Courtney PineThe Zodiac10 November« « «One gets the feeling, listening to Courtney screeching something wicked on his horn, that it should be anything but a saxophone. Call it a schizophrenic sound. The man’s got manic chops that blow notes that bellow like a foghorn and scream so high and so well that you forget a saxophone is not supposed to make that sort of commotion. Hhe trades brass two’s and four’s with himself. plays tight staccato percussion rhythms and rhymes in walking basslines. Eevery once in a while, Ppine will dip into a mesmerizing improvisational strain that reminds you why aficionados have hailed him a cross between John Ccoltrane and Ssonny Rrollins.Of course, Pine’s music has always resisted classification and, if this is any indication of the virtuosity of his music, so have his fans. Ppine and his band (Rrobert Fordjour on drums, Ddarren Ttaylor on bass, Cchris Jerome on piano, Ccameron Ppierre on guitar and Ddonald Gamble on percussion) played to a nearly full house last Thursday night at the Zodiac, drawinga fairly large crowd of middle-aged devotees that nodded and danced to the beat with moves that haven’t been seen since the late 80’s. Eeven the twenty-something crowd dropped their beers and clapped along when the high energy of the performance crescendoed late in the act. The show was, at its best, six guys on stage rocking hard on instruments that aren’t, for the most part, known to rock.In so far as a disclaimer is concerned, as the band geared up Pine said: “This is jazz for 2005.” Most of what played at the performance was fresh and untested music from the band’s new album. Oxford is the third stop on a three-month UuK tour to promote Ppine’s new record, Rresistance, that takes a sharp turn from the reggae, soul, funk and world pop influenced 2004 release Ddevotion. The new music plays heavily on the sounds and attitudes of classic rock, funk, soul, and even a little 80’s punk.The beauty of the band is that their music straddles the line between what is and isn’t jazz. Aat times, Jerome played heavy organ chords that sounded a bit like Ccredence Cclearwater Rrevival. But then he progressed into lighter and flightier moments that elevated the piano above the crashing symbols on the other end of the stage. From moment to moment a sort of lead-footed feel crept into Ddarren Ttaylor’s walking lines. But then the band fell into a lull and his fingers licked the strings. Ppine and his band are not concerned with delineating a genre of jazz, but only in creating a musical space where they question what jazz is. Often this experiment elevated the music to brilliantly chaotic passages with conversing rhythms and thoughts. The mainstays of the band (Ppine, Fordjour and Ppierre) skillfully played back and forth, swapping each other’s rhythms and blues. Fordjour would hammer at the set while Gamble pummeled the toms and bongos with escalating intensity that almost brought the audience to tears. Hhowever neither Ttaylor nor Jerome could match the intensity when Ppine turned his horn towards them and plucked off notes on his soprano saxophone. But the tour is still in its infancy, and surely with a director as accomplished as Ppine, after a few more shows the band will gain a bit more cogency.ARCHIVE: 6th week MT 2005
