Reggae au Montreux Jazz 1979

18:30: Listening session and round table discussion

The discussion will focus on the legendary reggae night at Montreux Jazz 1979, its impact on the reggae scene in Switzerland and Europe, as well as the cultural and heritage value of the archives that document it. Corentin Neuffer, Marc Ismail, Pascal Schmidt, and MotherDubber will share anecdotes about the event's impact and atmosphere, including photographer Pascal Schmidt's experience, who will exhibit photos taken during the Peter Tosh concert, and the enduring vitality of this music nearly 50 years later.

Photo exhibition opening by Pascal Schmidt

In 1979, the Montreux Jazz Festival hosted its first Reggae Night featuring Steel Pulse, Dennis Brown, and Peter Tosh. Peter Tosh, a cornerstone of roots reggae, co-founded the Wailers with Bob Marley and Bunny Livingstone in the early 1960s, shaping their sound and message before the group split. After a U.S. tour opening for the Rolling Stones, he arrived in Montreux with a ten-member band, including guitarist Mikey Mao Chung and the legendary rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. For an hour and a half, Tosh dominated the stage, dancing and provocative, with a spliff in hand.

Bob Marley and The Wailers' rise in Europe was rapid. In a few years, they brought reggae from the Jamaican underground in London to a broad rock audience, while the music, associated with Rastafarian culture, dreadlocks, ganja, and political rebellion, was still viewed with suspicion. They represented a different vision of the group, less a rock quartet and more a musical family, expressed through rhythm, voices, and movement. Influenced by gospel, blues, soul, jazz, and rock, reggae developed its own Jamaican language. In 1979, while Tosh, Brown, and Steel Pulse toured Europe, Montreux took the initiative to bring them together for a long Reggae Night.

Marley performed only once in Switzerland, in Zurich on May 30, 1980. Eight years after Montreux, Peter Tosh was assassinated at his home in Jamaica. The unusually swift closure of the case left many doubts.

Unlike Dennis Brown, whose album Live at Montreux was released in 1979, the photographs of Peter Tosh's concert presented here remained unpublished. They will be revealed in Pascal Schmidt's photo exhibition on September 26, 2026, at the Jumeaux Jazz Club in Lausanne, as part of Rub-A-Dub Club #4 and the 25th Night of Museums.

The exhibition will be displayed on the club's walls until the end of the year.

Source: Hango