Double-bass player and composer Norman Guibeault and his ensemble, Project Riel, is one of the groups performing at this year's incarnation of Montreal's OFF Jazz Festival. (L'OFF Festival de Jazz de Montreal)

“Making jazz is like making bread. Small bakeries make good bread. But once it starts to get produced on a large scale, it just doesn’t taste the same,” says Christophe Papadimitriou, the president of Montreal’s OFF Jazz Festival. The bread analogy is fitting: The veteran double-bass player was born in France, home of the baguette, as well as jazz legends Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.

Organizers of the Montreal International Jazz Festival devote much time to drawing big-ticket stars, some of whom have a tenuous connection to jazz.

Papadimitriou and the other musicians behind the OFF Jazz Festival (which runs until June 21) believe in “artisanal jazz.” They maintain that the Montreal International Jazz Festival (June 26-July 6) ― in the 2004 edition of Guinness World Records as the largest event of its kind ― is simply too big. With headliners like Aretha Franklin, Public Enemy and Leonard Cohen, one might get the impression that the ballooning festival cares more about raking in the cash with big-name pop acts than about jazz. By contrast, OFF’s goal is to keep contemporary jazz evolving. It scours the Quebec and Canadian scenes for the original and avant-garde. “OFF Jazz is about art, not showbiz,” Papadimitriou says.

Founded nine years ago by local musicians who felt locked out of Montreal’s main jazz festival, OFF’s 32 concerts blend contemporary jazz with poetry, theatre and film. Although 80 per cent of the acts are from Montreal, other Canadian and international players also perform. This year, that includes Edmonton-born trumpeter Lina Allemano, Toronto improvisers Barnyard Drama (in which Christine Duncan stretches her five-octave range against Jean Martin’s drums, vinyl samples and digital loops) and the storied American jazz ensemble Sun Ra Arkestra.

Performances take place in intimate bars and cabarets where musicians can groove unhindered and connect with their audience, something Papadimitriou maintains is challenging at the bigger event. At the Montreal International Jazz Festival, “Montreal musicians usually get relegated to outdoor stages where they get to play between a blues act and a reggae show.”

The Montreal International Jazz Festival has become a major industry for the city. (Jean Francois Le Blanc/Canadian Press)

Since its humble start more than 29 years ago, the Montreal International Jazz Festival has abandoned small venues for massive outdoor stages and plush indoor concert halls. Like Cirque du Soleil and the Just for Laughs comedy festival, the international fest has become a major industry. Technically a not-for-profit organization, it is run by entertainment mogul Alain Simard’s Équipe Spectra. Spectra’s influence in Quebec arts and entertainment circles is wide. It owns an animation studio and film production and distribution companies, and it puts on two other major festivals: Montreal Highlights and Les Francopholies. But the international jazz fest is by far the shiniest jewel in Spectra’s crown. With an operating budget of $23 million, it averages two million visitors every year and pumps more than $150 million annually into the local economy.

Organizers of the Montreal International Jazz Festival devote much time to drawing big-ticket stars, some of whom have a tenuous connection to jazz. Programmers say it took them five years to finally get Woody Allen, who’s performing this year, and nearly four to recruit Franklin. Also this year, Bran Van 3000 and Prince will play. While there is certainly plenty of jazz at the festival, many people turn out to take in the free outdoor concerts, where blues and world music predominate.

The festival is also corporate-heavy. General Motors, the main sponsor, often displays its new models there, and in 2005, the automaker did something that no doubt made jazz purists wince: It featured a 10-piece jazz band pulled around in a Chevy truck. The band incorporated the sounds of car horns, revving engines and screeching tires into its music.

Has the marquee event moved too far from its roots? “It’s hard to say whether there is less jazz with a big J at the festival now than there was before. But the fact is that someone can see 10 jazz concerts either inside or outside at the festival every day,” says the festival’s vice-president of programming, Laurent Saulnier. “Our goal is still to program the best possible jazz festival. Everything we bring in has some kind of connection with jazz. We won’t program heavy metal or superficial pop,” says Saulnier, who has been with the festival for nearly 10 years.

While Papadimitriou believes the international jazz fest is an extraordinary music event, his main beef is that the giant enterprise doesn’t do enough to support the evolution of Quebec jazz. Although Montreal has a vibrant underground music scene, there aren’t many venues for musicians to play in and earn decent money. As a result, much of the city’s innovative music is created for free in lofts and after-hours clubs. “If the jazz festival had some kind of mandate to hire and showcase local musicians, it would help the local scene a lot,” Papadimitriou says.

Christin Duncan, left, and Jean Martin, of the group Barnyard Drama are among the 32 concerts presented at this year's OFF Jazz festival. (L'OFF Festival de Jazz de Montreal)

Saulnier says his festival does hire locals, although it doesn’t release figures on how many. “They get a chance to play in front of thousands of people. Which is something they wouldn’t get to do otherwise. I think that’s our biggest contribution to the music community here,” he says. Saulnier also points out that when the Montreal International Jazz Festival does hire, it pays well. “It’s no secret that when a Montreal musician plays our festival, it’s likely the most they will earn all year.”

Montreal saxophonist Chet Doxas has performed at both events and likes them equally. “I know that many local musicians are frustrated with the whole jazz festival machine. But jazz festivals have become huge these days and Montreal is far from the worst,” the 28-year-old musician says. “Some festivals program out-and-out rock ’n’ roll. Which is cool, but then it probably shouldn’t be called a jazz festival.” Last year, Doxas and his quartet were featured in the international fest’s Jazz d’ici (Jazz from Here) series. This year, Doxas will join a group of musicians, including Lorraine Klaasen, Bryan Lee and Oliver Jones, for a concert at Montreal’s Place des Arts cultural centre. “My personal experience with [the festival] has been a good one,” Doxas says.

He will launch his latest album, Le mur (The Wall), at OFF this year, and says he likes the smaller festival for its risk-taking. “Rather than booking bebop or classic jazz, they seek out really contemporary projects.” Double-bass player Pierre-Yves Martel agrees. “What I play isn’t necessarily music that the general public wants to hear. It’s instrumental and has more complex rhythms,” he says. “To get to present that in a festival context is incredible.”

While Papadimitriou acknowledges it’s hard for the public and musicians not to compare Montreal’s jazz festivals, he says he’s not interested in fostering antagonism between the two. “We started out as a reaction to the jazz festival. But now, we are an established institution with our own mandate. We do our own thing.”

The OFF Jazz Festival of Montreal continues until June 21. The Montreal International Jazz Festival runs from June 26 to July 6.

Patricia Bailey is a writer and broadcaster based in Montreal.