Courtney Pine

A Level Music
Courtney Pine

• One of the most successful jazz

musicians of the modern era
• Influenced by Miles Davis, John
Coltrane, Sonny Rollins
• Jamaican parents – link to Reggae
• Taught himself the saxophone
• Plays soprano and tenor saxophone,
bass clarinet and flute
• Worked as a DJ
• 16 solo albums
 Liamuiga (Cook Up) on BBC TV show
‘Later’ with Jools Holland

• What instrument is Pine playing?

• What other instruments feature in the band?

• What style of music from Pine’s Caribbean

heritage is a major influence on this piece?

• What features of the piece point to this style of

music?

• How is the performance structured, and how does

this link to other jazz performances you’ve heard?

• What gives this performance its energy?

Calypso – What musical features are there?

• Carnival music - Loud

• From Trinidad and Tobago
• brass, guitars, drums and percussion (steel pans,
bongos, congas, and timbales) and vocals
• Usually in 4/4 metre
• Syncopated rhythms
• Off-beat
• Call and response
• Extended chords
Sonny Rollins – St
Thomas

What similarities
are there between
‘St Thomas’ and
‘Liamuiga’?
 Bebop 1940's

- A complex, virtuosic style of small-band jazz

Jazz Fusion 1960's

- Often included a repeated riff or groove

- Featured rock, funk, Latin, hip hop
- Improvisations
- Similar line up to pop/rock bands but with
additional jazz influenced instruments e.g.
saxophone or trumpet taking the lead
 Back in the
Day
• Released in 2000
• Pine's 8th album
• Blues, bebop, soul, funk, drum
& bass, hip hop, rap ‘Jazz has always been about fusion. In housing estates you hear
• Includes turntable performers reggae, techno, classical: you walk through a flat and hear a
random mix. But it becomes harmonious, like mixing cultures to
• Pine was awarded an OBE that get something different, shocking and stimulating. I’d get home
from a jazz gig and play ska. I made a conscious effort to fuse
year the two, to inspire myself again.'
Jazz
• Use of saxophone
• Chord structures
• Improvisation
• Blues notes
• Short, melodic motifs
• Repeating chord patterns
 • Written by Gil Scott-Heron, American poet and
musician

Lady Day and • Features vocalist Lynden David Hall

• Billie Holiday – singer in big band swing jazz era
(John • John Coltrane – tenor saxophonist in modern jazz
Coltrane) combo era
• Music is closely connected to blues and soul
Lady Day and (John Coltrane) - Features

• Focus on minor 3rd interval

• Hugely virtuosic alto sax solo
• Follows a loose 12-bar blues
pattern in C (extended in
chorus)
• Use of extended chords
• Verse-chorus form
• Jazz style chords later on in
the piece
Lady Day and (John Coltrane)
Jazz Influences Popular Influences

• 12 Bar Blues is the skeleton structure for the piece – varied • Turntable Effects – linked to popular music at the time.
version of 12 Bar Blues • Lyrics & Strophic Form
• Use of “jazz” instrumentation – saxophone • Driving Hip-Hop style drumming
• Improvisatory nature of the piece including a saxophone • Use of sampling – music technology influences
improvisation section • Recurring chords & a fairly clear chord progression
• Blue Notes
• High Tessitura of the saxophone.
• Extended Chords – e.g. Sevenths, Ninths & Thirteenths
• Use of Pitch Bends, Glissando & chromatics in the
improvisation – falling off of notes
• Key clicks – improvisatory style
• Ambiguous tonality with use of extended chords.
• Multi-Phonic techniques.
• Title links to famous Jazz musicians (Coltrane & Holiday)
• Coltrane – fast chromatic saxophone “runs”
• Use of rhythm – sextuplets , quintuplets, duplets & triplets.
 Identify the chord here

Harmony

Identify the chord here

1) Identify the chord in bar 1

2) How do you explain the use of Eb in bar 1?
3) How do you explain the use of Gb in the vocal line of bar 3?
 • An original composition
• Rap, sampling and turntable techniques
• Sung by Eska Mtungwezi
Inner State of • Pays homage to Gershwin's 'Summertime' - minor
Mind third interval
• Pays homage to Miles Davis 'So What' - pair of
chords in horn section
 Inner State of Mind
- Features

• Use of blues notes

• Introduction includes sampled rhythm guitar
• Improvised saxophone melody based on
Dorian in C
• Motif 1 – ascending five crotchets
• Motif 2 – descending two-note horn stabs
Inner State of Mind
Jazz Influences Popular Influences
•Syncopated Rhythms • Rapping
•Use of Summertime sample – Porgy & Bess by Gershwin • Hip-Hop Drum style
•“So What” – Miles Davis – Influenced the track • Lyrics & clear motifs
•Contemporary Jazz style
•Dorian C-Minor
•Virtuoso improvisation
 How has the album
revolutionised music?
 Lady Day Inner State

Sonority

Melody

Harmony
Compare how Courtney Pine uses harmony,
melody, and sonority within "Lady Day (and
John Coltrane)" and "Inner State of Mind" to
revolutionise popular music. You should also
include wider listening. (30 marks)
 • A hit single in 1976
• Composed and performed by Caribbean-born
British singer, Joan Armatrading

Love and • Original demonstrated jazz influence (sax solo,

complex harmony)
Affection • Pine's cover features singer Kele le Roc
• Backing vocals are provided by London's
Community Gospel Choir
• Pine plays bass clarinet as well as saxophone
Love and
Affection -
Features
• Distorted guitar effect
• Broken electric guitar chords
• Primary chords in E major
Love and Affection
Jazz Influences Popular Influences
•The least jazz influence of the three in the anthology. •More of a pop song than a jazz piece
•Saxophone solo – improvisation – but less adventurous than the other •Less adventurous harmony and more of an RnB style vocal
tracks in the anthology. •Cover of a folk/pop song by Joan Armatrading
•Clear lyrics
•Synthesised strings which were becoming more popular in pop music
– The Beatles.
•Use of backing vocals – gospel choir & gospel influences
Which song out
of the three is
your favourite
and why?
Your Task…
You are going to debate which song out of the three is the best – but you won’t get to
choose which one you’re debating…

1. You will have 20 minutes to write a statement as to why your song is the best,
including reference to musical elements and wider listening to back up your argument,
not just subjective opinion.
2. You also need to consider any counter-arguments you would want to make against the
other two songs and consider a response to any challenges you might receive back.
3. You will then debate against one other person, and the other two will be there to
question and probe further, then you will swap round.
4. Most convincing argument wins!