Courtney Swainm

Courtney Pine was initially a Coltrane sound-alike, but he began to bring soul jazz, reggae, and other musical genres to the mix with his 1992 album Closer to Home, which made use of his background touring with such reggae bands as Clint Eastwood & General Saint. Since then he has eagerly brought hip-hop elements into his work, performing live with a DJ in addition to his usual combo. His 1996 album, Modern Day Jazz Stories featured DJ Pongo on turntables as well as DJ Sparki on hardware/samples. Using an Apple Mac with Logic Audio software and Pro Tools, Pine generates loops as well as multiple flute and sax parts and combines them with studio techniques that include filtering and pitch-shifting, Pine was able to create the most convincing combination of mainstream jazz and electronica/DJ culture. This combination of jazz fusion and hip-hop has sometimes been dubbed “Trip Jazz.” The DJs function very much as part of the band, throwing ideas at the players and responding to their playing much the way a percussionist might do.

Courtney Pine's second album stays very much within the Marsalis-imposed boundaries of post-Miles post-bop; indeed, a Marsalis brother, Delfeayo, is the producer, and the album's subtitle uses the patented kind of wordplay that the New Orleans dynasty indulges in. As before, Pine's guiding star is John Coltrane, of whom he had become a fervent and skillful acolyte, tossing off endless streams of heated playing on tenor and soprano inside and outside. Pine also uses alternating expert teams of English acoustic jazz specialists – Julian Joseph or Joe Bashorun on piano, Paul Hunt or Gary Crosby on bass, and Mark Mondesir on drums – as backup. There are some really good Pine compositions here; "Sacrifice" sounds as if it could have made it as a standard in mainstream and/or electric jazz.