive concert entitled Up Close & Personal: Phil Collins Plays 60s Motown and Soul. This musical journey back in time will feature his interpretations of the biggest R&B, soul and pop hits of the 60s. He will perform the unforgettable classics of the Motown label, a monument in music history that brought the world artists such as The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and Smokey Robinson.

A prominent American soprano, Jessye Norman started singing spirituals at the age of four in a Baptist Church. She is one of the most admired contemporary opera singers and recitalists, a true dramatic soprano with a majestic stage presence. She comes to Montreux to perform her new show My Life. My Song Gospel and Spirituals, songs by D. Ellington and G. Gershwin.

Born in Canada, to a musical family, Grammy awarded pianist and singer Diana Krall grew up absorbing music that guided her future growth. In 1993, she released her debut album on a small Canadian independent label. As moving as her last album Quiet Nights is -- deriving from Krall's feelings for Brazil and bossa novas - the singer is not shy in admitting that its sensuality is as much about her home life.It's my love letter to my husband - just an intimate, romantic album." Krall will perform on July 13, the same day that husband Elvis Costello will take to the stage with The Sugarcanes.

Others set to perform at the festival include Norah Jones, Chick Corea, Regina Spektor, Billy Idol, and Pat Metheny.

Founded by Claude Nobs in 1967, over the years the Montreux Jazz Festival has become an unmissable event for music fans in Switzerland and around the world. Its stages have been graced by all of music's greats, from MiLes Davis to Ray Charles and from David Bowie to Prince. Whereas Jazz constitutes the Festival's historic core, other styles of music were quickly integrated into the Festival, bound together by a common thread of mutual curiosity and enthusiasm. Having made its reputation with its ambitious programming choices, the Montreux Jazz Festival offers musicians an ideal platform and an intimate setting for the duration of its two weeks.

For more information and a complete list of performances, visit online at www.montreuxjazz.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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