Two new releases from saxophonist, composer, and arranger Philippe Coté—Bell Tolls Variations and Fleur Revisited—offer reimagined compositions that straddle the line between jazz and classical and deliver thoughtful, lyrical commentary on weighty subjects.

Philippe Coté
Bell Tolls Variations and Fleur Revisited (Odd Sound)
A review
Saxophonist, composer, arranger Philippe Coté’s two new releases revisit two compositions—one from pianist Marc Copland, and one of his own—which Coté reconfigures in arrangements that include himself on soprano sax and bass clarinet, Copland on piano, and the Quatuor Saguenay String Quartet (violinists Marie Bégin and Nathalie Camus, violist Luc Beauchemin, and cellist David Ellis). Coté’s lyrical abstractions deliver thought-provoking musical experiences that invite and stand up to repeated listenings.

The nine tracks of Bell Tolls Variations extracts and enlarges upon elements from a Copland tune, “The Bell Tolls,” released on his 2008 trio album Night Whispers, with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Bill Stewart. Finding inspiration in the John Donne poem and Hemingway’s novel, Coté opens the proceedings with the spare but eloquent elegy “The Phase,” with its insistent, meditative tolling on piano, which reappears in other places. The album passes through a variety of moods in its exploration of the mysteries of human connection and mortality. Instrumentation changes from track to track from solo piano to the full sextet, and everything in between.

Fleur Revisited has its roots in La Fleur et La Roche, first recorded with a 13-piece wind ensemble and jazz rhythm section for Coté’s 2016 release Lungta. Starting from the image of a flower growing on a rock in a harsh environment, Coté’s abstract program music takes as its basic structural element 12-tone rows. There is drama aplenty as the musical narrative unfolds, bursting into “Blooms” in the final track.

Coté’s lyricism and restraint combine well with the exquisite touch of Copland, who has a remarkable ability to create the richest harmonies from the sparest materials. Space abounds, and Coté offers room for improvisational explorations and colorations—like the blues/jazz touches with which Copland ornaments his Satie-esque lines on Bell Tolls Variations’ “Le Baume au Coeur.” Alternating passages of dark and light, textural shifts that reflect alterations in mood, delicate dissonances, percussive accompaniments, and astonishing moments of correspondence among the players invite the ear to drop into the flow.

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© 2021 Mel Minter