Already six years since the release of Valaire’s last album of original material? Luis Clavis confirms: “To be honest, we’ve been working on this album for a long time. Above all, we wanted to play with Valaire again, but it was becoming embarrassing: we didn’t want to be the group that went on tour again without having released an album for six years. » jazz futonfifth of the quintet, which arrives tomorrow on the shelves, is therefore the pretext for the group to hit the road again, but not only: there are perhaps the best compositions in the history of Valaire, alongside love is a monstercollaboration with the late Karim Ouellet.
They are concentrated on side A of the vinyl: past the brief introduction, the flowing funk ofIsh Ain’t Easy and the intoxicating soul-house of That Depends on You cling to our ears. The sauce takes, it is obvious, its secret residing in the mellow voice and the melodic flair of Alan Prater, Montrealer originally from Florida, experienced chorister, guarantor of soul and R&B authenticity who found in Montreal and within the funk fusion group The Brooks enough to make his talent grow.
For jazz futonwe wanted, at least in the creation, to return to our beginnings, our origins as a more “academic” jazz quintet
Generally, explains Luis Clavis, the five members of Valaire compose together, music, orchestrations, melodies, texts too, “then we invite the singers to make them hear what we found, and that’s how we did with Alan” when creating By My Sidesong from the previous album, oobopopop. “This time around, he was presented with six instrumental songs that were going in the trash and told him, ‘Go ahead, try something.’ Alan, you buy him a bag of regular Lay’s, lock him in the studio, and—no kidding—in the space of an hour and a half, he’s saved five of the six. »
“We understood that it was a great chance for us to have him not only on tour, but also in the studio, continues Clavis. We took the full measure of both the musician and the human he is. You have to see him go to the studio to understand his experience of the profession: he will instantly write lyrics in his head, find the melody and the vocal harmonies at the same time. At this point, what Alan offers us is mentorship. »
The anecdote is important. From its inception in the mid-2000s, Valaire has proven to be an effective groove band, moved by excellent young musicians who have this talent to put atmosphere in a room. Play, they know. Composing is another matter; what is appreciated on stage, this instrumental mixture of funk, soul, R&B and danceable electronic music, needs the contribution of the singers to be embodied on record.
jazz futon succeeds better than the previous three in captivating us with strong songs — those of Prater like gotta goa flowing funk-rap collaboration with the Maryland MC Ciscero, or the endearing pop ritornello Tote Bag, featuring Fanny Bloom and Mike Clay. And yet, Luis Clavis presents the B side as the most representative of Valaire’s approach, “with more progressive, more instrumental, sometimes more floating pieces”, such as Samuel’s Love Stonesa static groove stretched over a bed of synths.
“We took this album where we wanted it,” says Clavis, delighted. With each album, we try to change the creative process — it’s always the previous album that points in the direction where we want, or not, to go. For jazz futon, we wanted, at least in the creation, to return to our beginnings, our origins as a more “academic” jazz quintet. We just wanted more progressive forms, to push the instrumental note, with themes for the brass. »
This marks more firmly the difference between Valaire and the parallel project Qualité Motel, which has occupied the musicians for the past six years. Clavis explains what distinguishes the two vehicles: “It’s the instrumentation, which is more electronic at Qualité Motel, but also the philosophy — I say ‘philosophy’ hoping not to sound like a fart! Let’s say the approach instead: Qualité Motel lives in the moment of the moment, the project embraces the efficiency of pop, where producing a song takes a day, starting a beat in the morning to send it in the evening to a singer, and the next day, it’s settled. »
“Valaire is quite different. jazz futon, we’ve been simmering it, decanting it, distilling it for a long time, says Luis Clavis, who is also leading his own solo project. For jazz futon, we had composed twice as many songs. We initially imagined it as a great instrumental fresco, with the songs that follow one another. But we cleaned it up to make it more pop. »
“We couldn’t wait to find that, our original instruments, to get back to playing music for real, together”, Luis on vocals and percussion, France on bass, DRouin on saxophone, Tō on trumpet, Kilojules on drums, just about everyone on synths. The tour is taking shape: a first series of indoor concerts until the end of April, then the festival circuit during the summer, with an eye for Europe in the fall. “The show is where Valaire takes on its full meaning”, confirms Clavis.