MONTREAL - We’re long past the days when the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal / Montreal International Jazz Festival could knock us out with its sheer scale. Two million in attendance? Been there already. Eight-hundred shows? So, what else is new?

It takes more than size to impress us now. It takes a program with depth and breadth, a broad blend of musical genres and a lineup that mixes the star power of familiar names with the buzz from up-and-coming artists.

It takes a program like the one for this year’s 35th anniversary event, along with a go-for-broke attitude from programming director Laurent Saulnier and his team.

“Each and every time, we program the festival like it’s going to be the last,” says Saulnier, a former music journalist who put together this year’s impressive lineup along with festival artistic director André Ménard.

“Every year it’s like that. We’re not saying: ‘Diana Ross, oh, not this year, save it for next year.’ It’s just better for everybody that year after year we have the best festival we can.”

So, yes, Diana Ross, will be part of the 11-day extravaganza that kicks off Thursday, along with Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, B.B. King, Katie Melua, Earth Wind & Fire, Ben Harper, Rufus Wainwright, Freddy Cole, Michael Bublé, Bobby McFerrin, Angelique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Stacey Kent, Nikki Yanofsky and more.

Did we mention that there are singers at this year’s festival?

Not just those household names, but others like the compelling Trixie Whitley and Beth Hart from the U.S., Montreal’s own Emma Frank, Toronto jazzer Emilie-Claire Barlow, the sensation from Niger known as Bombino, the Sarah Vaughan disciple Cécile McLorin Salvant and the rising international name Mulatu Astatke from Ethiopia.

It doesn’t stop there because this might be the best collection of vocal talent ever assembled at the festival. Call it Singers Unlimited if you want.

The tone will be set when festival darling Diana Krall takes the TD outdoor stage June 29 for a much anticipated free show that’s likely to feature some special guests (husband Elvis Costello is in town that night at the Maison symphonique).

“It’s been almost 20 years since we first presented Diana Krall,” Saulnier said. “When she came first up, there were not a lot of jazz singers. Since that time, we’ve seen more and more.”

The deep vocal lineup includes veterans like Montreal’s Ranee Lee (L’Astral, June 26), bebopper Sheila Jordan (Upstairs, June 30) and jazz hipster Ben Sidran (Upstairs July 2 and 3), as well as some bright new names.

Saulnier is particularly pumped by the presence this year of Benjamin Clementine (Club Soda, June 29), a British singer-pianist who blends jazz with soul and who has been knocking out audiences in London and Paris even before he has released a debut album.

“The buzz from Europe on this guy is amazing.”

There will be a strong shade of world music colouring all of this.

“For us, it’s always important to have a kind of focus on world music because jazz and world music have been talking to each other for so many years,” he says.

“The difference this year is that we have some new names. Mulatu Astatke from Ethiopia will be making his first visit to Montreal (Club Soda, July 6). For Bombino (the Tuareg singer from Niger, who performs at Club Soda July 1), it will be only the third time he’s here, so lots of people have yet to discover him.”