Name: Adam Fell
Nationality: American
Occupation: Chairman & CEO, Early Hour Entertainment. Co-founder, Superlogic, Former President of Quincy Jones Productions, and Co-Founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival Miami alongside Jon Batiste, Jeremy Arditi, Thomas Duport & Mathieu Jaton.

If you enjoyed this Adam Fell interview and would like to find out more about Montreux Jazz Festival Miami, visit the festival's official homepage. Montreux Miami is also on Instagram, and Facebook. 

“What is Jazz Today?” is a question I've asked countless artists for well over a year now. The replies have been fascinatingly diverse. For yourself and the festival – how would you answer it?

I worked for Quincy Jones for 20 years (2003-2023). In that time, we traveled the world together. He used to say that jazz represents “freedom.”

Remember, Quincy grew up, as he used to say, “in the largest Black ghetto in America” (the South side of Chicago) during the Great Depression. His grandmother was a slave. But for him, the foundations of jazz represented a time when the standard of musicality couldn’t have been higher.

Jazz also represented for him the influence of African music and the African beat as transported by the trans-Atlantic Slave trade. I definitely cannot do better than to repeat what I learned from him.

One aspect of jazz has always to push borders and boundaries. How far – and I would assume this was part of the programming considerations - can one keep pushing for the music to still be “jazz”?

If you take Quincy’s definition above of having a high standard of musicality combined with the music of Africa as the foundation, it gives us a lot of leeway.

That said, we try very hard to book everything from our openers to our headliners with this in mind. We also try to work with our partner Jon Batiste as much as we can on the lineup.

On the one hand, creative personalities have the opportunity to reach global audiences. On the other hand, many artists are focusing more than ever on their local scene. When organising an international festival, how do you reconcile these two poles? In terms of creative potential, how do you see the relationship between local and global?

It’s a really good question! I think supporting the local scene is important, and offering an opportunity for non-local artists to come through Miami is also important.

I’ve had the privilege of working with the Montreux Jazz Festival team in Switzerland for many years, and the ecosystem they’ve built to support local Swiss artists is very important to them. They also are one of the festivals that caters to the large touring parties from all over the world.

Similarly, I hope in Miami we can grow to the point where we support both of those things.

How would you describe the sound, the scene, and community of Miami as a jazz city?

There are world class jazz musicians who make Miami their home.

My good friends Richard Bona from Cameroon and Alfredo Rodriguez from Cuba both live in Miami. The insanely talented maestro Gonzalo Rubalcaba lives in Miami. The gifted pianist Andy Garcia lives in Miami.

There are so many world-class Latin musicians who make Miami their home.

Jazz has always had an interesting relationship between honouring its roots and exploring the unknown. What does the ideal balance between these two poles look like for you?

We always try to honor our roots, and yet we do at least 2 hours (longer than any set) every night as an improvised jam session. I could talk about the jam for hours, but suffice to say it is my single favorite part of our festival and every year magic happens.

The first year, we had Will Smith and Gonzalo Rubalcaba show up unannounced. In year two, we had Shania Twain and Maxwell show up unannounced. This year we had Bill Murray and Cuba Gooding Jr. show up unannounced.

The jam is fully improvised and always takes us by surprise.

I'm curious - do you have any personally important memories related to the Montreux Jazz Festival?

Countless memories. I assume you mean the Swiss original. I serve on the International Advisory Board of that festival.

One year I invited Sam Smith to come on vacation there. He came and I showed him around for a few days. We watched a sunrise eating duck sandwiches one morning which was fun. Before he died, Claude Nobs asked Quincy Jones to try to get Elton John to come to Montreux. Quincy had me write a letter to Elton in 2017 inviting him to come to the festival. It took us 2 years, but in 2019 Elton came and performed as part of the festival at the Stade de la Saussaz.

Quincy and I went and we got to go hang with him and Jay Marciano backstage for about an hour before his show. It was magical for me to hear the two legends trade stories and old memories. During the concert Elton dedicated the song “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” to Quincy.

What does Montreux as an idea stand for today, would you say?

Claude Nobs told me he built his festival by never saying “no” to an artist. If an artist asked him for something unreasonable, he would offer an alternative and try to find common ground.

We are trying to build a welcoming home for artists, with an emphasis on improvisation and an elevated fan experience.

Exporting a festival is not an entirely unique proposition, but it's one I'm fascinated by. In simple terms, how does this work to make it more than just a franchise in name?

One of the greatest compliments we’ve ever received was from Mathieu Jaton, the CEO of the Swiss Festival. When he first came to our festival in Miami, he said to us, “You’ve created Montreux in Miami.”

Why he said this, and what it entails is a much longer answer. Montreux is elevated but it’s not ostentatious. It’s stunningly beautiful, and waterfront. The food is incredible. The musicality is incredible. Magical moments happen every year.

You’ll have to tell me if you feel all of those things!

With many festivals running their own video channels and podcasts well before the actual event and quite a few featuring very similar bills - what defines a festival today, would you say?

The soul of a festival is how the artists feel when they leave and how the audience speaks about the festival.

We still have a long way to go, but I believe we are making a name for ourselves in both of those ways.

At the heart of the festival you're curating, there are still traditional live concerts. Why do you think this seemingly anachronistic format is still so potent?  

This year we had TOTO perform. It was a full circle moment for me because I’ve been friends with David Paich and his family for a long time.

When TOTO performed their seminal hit “Africa” the entire audience sang along. The energy in the room was insane.

There is nothing like standing in a room of excited people hearing something musically (which can be a hit or it can be an improvised jam) which moves you.

What are qualities in an artist that you look for when it comes to deciding on the line-up?

This is similar to the question you asked about how I define jazz. The same principles apply … Is this jazz or jazz-influenced? Is there a high standard of musicality?

But we also ask ourselves things like “What would our counterparts in Switzerland think? What would our partner Jon Batiste think?

When I spoke to saxophonist Michael Jaeger, he recounted an episode prior to a gig: "The owner of the jazz club told me that I should be careful that people still understood our music. But isn't the jazz club the right place for unbiased listening?" In term of understanding vs challenging, from your experience, what is the best balance for exciting events?

If you haven’t been to a Jon Batiste concert, I would highly encourage it. He does an incredible job of balancing these two sides.

We also give the jam as an outlet, and there are always wildly experimental moments in our late night jams.”

The festival has decided to make use of the opportunity to also pay homage to the work of Miles Davis. When it comes to the programming, what are the specific qualities of his work you're celebrating?

As mentioned, I worked for Quincy Jones for two decades. One of the things Q was most proud of was convincing Miles to break his “never-look-back” policy and perform the Gil Evans arrangements right before Miles sadly passed away.

Miles and Montreux are inextricably linked. He represented the musicality, experimentation, and improvisation that we aspire to.

Between his arrival on the scene and his passing, Miles' lifeline overlaps almost entirely with that of jazz as a whole, pioneering or experimenting with current developments. It seems unlikely that any one artist will ever take on that stature. Where do you see the motors/catalysts for innovation and change in jazz for the future?

We couldn’t have picked a better partner than Jon Batiste for this Festival.

Artists like Jon are continuing to push and evolve the genre and we are so grateful to have him with us on this journey.

Since you're obviously in touch with many up and coming artists all the time, how often will you hear that Miles' work has influenced them or see performances where you're recognising his spirit?

Always.