Holiday hounds will enjoy their free time with delight. Full-time workers will have a red-eyed fortnight or need a myriad of inventive excuses for their absences. OnTheFlip presents the Jazzummer guide 2005!

Festival International de Jazz de Montréal
June 29 to July 10
Montréal, Canada

We start off with the OnTheFlip Jazz Festival of the Year. Not content with having a superb line-up, embracing both traditional jazz and innovative trends, the Montreal people have also managed to keep three quarters of their concerts free to the public. Jazz fans in Quebec's finest city will be able to enjoy stellar acts such as the Platinum Pied Pipers and even Pat Metheny, live and for free.

The 26th edition of the Montreal Jazz Festival is very much in the Metheny constellation, as the master guitar player will grace the Festival with six unique concerts. Metheny will appear in a Missouri Sky duet with Charlie Haden, a Gary Burton Quartet revival, a 80/81 revisit with Dewey Redman and Mick Goodrick and in his latest trio setup with Antonio Sanchez and Scott Colley. But for the star concert, Metheny takes the opportunity to gather around a set of friends that he has always wanted to perform with, including David Sanchez, Enrico Rave, Ron Blake, Chris Dave and our absolute fave Meshell Ndegeocello. And of course, the entire Pat Metheny group will be giving a free concert as part of their The Way Up tour on the closing night of the festival.

If all this doesn't leave you breathless, the Festival also offers the soulful depth of Roy Hargrove, electronic escapades courtesy of Four Tet and Akufen, the sensual shy voice of Juana Molina and the frantic cuts of RJD2. And much much more. All set in bohemesque beauty of Montréal. We still can't believe our eyes and ears.

OnTheFlip picks:

Pat Metheny & Friends Fresh Encounters feat. ao. Meshell Ndegeocello
Platinum Pied Pipers
Roy Hargrove & RH Factor
Brink Man Ship feat. Nya
Tortured Soul
Juana Molina
Four Tet & Akufen
Erik Truffaz Saloua
Automato & RJD2
Lizz Wright

Website & tickets @ www.montrealjazzfest.com

Montreux Jazz Festival
July 1 to 16
Montreux, Switzerland

To faithful followers, it is no surprise that Montreux is no longer a jazz festival. Evidence: Alice Cooper, Queens of the Stone Age, The Corrs, Garbage, Audioslave, Alice Cooper-all are on this year's bill. So popular appeal is secured. And on the surface, it seems that Montreux has spent all these years building a reputation only to use it as leverage to get mainstream acts that lack the depth, inventiveness and intriguing appeal of today's groundbreaking jazz artists. Diving down into the programme, it is therefore a relief to find that the Festival also stays in touch with the innovative end of things.

Gilles Peterson is the usual imported tastemaker, throwing together a gorgeous evening featuring his own darling Plant Life, Moodymann live with Andres and Roberta Sweed and Chris Bowden's Heritage Orchestra. The very anticipated WattStax Revue has a reunion-style line-up with Billy Preston, Booker T & the MGs and Montreux regular Isaac Hayes. An interesting combo is the Trio! event, with Stanley Clarke, Jean-Luc Ponty and Bela Fleck. Other mouthwatering treats include former Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun's Aza featuring ao. Pharoah Sanders, Common presenting his Be album live, Laurent Garnier performing with Bugge Wesseltoft, resurrected veteran bass-player Marcus Miller, charming Icelandic song-pixie Emiliana Torrini and the Roots. And who can resist the efficient German robotics of Kraftwerk, who are sure to pull off something special for this festival?

Most concerts are structured into package nights, with one ticket for entry to two or more concerts. The vast majority of groundbreaking acts perform in the Miles Davis hall. The Montreux Jazz Café is the official club venue, with DJ sets by the likes of Dimlite, Alex Attias, 2 Many DJ's and a tag team of Ricardo Villalobos and Luciano -most of which are free. But unlike Montréal, the vast majority of Montreux's free concerts are by smaller and local acts.

Montreux is still the largest jazz festival in the world, both in terms of concert volume and scope. And if those coming to hear The Corrs' innocuous brand of Irish fiddle-pop end up having a great time discovering the Moodymann gig, then the mixture of popular and forward-thinking music will have served a good purpose. But among the real future-jazz headz crowd, Montreux may leave some wanting.

OnTheFlip picks:

Plant Life
Moodymann feat. ao. Andres & Roberta Sweed
Chris Bowden Heritage Orchestra feat. Dwight Trible
WattStax Revue feat. Booker T & Isaac Hayes
Will Calhoun Aza feat. Pharoah Sanders, Graham Haynes, John Benitez and Orrin Evans
Common
Laurent Garnier & Bugge Wesseltoft
London Elektricity
Raphael Saadiq
Incognito
Zap Mama

Website & tickets @ www.montreuxjazz.com

North Sea Jazz
July 8 to 10
The Hague, Netherlands

On the European side of things, Holland's North Sea Jazz Festival has long been locked in a tough battle for supremacy with the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival. This year the two tie, even as Montreux truly becomes a jazz festival in name only. The North Sea people have shined for being among the first to embrace the new evolution of jazz and how it has permeated other genres. This year, the innovation spirit is still there.

The most anticipated performance will certainly come courtesy of Matthew Herbert's Plat du Jour project, which sees the organically minded producer literally cook up his sound designs. Meals will be cooked onstage, the audience will be treated to tasters and the cooks will be banging on pots, all as part of Herbert's lashing out against the food industry. Cooking smells are also part of the music, says this new 'hurrah for biological food' Herbert. Silhouette Brown will be taking their soulful broken beat-lite to the stage, with cornerstones Dego and Kaidi Tatham joined by the Silhouette Brown centerpiece, singer Deborah Jordan. Roisin Murphy will be showcasing her excellent Ruby Blue album -and as she plays shortly after Matthew Herbert, who knows if an onstage visit will not be paid? Moodymann brings his full live outfit for a Friday midnight bash. The entire Friday session at the Paulus Potterzaal is worth attending, with Kenny Dixon Jr and Silhouette Brown joined by Pharoah Sanders vocalist Dwight Trible, whose recent album Equipoise features collaborations with Sa-Ra Creative Partners and the Ninja Tune roster. His band for the evening also includes the man like Ammon Contact, Carlos Nino. In between, Finnish outfit Rinneradio will be sprinkling violin and sax onto drum&bass rhythms.

On the face of it, the rendition of songs by Earth, Wind & Fire mainstay Charles Stepney performed by a project big band including Jazzanova and Terry Callier looks very alluring. Until you read the line-up and realise that the Jazzanova contribution is only Alexander Barck on turntables. Nevertheless, Amsterdam's Dox Orchestra should kick things up a few notches, along with the Zapp! String Quartet. And we always enjoy the smooth soulful basstone voice of Mr Terry Callier. But we can't help wonder how this would turn out with the Jazzanova producers coming along with real-time samples. All in all, it's still an intriguing proposition, worth checking.

Jaguar Wrigth and her fellow Philadelphia Black Lily open mic nights graduate Jazmine Sullivan will bring soul to the Festival, along with Raphael Saadiq, Liz Wright and Soulive. Roy Hargrove is ubiquitous at North Sea, playing with his RH Factor outfit before joining in for the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band, the Charlie Parker Legacy Band and the 30th Anniversary Supersession George Duke band along with Stanley Clarke and Boney James.

On the more traditional and soulful end of things North Sea still does marvellously, rounding up the likes of Maceo Parker, Chaka Khan, Al Green, the salsa tingle of Michel Camilo & Tomatito and more of the hot latin rhythms with long-lived 22-man orchestra Guaco. Ibrahim Ferrer will assure the presence of long-time North Sea performers Buena Vista Social Club. Artist-in-residence Dave Holland will front this year's North Sea big fish, an all star quartet with Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette and Chris Potter. DeJohnette will also join Keith Jarrett and Gary Peacock for a 30th annivesary performance.

A free minifestival will warm the Hague up before the jazz nn is unleashed, with N'Dambi and another performance by Soulive in the town centre. Not that there needs to be any warming up. North Sea Jazz is set to be hot and in need of as much ocean breeze as it can get.

OnTheFlip picks:

Matthew Herbert's Plat du Jour feat. ao. Phil Parnell
Silhouette Brown
Moodymann
Dwight Trible
Jaguar Wright
Jazmine Sullivan

Website & tickets @ www.northseajazz.nl

Blue Note Festival
July 14th to 24th
Ghent , Belgium

The wonderful cozyness and medieval cobblestone scenery of the Belgian canal city once again provides the setting of the Blue Note Festival, as usual divided up into a long weekend of traditional jazz and a long weekend of more progressive things. Only trouble is that the Blue Note Festival may have reached its pinnacle of programming genius last year. The conditions were just right: Meshell Ndegeocello was test-driving her Spirit Music Jamia long ahead of the album release, making what was then a somewhat exclusive appearance. Nicola Conte was about to drop his wonderful Other Directions album on Blue Note and blew the Festival away with a spirited concert. Other nice catches included The Troublemakers with their Express Way movie project, Zap Mama touring their excellent Ancestry in Progress album and Angies Stone providing star credentials along with George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic.

This year, the All That Jazz? charge is led somewhat less excitingly by Buena Vista's Omara Portuondo as part of a world music oriented closing Sunday. It will be more interesting to see what classic pop tunes Peacefrog's strangely signed Nouvelle Vague will be interpreting on stage. The Youngblood Brass Band are always up for some mobile fun and will no doubt venture into the crowd like Belgo-Moroccan outfit Määks Spirit did last year. Blue-souled French trumpetist Erik Truffaz is always worth the detour for strange escapades, Louie Vega should get the party started right and The Herbaliser brings along Kaidi Tatham for their energetic full liveband hip hop kick-up.

Other interesting but less enticing acts include Lizz Wright, Belgian house-jazzsters Briskey, legendary crooner Solomon Burke and Medeski, Martin & Wood. But his innovator credentials notwithstanding, it is hard to see a place for Van Morrison on All That Jazz? in a time when the evolution of jazz is moving a mile a minute. And the presence of Vaya Con Dios could be interpreted as a desire to appeal to the mainstream pop crowd.

The traditional jazz weekend All that Jazz is competently staffed with headliners McCoy Turner AllStars, DeeDee Bridgewater, Dave Holland and Charlie Haden flanked by the likes of sultry guitarist John Scofield and Richard Galliano.

The Blue Note Festival is still worth visiting for the beautiful atmosphere in the courtyard of the Bijloke monastery. But after last year's triumph, one can't help but feeling a little let down by the lineup. Pair it up with the 10 Days Off festival and Ghent's marvellous annual Feesten street party and you will be satisfied.

OnTheFlip picks:

Erik Truffaz & Ladyland Quartet
Louie Vega & his Elements of Life
The Herbaliser
Nouvelle Vague
Youngblood Brass Band
Lizz Wright

Website & tickets @ www.bluenotefestival.com

Ottawa International Jazz Festival
June 23 to July 3rd
Ottawa, Canada

In the midst of tumultuous debates and confrontations over the sponsorship scandal, Quebec autonomy and gay rights legislation, the political heart of Canada needs to relax a little. The Ottawa International Jazz festival could be just the ticket, with a wide array of Canadian jazz artists, flanked by international headliners like Diana Krall, Sonny Rollins and the Pat Metheny Group who drop in a little late, playing July 9th.

The festival's innovative contingent include the much anticipated Joshua Redman Elastic Band, with the Bay Area saxophonist bringing fresh elements into a solid jazz background. England's Matthew Bourne will be dishing out lashes of avant-garde improvisation, though neither in his drum&bass constellation The Electric Dr M or in his Metropolis 'death metal meets jazz' guise.

Playing a fair few of the different jazz festivals this summer, the Stanley Clarke - Béla Fleck - Jean-Luc Ponty Trio! also drop in. Toronto's hip hop jazz fusionists The Quartertones will certainly be worth a listen. On the cubop tip, Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers are sureshot partystarters. And there's a Ninja Tune Saturday afternoon with The Herbaliser and Bonobo. All in all, it's worth spending Canada Day, and a few more days, in Ottawa.

OnTheFlip picks:

The Herbaliser
Bonobo
Joshua Redman Elastic Band
Pat Metheny Group
The Quartertones

Website & tickets @ www.ottawajazzfestival.com

10 Days Off
July 15th to 25th
Ghent, Belgium

Currently the most terrifically torrential clubbing cavalcade of Europe, the 10 Days Off festival delivers what it promises: ten days of quality clubbing in and around the gorgeous marble halls, stairs and rooms of the Vooruit. Every electronic slant imaginable is on offer here. The eclectic 'jazz and beyond' of Gilles Peterson, Earl Zinger and Max Sedgley. The deep tech machinery of Ken Ishii and Richard Hawtin. The blunt Cologne-styles of Henrik Schwarz or Michael Mayer and the airier ditto of radiozapper Akufen and Ricardo Villalobos. The juvenile drum&bass antics of High Contrast and the energy of his Hospital Records labelmates Nu:Tone. The awkward hip hop side-to-sides of Rednose Distrikt's Aardvarck -mixed with his own brand of deep tech. The slightly punkified New York electro of The Juan Maclean and the slight discokitch of Justus Kohnke. The glitterball house of Brooks. The abrasive garage-inspired outbursts of M.I.A. Nicola Conte's shuffled jazzdance extravaganza. The, uhm, "futurist retro-disco" of Norwegians Lindtröm and Prins. Ok, enough with the labels.

Belgian acts to watch for include Antwerp's eclectic D'Stephanie, as she pairs up with New York's Afro-fusion vocalist Wunmi, and Belgium's own black music fusionists Philarmonix. 10 Days Off runs at the same time as the Blue Note festival, so a pendulum swing may be in order. But like Blue Note, 10 Days Off was in a luckier current last year, especially with the massive Sonar Kollektiv night featuring Micatone live and a scorcher of a Jazzanova DJ set featuring Clara Hill. But there is still plenty to go around for this superb clubbing event -and much room for discovery.

OnTheFlip picks:

Henrik Schwarz
Nicola Conte
Max Sedgley
Michael Mayer
Akufen
Brooks
Ken Ishii
Aardvarck

Website & tickets @ www.10daysoff.be

Copenhagen Jazz Festival
July 1st to 10th
Copenhagen, Denmark

The Copenhagen Jazz Festival is again this year a case of usual suspects. Bachmann, Mikkelborg, Ginman -just some of Denmark's finest who have become festival regulars. And The Zawinul Syndicate returns. So once again, the festival is built on a strong Danish jazz vibe, with fitting international inserts sprinkled on top. The Tivoli Park's Glass Hall is the setting for a crop of headliners paying tributes. Richard Galliano Septet will remember a tango master with their Piazolla Forever concert. Joe Lovano and Hank Jones celebrate Ben Webster. The more populist entries will play on Tivoli's big lawn, to be enjoyed by all the park's guests. Blue Note's Danish connection Cæcilie Nordby will be performing with the Tivoli Big Band and the Brand New Heavies will delight those who have not tired of their by now diluted funk.

So where to go for the interesting music? The Copenhagen Jazz Festival is another chance to taste Matthew Herbert's Plat du Jour, as he performs at the Future Sound of Jazz event, with Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception and Danish Leaf label signees Efterklang also on the bill. Norwegian master of desolate landscape jazz Jan Garbarek should not be missed, playing with the Hilliard Ensemble. African-inspired, legendary and now 85-year-old, Yusef Lateef joins the Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra. It's certainly also worth checking the off-kilter urban concrete saxophone stylings of the UK's award winning jazz innovator Soweto Kinch. And all eyes will be on Avishai Cohen, the bass player formerly with Chick Corea, whose tight and dry sound infuses his mix of latin, funk and jazz.

But the most interesting event, apart from Matthew Herbert's cuisine, will be a concert for the kids. Children's jazz is big in Denmark and the DJANZZ combo will be delighting the young and not-quite-grown-up-yet adults with their happy jungle jazz, featuring many animal characters, including Ægir, the duckling who invented rap. 'Rap' is what the ducks say in Danish, the equivalent of 'quack' in English. Wonderful.

OnTheFlip picks:

Matthew Herbert's Plat du Jour feat. ao. Phil Parnell
Bugge Wesseltoft's New Conception
Efterklang
Jan Garbarek
Yusef Lateef w. Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra
Avishai Cohen
and... DJANZZ -jazz for kids!

Website & tickets @ festival.jazz.dk

Flow 05 - NuSpirit Helsinki Festival
August 19th to 20th
Helsinki, Finland

After last year's completely sold-out concerts, the Flow Festival returns to take over Helsinki's Makasiinit warehouse area, with famed future jazz collective NuSpirit Helsinki as masters of ceremony.

It's a wonderful lineup. King Britt presents his Sister Gertrude Morgan project, highlighting the art and music of this mid-20th century New Orleans folk artist through a full band performance infused with Sister G's spoken word poetry -watch out for the album on Rope-A-Dope. Best of the bunch will no doubt be Finland's own Five Corners Quintet, an offspring of the Nuspriti collective, performing with none other than legendary soul hipster Mark Murphy -remember Fly me to the moon? Or Stolen moments? Damn straight! This is certainly one of the most mouthwatering concerts in jazzland this summer. Other treats include Gwen McCrae, UK soul veteran Omar and

On the club side, the sonic Detroit-Berlin axis of Âme are joined by Dixon to represent the Sonar Kollektiv. Jori Hulkkonen heads a 'made in Detroit' special with NuSpirit Helsinki themselves. Lifesaver gets locked in a DJ battle with Wahoo and DJs from Straight No Chaser magazine. In the yard, the excellently energetic Jazzcotech dancers will animate procedings and the duo of juggler Ville Walo and magician Kalle Hakkarainen will perform their Odotustila modern circus piece.

To boot: DJ sets by Osunlade, Kenny Dope and DJ Spinna. Documentaries, interesting ethnic food and a record fair. Truly a multi-artistic festival and avery fine reason to visit Finland.

OnTheFlip picks:

Five Corners Quintet feat. Mark Murphy
King Britt presents Sister Gertrude Morgan
Âme
Osunlade
Kenny Dope
Jazzcotech Dancers

Website & tickets @ www.flowfestival.com

Pori Jazz, July 16 to 24, Pori, Finland
It's the 40th Anniversary of this Finnish festival and Finnish jazz is all around. International inserts include Louie Vega & His Elements of Life and the Sun Ra Arkestra. National boys Giant Robot are worth a check for their hyper-energetic funk.

Website & tickets @ www.porijazz.fi

Koneisto, August 12 to 13th, Helsinki, Finland

Another worthy bash on Finland's festival circuit is Koneisto, held at the Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki. The still growing lineup includes a headlining slot for Roisin Murphy, along with performances by Michael Mayer, Giant Robot (again) and Mouse on Mars. But the festival's large contingent of Finnish artists, including Nine2Five Records' Infekto, is the main puller here. An excellent way to dive deep into the Finland scene...

Website & tickets @ www.koneisto.com

Jazzaldia, July 22nd to 27th, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
Spain's San Sebastian plays host to the Jazzaldia Festival, whose most interesting showcases come from Verve's indie-jazzsters Brazilian Girls and local outfit Nylon. Also watch for Maceo Parker, Roberta Flack, Medeski Martin & Wood and the Blind Boys of Alabama. All on the waterfront for summer cooling...

Website & tickets @ www.jazzaldia.com

Any other cool festivals? Let us know at editor@ontheflip.com