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About Courtney Pine
Instrument: Saxophone
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by Chris May
In the 1980s, as a co-founder of the band Jazz Warriors and with his debut album Journey To The Urge Within (Island, 1986), reed player Courtney Pine inspired a generation young black British musicians, and not a few white ones, too. On Spirituality, Pine teams up with pianist Zoe Rahman, herself an influential figure, for a reprise of their album Song (The Ballad Book) (Destin-E, 2015). Both albums feature Pine on bass clarinet and Rahman in a ...
read moreMusic From Out There, In Here: 25 Years Of The London Jazz Festival
by Ian Patterson
Music From Out There, In Here: 25 Years Of The London Jazz Festival Emma Webster, George McKay 136 Pages University Of East Anglia 2017 There was a time when London had more jazz festivals than you could shake a stick at. Most, however, have disappeared, leaving the London Jazz Festival, founded in 1993, as the flagship. Twenty five years is not old in jazz festival terms--the wonderful trad jazz festival that is the Australian ...
read moreCourtney Pine: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
by David Burke
Courtney Pine didn't pick up his beloved tenor saxophone for more than a decade, until an album exploring the black British experience demanded it. The multi-instrumentalist eschewed the horn on the likes of Europa, House of Legends and Song (The Ballad Book), his two-hander with pianist Zoe Rahman. “I spoke to Sonny Rollins about five years ago at a concert, and I asked him, 'Why don't you play loads of instruments, like John Coltrane?' What he said was, ...
read moreCourtney Pine: House of Legends
by Ian Patterson
Though multi-reedist Courtney Pine has been playing soprano for almost 30 years, this is the first occasion he's recorded an entire album with the instrument. Following his bass clarinet adventures on the European roots album Europa (Destin-E, 2011) it's clear that the modern British jazz legend doesn't tire of setting himself new challenges. Taking as his inspiration the roots of the British Afro-Caribbean community, Pine visits calypso, soca, zouk, reggae and South African rhythms in a joyous dance party that's ...
read moreCourtney Pine: Suffolk, UK, September 20, 2012
by Sammy Stein
Courtney PineSuffolk, UKSeptember 20, 2012Courtney Pine is not so much a musician as an experience. The event was the opening night of the Ipswich Music Festival and the venue was the grand hall of Ipswich High School-grander than most school halls granted but not the sort of venue Pine would normally be associated with. The last time I saw him in action was just over a year ago at Snape Music Festival, where he ...
read moreCourtney Pine: Transition In Tradition
by Chris May
British reed player Courtney Pine began his professional life in reggae bands, and reggae's “conscious" music tradition has since been a defining feature of his work. Pine plays conscious jazz, in that many of his compositions and recording projects have held a focus on social rights and justice as seen through the prism of the black experience. Sometimes the story has been told with the aid of vocalists; sometimes, as on the exuberant Transition In Tradition, instrumentally--through track titles, liner ...
read moreCourtney Pine: Devotion
by Woodrow Wilkins
It's not the instrument; it's how you play it.Considering the commercial aspects of contemporary music, it would be easy to dismiss any solo artist who plays soprano saxophone as being among the hordes of sax players who try to emulate Kenny G, but wind up falling far short of their goal. Don't make that mistake with Courtney Pine. His music isn't trite enough to be lumped into that category, and it's too innovative for even a fair comparison ...
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