Every summer, the Montreal International Jazz Festival transforms downtown into a sprawling celebration of music.
What many visitors miss is that much of the sound and the city around it, has been shaped and sustained by Black Montrealers. From festival programmers to chefs redefining Caribbean cuisine, Black culture isn't simply part of Montreal's story, it's still creating it.
Modibo Keita programs jazz for the festival, and when I sit down with him, the conversation keeps circling back to a tension that runs under the whole event: jazz's name and history were never self-determined by the Black communities who built the music. Some musicians even avoid the word "jazz" altogether. As a Malian immigrant, Keita is upfront about approaching the tradition as a participant, not a member of the community that created it.
