Montreux Jazz Festival Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second largest annual jazz festival in the world after Canada's Montreal International Jazz Festival. The Montreux Jazz Festival was founded in 1967 by Claude Nobs, Géo Voumard and René Langel with considerable help from Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün of Atlantic Records. The festival was first held at Montreux Casino. It lasted for three days and featured almost exclusively jazz artists. The
Montreux eventually arranged alternate locations, the Grand Hotel was where the album was created and recorded, except for Smoke on the Water which was recorded at La Petit Palais on Rue du Lac. Deep Purple again returned in 1973 to record "Burn". The Montreux Casino was reopened in 1975 and later a monument commemorating Deep Purple and their song Smoke on the Water can be found next to the casino. The Dubliners's song "Montreux Monto" on their album "Live at Montreux" was recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976. Montreux is the home of Mountain Studios, the recording studio