Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett top bill

Pop diva Lady Gaga's duet with veteran crooner Tony Bennett will top the bill at this year's Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, with other headliners including Lenny Kravitz and Portishead, organisers said Thursday.

The "elegant collision of charisma" pairing the 28-year-old super star and the 88-year-old industry veteran will set the tone at the 49th edition of the festival on the shores of lake Geneva, the festival team said in a statement.

They will be performing numbers from their joint album "Cheek to Cheek", a collection of revisited jazz standards.

The July 3-18 event will be "full of exceptional artist pairings," they said, listing for instance jazz titans Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, who will also be performing together 36 years after their 1979 duet at the festival.

Brazilian artists and political activists Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil will also be performing together.

The festival has retained its jazz label despite expanding its repertoire over the years.

The 2015 edition will feature Mary J. Blige, Damien Rice and Portishead for the first time, and return performances by the likes of Sinead O'Connor, Lenny Kravitz, and Lionel Richie.

But fans of the original genre will not be disappointed, thanks to performances by stars like US jazz singer Dianne Reeves, who last visited Montreux a decade ago and who will perform from her new album.

Israeli jazz bassist Avishai Cohen and Tunisian oud player Dhafer Youssef, as well as American saxophonists David Sanborn and Joshua Redman will also be performing.

Organisers meanwhile promised that concerts by John Legend, Emeli Sande, Paolo Nutini and Melody Gardot among others would "ensure a renewal for R&B, pure soul, and vocal jazz" at the festival.

Others on this edition's eclectic bill include James Blake, Sam Smith, Benjamin Booker, D'Angelo, Chemical Brothers, Zaz and La Famille Chedid.
Source: AFP