The man in his forties was impaled in his fence on Sunday. According to what Urgences-santé told Noovo Info, the victim involved in these events suffered fatal injuries during a fall from the third floor. An ambulance, two specialist first aiders and a supervisor intervened around 11:15 a.m.
The Service de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), which intervened at the time of the incident, confirmed the accidental nature of the events to Noovo Info.
“It was a shock. It’s a stupid and nasty accident, an unfair accident which does not represent Mario’s life,” underlines trumpeter Jacques Kuba Séguin, colleague and friend of Mario Allard.
In a telephone interview with Noovo Info, Mr. Séguin indicated that Mr. Allard “did not want to put a thorn in the house” and that it was a stupid accident.
He emphasized that Mario Allard was a musician loved by his community, that he was a unifier and very invested in jazz in Quebec. “He is a good teacher, a communicator, someone capable of transmitting and humanizing jazz. This is the Mario I know.
“He is a unifier, someone who has the ability to adapt to put others first, especially on stage, he supported others.”
Jacques Kuba Séguin, colleague and friend of Mario Allard
Jacques Kuba Séguin, trumpeter of the group Papagroove in which Mario Allard was a part, also wanted to emphasize that the saxophonist was a “very loving father and very present with his son”.
“All of us (musicians from Montreal and Quebec) have the responsibility to tell our son that his father was an extraordinary person.”
The trumpeter also emphasizes that Mario Allard was far from the romantic vision of musicians, he was a man who took care of his health and who never overflowed. “He was borderline hypochondriac, a little headache worried him,” he explains.
“He loved music, Quebec and hockey. Despite his tours abroad, he often wore a Montreal cap; he was an unapologetic Quebecois. The person you meet is the one you saw on stage, they didn’t have two faces.
Credit: Jacques Kuba Séguin; Mario Allard on the left, wearing a City of Montreal cap, Jacques Kuba Séguin on the right, during a tour in Matera in Italy, in 2022.
The artist Yann Perreau rubbed shoulders with Mr. Allard in the world of music and claims to have been his friend from their first meeting. “We were united beyond music,” Perreau wrote in a moving tribute posted on Facebook, accompanied by a photo of them. “I’m still crying as I write this. I think of your wife and your son and if one day it is possible for me, I will take care of them just like your friends who love you and who are devastated to know that you are gone.
Cellist Elisabeth Giroux, for her part, writes that she is “speechless in the face of this immense departure” of one of her musician friends whom she has known “for a long time”. “Everyone who knew him loved him and will love him forever, he was a ray of sunshine in our lives,” she said.
Mr. Allard received his musical training at McGill University. In addition to his collaborations with many notable artists on the Quebec music scene, the saxophonist was part of the Papagroove project, which received a nomination at the ADISQ gala in the “Album or EP – world music” category and a GAMIQ prize in this category. same category in 2018, according to the training biography. Mr. Allard is also the author of the children’s book Hockeywhich describes how the sport works.
With the collaboration of Laurie Gervais, for Noovo Info
