Courtney Pine was the main mover and shaker in the New Wave of British Jazz, and ten years later he still pushes the genre forward, cross-pollinating it with hiphop, r & b and even drum 'n' bass. Last night, the Mean Fiddler was half-filled with a small but discerning crowd, there to listen to Pine's latest musical missives, as heard on his new album, Underground. They weren't disappointed; Pine displayed a breathtaking virtuosity and an ability to embrace many different styles of music within a single jazz movement.
Jazz purists would hardly see the point in having DJ scratches and drum 'n' bass rhythms getting in the way of Pine's clean, crisp jazz cadences, but they would have to admit that he fuses the disparate genres with consummate ease.
Backed by a competent collective of guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and DJ, Pine shows off his supple playing style with numerous musical tricks: he punctuates a clarinet solo with some rhythmic popping, then shows how low he can go on the baritone sax. Sometimes the solo slots get a bit too self-indulgent, while the soul segments, featuring Judy Dexter on vocals, seem like mere interludes, but overall this was a nice, open-minded exercise in modern jazz.
