Courtney Pine – Back In The Day (2000)

Courtney Pine is, arguably, the most recognisable name in British jazz in the last thirty years, and he's long blended orthodox jazz structures with both modern instrumentation and the black music he grew up with. This album perhaps aims to look back more than some others, and seemed a good starting point for listening to the Pine albums I own and rarely listen to.

This is a fairly easy listen, full of elements of soul and hip-hop, with even a nod to drum'n'bass. It opens with a short intro, a funky beat accompanying a spoken excerpt, taking us into The Jazzstep, which starts with a frenetic drum beat, smooths out with a cool sax melody, and some nifty guitar and electronica. Hardtimes (a Curtis Mayfield song) is a pretty orthodox smooth soul-jazz, beautifully delivered by Beverley Knight. Brotherman almost has a feel of a 1970s US cop show theme, while Keep it Real is just funky laidback sax jazz. There's a short Hip Hop Interlude before a fine, beat heavy, sax laden version of Gil Scott-Heron's Lady Day and John Coltrane. My Fathers Place has a touch of Isaac Hayes alongside some lively percussion, followed by Yeah! Yeah!! , a smooth, very 1970s instrumental. There's another brief interlude (Quartet No 1) , a short wind piece, before the final lap - Inner State (Of Mind) is a soul/hip-hop/Gershwin mash up, which despite the description, really works well, then Power To The People has Pine just letting rip with his sax over a scratch / Latin beat. That's followed by a fine cover of Joan Armatrading's Love And Affection (sung by Kelly Le Roc, accompanied by the London Gospel Choir), with some top guitar from Cameron Pierre. Third Man is another funky sax display, before the "final" piece, Meditate, a sitar piece over a slow hip-hop beat, which finishes after three of the 17 minutes which the CD player says, with a hidden track at the 12 minute mark, a version of Stevie Wonder's All I Do, which isn't bad, but I didn't want to wait nearly ten minutes for it.

All in all, this is a really good album, Pine dipping into his past, and putting a modern and jazz spin on some classics, as well as many of his own compositions done in that hybrid 70s/hip-hop style.

Link to album tracks

4* - a fantastic fusion of styles, on an album which repays repeat listens