Article content If this week’s heat wave didn’t convince you, there’s another sure sign of summer on the horizon: the 44 th Montreal International Jazz Festival takes over the downtown core, June 27 to July 6. For 10 straight days, the city’s biggest music fest presents over 350 concerts by acts from around the world, more than two-thirds of them free. And while roaming the site on any given night and seeing what you come across is one of the best ways to do jazz fest, sometimes it helps to have a destination in mind.
To help you parse through the wealth of offerings, Gazette staffers have assembled our daily picks, one outdoor and one indoor. Of course, making choices means leaving things out. We tried to steer clear of sold-out shows by illustrious headliners including rapper André 3000, who plays songs from his new album of ambient flute music, June 30 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier; Norah Jones, holding court July 2 and 3 at the same hall with hometown opener Martha Wainwright; Inuk singer Elisapie, June 30 at Théâtre Maisonneuve; and Quebec neo-classical composer Alexandra Stréliski, July 2 and 3 at Maison Symphonique.
Bonus hot tips that didn’t make it onto our list include Brooklyn R&B singer Yaya Bey, June 27 at 7:30 p.m. on the TD Stage; New Orleans legends The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, June 28 at 8 p.
m. at Théâtre Maisonneuve; Oakland-born jazz trumpetist Ambrose Akinmusire playing a solo set at Gesù, June 28 at 10:30 p.m.
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