Live Music in Montreal

Home to the world's largest jazz festival and a live music infrastructure that stretches from the intimate jazz programming at Dièse Onze to the 2,300-capacity MTELUS, Montreal operates at a scale that few cities its size can match. Its roots run deep: during American Prohibition in the 1920s, Montreal's jazz and blues clubs drew international audiences, and the city's record industry dates to 1918, when Herbert Berliner founded what became a pioneering Canadian label in Lachine. That history of production and performance continues today across a network of venues including Casa del Popolo, Les Foufounes Électriques, and La Sala Rossa, all anchors of the independent scene. Add the artists the city has produced, from Oscar Peterson and Leonard Cohen to Arcade Fire and Kaytranada, and Montreal's claim to serious musical attention needs no embellishment.