The Gazette – 28 juin 2011

Electro-jazz quintet Misteur Valaire on tonight at mid-fest blowout

Five guys from Sherbrooke. The big outdoor stage at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Talk about being catapulted into the big time.

But will Misteur Valaire – nominated for best new group at this year's Junos but largely unknown to the general public – appeal to Monsieur et Madame Tout-le-Monde?

The electro-jazz quintet will find out Tuesday night when they do the mid-fest blowout on the TD Stage at Place des Festivals.

"It's one of the biggest crowds you can get in Montreal, so we're extremely honoured to have been chosen," Luis Clavis, the group's percussionist and frontman, said during a break from rehearsal.

"It will be lot, a lot of people. We just hope the weather holds up."

The band has done big outdoor festivals in Europe, but always as part of a rotating lineup of bands that only get to play a few songs.

This time, the group will have the stage all to themselves – plus guests – for as long as they like, performing in a set of their own design.

If you caught Misteur Valaire's sold-out show at the Metropolis back in February, you know what decor to expect: a 1970s-style TV studio, with lots of flashing lights and floating staircases.

Same for the music: it'll stay the frenetic, party style that's become as much the band's trademark as the funky white outfits and selfmocking air they parade on stage.

"We're not going to change our current show from A to Z, because it works for us and is something we're comfortable with," Clavis said from Studio La Traque in Rosemont-Petite Patrie.

"But we want to raise it to another level so that people who don't know us will love it as much as those who do," he said.

The sound can be described as electronic music augmented by jazz instruments – sax, trumpet, percussion, electric bass and drums. "It's electro-jazz with a lot of hip-hop, rock and pop influences," Clavis said.

"It's really hard to describe." It's also a very youthful sound. The band members are all 25 years old or under. They're all from Sherbrooke, did jazz in high school together there, and are a diverse group.

"We had the luck to grow up as friends in jazz, and develop our passion together, all five of us," said Clavis, whose Spanish name comes from his mother, who's from Madrid.

"It gives me a little hot-blooded side," he joked.

It's his stage name, actually. He was born Louis-Pierre Phaneuf.

Same for the others: bassist France (François-Simon Déziel), sax player DRouin (Jonathan Drouin), drummer Kilojules (Julien Harbec), and trumpet and piano player Roboto (Thomas Hébert).

The group has risen to success on the basis of their energetic live shows and also their website, http: //mv.mu, where fans can pay whatever price they like to download their albums.

The unusual approach to music marketing has paid off.

More than 50,000 copies of their 2007 album were downloaded off their site – often for free – and that built momentum for the band to tour it.

On tour, what they lose on free downloads gets recouped in ticket revenues and merchandise, according to Clavis. That, in turn, allows for the albums to be sold on CD, expanding the audience again.

For their latest album, Golden Bombay, fans were encouraged to pay online in advance for the CD, making its eventual release in May 2010 possible. The band then invited their "donors" to the launch party.

These days, besides Quebec and Ontario (and a gig down in Austin in March for the South by Southwest alt-music festival) the band's focus is on Europe.

They spent five weeks on the continent this spring, did 25 gigs, and will return in July (for festivals in France and Germany), and again in August and October.

But they're not neglecting the home crowd.

For the Montreal jazz fest, besides music off their three albums – Mr. Brian (2005), Friterday Night and Golden Bombay – the band will have a new song.

"It doesn't have a name yet," said Clavis, who wouldn't even describe it.

"You'll just have to come and lisn to find out."