Montreal Jazz Festival | Glad who like Alan Prater

“It’s as if Montreal had taken me in its arms,” ​​recalls Alan Prater about his arrival in the metropolis in 1991. Meeting with the Floridian, who has already accompanied the Jackson family, by far the singer the happier in town.

In his second year of university, Alan Prater also chose to invest himself, in the evening, in another type of school, that of R’n’B clubs. and soul lining the beach in Jacksonville, his hometown. But in order to support himself, the trombonist must also settle in a desk, during the day, in a branch of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, an insurance company.

“One day, my mother came to see me at work and I was so exhausted that I slept”, says, in English, the musician met in the small studio he has set up at his home in Lachine. “My mother told me it was time for me to drop one of two things, clubs or insurance. And I think she figured I was going to drop the clubs. The next day, I just didn’t report to the insurance company. »

For the nephew of Dave Prater of the legendary duo Sam & Dave (Hold On! I’m Coming), and the son of a gospel singer, music has always retained a sacredness, even that which does not explicitly praise the creator.

Alan Prater has traveled a lot, and has not always practiced his profession in princely conditions, but on stage, the one who sings within the funk formation The Brooks and who lends his blessed vocal organ to Valaire inevitably displays a smile of a kid.

What state of mind is he in during a show? “It’s more than a state of mind,” he replies.

With the Jacksons

In the early 1980s, Alan Prater accompanied, with his colleagues from the East Coast Horns, the R’n’B singer Millie Jackson. When he hears from a member of his team that Michael Jackson and his brothers (no relation to Millie) are looking for a horn section for a tour, the trombonist deploys all his powers of persuasion in order to get a hearing.

But Millie Jackson’s sidekick, preferring not to pass on her employees to the competition, categorically refuses to help her. By dint of insisting, Alan ends up learning that the Memphis Horns (Otis Redding, Al Green, Elvis Presley) are in the race. Alan therefore sends a dummy letter to the Memphis Horns to tell them that their audition has been cancelled.

Then he shows up with his friends, in Los Angeles, at the door of the Jacksons, where the matriarch Jacqueline welcomes them, and where they pretend to be the Memphis Horns. They will get the contract on the spot.

“The Jacksons learned very quickly that we weren’t the Memphis Horns,” continues Alan, swallowing one of the pieces of fruit kindly placed in front of us by his lover, Lorraine. “They said to us, ‘We don’t care who you are. You are now the brass section of the Jacksons.” » Prater participated in the 1981 tour Triumphimmortalized on the album The Jacksons Live!.

his own city

At the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, Alan Prater traveled within the Tranzit formation on the circuit of bar-shows in the United States and Quebec – the Checkers, at the corner of Parc and Mont-Royal long been the Montreal base of the group.

But tired of occupying a supporting role, and not a leading role, Alan chose in the early 1990s to trade his trombone for the singer’s microphone for good, and start from scratch in London.

Before flying to England, the American agrees to visit a friend in Montreal, which he will never leave, a getaway of a few days that still lasts.

Lorraine, Alan’s companion for more than three decades, a French-speaking Quebecer, sneaks discreetly into the room to inquire about the state of our fruit plate and steal a kiss from her man. “There, you see why I stayed here,” he exclaims, his pupils dilated like a teenager who has just had his first kiss.

After having struggled a lot and recorded in 2002 a solo disc under the nickname AKA Soulo (confessionswhich allowed him to be included on the compilation The Soul Mixtape by DJ Jazzy Jeff), Prater will find attending a show by The Brooks at Dièse Onze something like family. When the drummer Maxime Bellavance sends him the instrumental pieces to compose the group’s first album, Alan cannot refrain from imprinting his voice on it, which will give in 2014 adult-entertainment.

How old is Alan Prater? “It’s not important, man “, he launches. Lorraine graces us with a clue. “Let’s say he could be the father of the guys from Valaire,” she says with a wink of her husband’s other adopted family, whose members are in their mid-thirties. “But he is still able to follow the young people and show them the way. And he has such a beautiful soul. I’m sure you feel it. »

With Valaire, June 30, Rio Tinto stage, at 8 p.m. and with The Brooks, July 8, Rio Tinto stage, at 8 p.m.