Gilles Bernard

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Gilles Bernard: Le Chapeau de ma Soeur

by Steve Armour
July 1, 2001

The first few times I listened to LE CHAPEAU DE MA SOEUR, I fell into a kind of trance and missed the solos. But I didn’t care. Quebecois composer and pianist Gilles Bernard has created such hypnotic harmonies and textures, such fetching melodies that the solos seem almost an afterthought, a little something to extend the meditation.

Bernard starts with Alain Boies’s soft soprano on the title track, a folk melody set in a discreet 11/4 (5/4+6/4, mostly). The band ...