Courtney Pine happy to return to his musical roots

Ever since he first walked out onto a Cork Jazz Festival stage alongside, of all things, turntables and mixers, Courtney Pine has been a firm favourite with Leeside audiences. He’s been getting crowds dancing in the aisles during the festival since the late 1990s, placing his muscular, dizzying sax playing in all manner of musical contexts.

Pine’s first appearances in Cork coincided with the festival beginning to branch out, pushing the definition of “jazz” by embracing dance music that took its spirit, if not quite its sound, from the music. But at the time, the festival’s reputation was, for Pine, rather different. “The Cork Festival, back in the day,” he says, “was such a traditional festival. For the likes of me to get to Cork, that was a big deal. I’m not what you call a regular British jazz musician. I’m outside the circle and I really felt I had a point to prove. Getting to a festival like Cork was a huge honour. I had to prove my relevance. Every time I come there’s been crowds who feel the same way I do, and they respond really well to the concerts. I’m on a mission every time I turn up in Cork. It’s buzzing, it’s really good. There’s a lot of people identifying with what I’m trying to achieve. We have a good time, you know? It’s weird because I’m 49 now, and I’ve got a grey beard and I’m not a kid any more, but I’m not really established. I’m still striving, on the same mission.”

Pine laughs at the contrast to the festival now: “Primal Scream is playing man,” he says with a hoot. “That’s way, way, way, left field.” Is that pushing things too far? “A woman that used to sing with me used to sing with them, so there’s a kind of a link there,” he responds.

Pine is bound to find a link, bound to be forgiving of the few square pegs in the line-up. His very musical DNA is a melting pot. “My parents are very religious and they always made me to believe that we are all part of a chain: no man is an island. I look at music in a very similar way. Lots of music that I love came out of other styles of music. There’s always a style that came before.”

The child of Jamaican immigrants to England, the background music to Pine’s youth was a diverse mix. His childhood around Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove was utterly multi-cultural. “I grew up listening to Ghanaian music, Nigerian music, Irish music, Italian music. I can still remember the dry cleaner, who was an Italian guy, and him playing Italian music in the background. So that’s what I grew up with. Walk up the street and you’d be hearing the sounds of different nations as you walked past people’s apartments.”

That background was the inspiration for Pine’s 2011 album Europa — a travelogue that applied a jazz sound to a musical map stretching from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean.

For his current album, House of Legends, Pine is looking the other way: “It’s Caribbean-based music,” he says. “The sound is very different to what I usually do. I’ve had to be a bit brave and bold to do this record. It’s not a typical jazz record, but I’ve got to a position where I’m a little older and wiser and decided I could tell a story that was more from my background.”

* Courtney Pine plays at the Everyman Palace Theatre in a double bill with Rene Marie tomorrow night.

guinnessjazzfestival.com