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I live closer to downtown now than I ever have, so attending the Montreal Internation Jazz Festival with daily free concerts has now become much easier. Yesterday was the first day and I watched the last 4/7ths of one show, all of a second, and the last 6/7ths of a third show.

I finished work at 16h30 and dilly dallied; if I had paid closer attention, I would have left right after work. The first show I attended was Annie and the Caldwells and they started at 17h; I arrived at 17h24 and so caught the remainder of their set.

They had a really strong rhythm section and they sang funky songs. They encouraged audience participation, but I had trouble understanding what they were saying. The stage of the next performance I attended was pretty much adjacent to this first one, so I walked over and waited the six minutes for this next show.

Next was Hannah Cohen.

She wore a revealing outfit but seemed very comfortable in doing so.

She and her band played sort of a lite rock, folk and country mixed up genre, this was my favourite performance of the day, the band sounded really good and I liked most of the songs. Her set went right to 19h and the next show was at a different stage, so I missed perhaps the first five or six minutes to get there. It was Teona Major 9 performing.

She sang Aretha Fanklin or Whitney Houston inspired songs, and a few covers of such songs. She is a new artist from London, UK, she just released her first album and will soon be going on her first tour.

All in all it was a good first day; I didn't have the stamina to stay longer as after TM9 finished at 20h, the next show of interest was at 21h, so I walked around a little and then decided to return home. It is likely to be raining today at those same hours, but I will still see about attending anyhow.