Just how jazzy is the Montreux Jazz Festival?

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The line-up for the 51st Montreux Jazz Festival has been published and big names include Pet Shop Boys, Tom Jones and Beach Boy Brian Wilson. Does the festival need to be re-named? swissinfo.ch analysed the musical styles of the 175 acts.

The Montreux Jazz FestivalExternal link, which takes place in July, started in 1967 and was originally purely a jazz festival. In the 1970s, it began broadening its scope, including blues, soul and rock artists, for example Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and famously Deep Purple, whose hit Smoke on the Water told the story of a fire at the festival.

Today, it features artists of nearly every imaginable genre. So much so that some critics think it should drop “jazz” from its name. swissinfo.ch has looked into the musical genes of all the artists set to perform this year and can confirm that Montreux has still got rhythm: more artists play jazz than anything else.