Courtney Pine: Main Link in the British Connection

Courtney Pine is Britain’s answer to the Marsalis brothers.

Like Wynton Marsalis, he made an early leap to prominence: at 20 he formed the Abibi Jazz Arts, designed to stimulate an interest in jazz among black British musicians. Like the Marsalises, he presents a conservative image in his clothes, is articulate and fired by a keen sense of direction. Coincidentally, he even worked briefly in London with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the group in which Wynton and Branford Marsalis spent formative time in 1980.

Pine, now on his third visit to the United States and his first to the West Coast (he appears this evening in the Santa Monica venue At My Place) is the first black British jazz musician ever to achieve international prominence.

“I was born in London, March 16, 1964,” he said in a phone interview from Baltimore. “My father, who came to England from Jamaica, is a carpenter in London. When I was 8 my mother bought me a recorder--a virtual flute. Later I wanted to switch to saxophone, but my teacher said I had to study clarinet first, which I did. My main instruments now are soprano and tenor saxophones and bass clarinet.”

Had it not been for a lucky accident he might have remained in the world of reggae and funk that took up three of his teen years. “At the age of 15, I happened to see Grover Washington Jr. on TV, and the presenter of the show said this was jazz music. Well, I went to the record library to discover more about jazz. I saw an album cover that attracted me--Sonny Rollins’ ‘Way Out West,’ with Sonny in that Western outfit. At first it was only the cover that interested me, but then I listened and noticed that the music had something in common with reggae. I was brought up mainly on ska, a music that led directly to reggae.”

After Rollins came other discoveries: Wayne Shorter with Weather Report, John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme” period. Pine soon realized that young black Britons could relate to jazz. Out of his Abibi initiative came a 20-piece orchestra, the Jazz Warriors, who in 1986 made their debut at the Fridge, a London club.

“We began to attract more and more musicians; it reached the point where we started running workshops and promoting additional bands. The Warriors made an album and I began recording with my own group.”

His first album, “Journey to the Urge Within” (Antilles 90909-2) has been well received in the United States and even became a hit in England when “Children of the Ghetto,” a track featuring the vocalist Susaye Greene (formerly with Ray Charles, now a British resident) achieved substantial air play.

Billy Banks, the executive producer of the album, happened to be with the Marsalis brothers as their road manager. “He told me they had a young brother, Delfeayo Marsalis, who was involved in production,” Pine said. “Well, in England it’s very difficult to find a producer who can record acoustic music authentically. Delfeayo sounded very curious on the phone; soon after he came over to produce my next album, ‘Destiny’s Song + the Image of Pursuance’ ” (Antilles 8725).

Both records display dramatically the degree to which this leader of the young lions of London has captured the spirit of Coltrane while adding his own intermittently West Indian flavor. He hopes soon to extend the Marsalis connection by recording with Wynton.

With him for the American tour are drummer Mark Mondesir and pianist Julian Joseph, both heard on the records, and bassist Delbert Felix.

Are they all young? “Yeah,” said Pine, “they’re all about 24--my age. If that’s young, they’re young.”

For an artist of his age, Pine has an exceptional backlog of credits. He has led other groups of his own such as a reed quartet known as the World’s First Saxophone Posse; he toured in Europe with the American drummer Elvin Jones and the arranger George Russell, and gigged in England with a big band led by the British rock drummer Charlie Watts. His meeting with Art Blakey (in whose band he played at London’s Camden Jazz Festival in 1986) led to an invitation to come to America and play with the Messengers.

Was it exciting? “Well, we rehearsed for a week and then played in a Blakey reunion band at the Apollo Theater. To tell you the truth, it was nerve-racking; right afterward I ran back home to London.”

In the two momentous years since that brief Blakey encounter, Pine has taken giant steps forward. Convinced that black British jazz can evolve into a distinctive idiom, he has the cultural awareness, the sensitivity and the ambition that can guarantee him a long and illustrious life in music.