Winners of the GM Award play \"Hit them with the Rhythm\"It was also a memorable year for piantists as well. The winner of the Prix Miles-Davis was Brad Mehldau, recognized by critics as one of the most significant jazz stylists in his generation. Young Cuban-born David Virelles\'s Quintet beat nine other competitors for the Prix de Jazz General Motors.Discovered initially by Canadian composer, flautist and saxophonist Jane Bunnett, award-winning Virelles has already been nicknamed \"the marvel\" for his magic touch and consistent compositions, equal parts intelligent and accessible. Notable legends in performance led the Dave Brubeck Quartet, McCoyTyner Septet and Vic Vogel with Le Jazz Big Band. Younger stars were the whimsical soloist Gonzales and the uninhibited trio The Bad Plus. \n\n\n\nThe Festival is also a chance to recognize the best the entire musical world has to offer. In addition to the Grand Prix de Jazz General Motors and Radio Canada\'s Prix Étoiles Galaxie (both of which announce winners during the Festival), organizers will single out the bedrock contributions of Angélique Kidjo (Antonio Carlos-Jobim Award), Harry Connick, Jr. (Ella Fitzgerald Award), guitarist Mike Stern (Miles Davis Award) and pianist François Bourassa (Oscar Peterson Award). As well, the Festival will award a special prize, the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit, to Bob Dylan in recognition of the quality and innovation of his work and the seminal influence that this author-composer-performer has had—and continues to have—on popular music the world over.\n\nThanks go out to all of our public and private partners, who make this great music party possible. We also thank all levels of government, which finance up to 13% of the Festival\'s budget, and the considerable contributions of the private sector: General Motors of Canada, principal sponsor and official presenter of the Festival; Alcan, official co-presenter; as well as Bell Canada, Loto Québec, TD Canada Trust, the SAQ, Samsung, Best Buy, Heineken, XM Radio Satellite, the Hyatt Regency Montréal, Complexe Desjardins and Amarula. Thanks to them, you can partake in this marvellous festival and revel in untold musical discoveries, for the most part free of charge.The Montreal International Jazz Festival (MIJF, also called the Jazz Fest, in French Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM)) is the largest jazz festival in the world. It is held annually in Montreal, Quebec during the summer season (usually the beginning of July) and gathers artistsfrom around the world. It is typically attended by over 2 million people who are attracted by the electric atmosphere, diversity of shows and by the city itself. Many parts of the city\'s downtown core are closed to traffic for two weeks as outdoor shows are free to the public on many stages. Attendance to some shows is over a hundred thousand.\n\nShows are held in a wide variety of venues, from relatively small jazz clubs to the large halls of Place des Arts. Some of the outdoor shows are held on cordoned-off streets while others are on terraced parks.\n\nHistory\nThe Montreal Jazz Festival was conceived by Alain Simard, who had spent much of the 1970s working with Productions Kosmos bringing artists such as Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and others to Montreal to perform. In 1977, Simard teamed up with André Ménard and Denys McCann to form an agency named SpectraScène (now known as L\'Équipe Spectra), with the idea of creating a summer festival in Montreal that would bring a number of artists together at the same time.\n\nThey planned their first festival for the summer of 1979, but, unable to secure sufficient funding, their plans were scuttled, but they still were able to produce two nights of shows at Théâtre-St-Denis, with Keith Jarrett and a then-unknown Pat Metheny.\n\nThe first Montreal jazz festival was in 1980, with funding from Alain de Grosbois of CBC Stereo and Télé-Québec. With Ray Charles, Vic Vogel, Chick Corea and Gary Burton on thebill, and an attendance of 12,000, the event was deemed a success, and has continued to grow since then. 2007, Bunnett, Canada, David, Festival, Jane, Jazz, Montreal, Quebec, Virelles