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Montreux Jazz Festival cofounder dies aged 96

René Langel
René Langel riffing in the House of Representatives in Bern in 2017 © Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

René Langel, cofounder of the Montreux Jazz Festival, died on Tuesday in Lausanne. The former jazz journalist would have turned 97 next month, his family said.

Born in Neuchâtel, Langel worked for various media in French-speaking Switzerland, in particular for the Tribune de Lausanne and the Vevey-Riviera, where he was editor-in-chief. When he was very young, he contributed to a jazz magazine, Hot Revue.

A saxophonist, Langel had a passion for jazz and, together with Claude Nobs and Géo Voumard, he founded the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967. Nobs died following a skiing accident in 2013. Voumard died in 2008.

In 2001 Langel published Le jazz orphelin de l’Afrique (jazz, orphan of Africa), a look at the historical roots of jazz. In 2004 he wrote a biography of pioneering Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber.

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