Courtney Pine's debut album Journey to the Urge Within (1986) was the first British jazz album to make the top 40 in more than a decade. Smart-suited and prodigiously talented, the young saxophonist became a poster boy for British jazz, despite the fact that he was still playing predominantly American music.
Then something happened. “At the beginning of the '90s, I was doing the American set list," says Pine. “It had got to the point where I got on stage, people clapped, there was a bass solo - and I was stifling a yawn. But I would listen to drum and bass and think, 'Why does this music excite me?' That's when I knew I wouldn't be playing standards any more."
Pine is one of the homegrown talents headlining this year's London Jazz Festival, and his new album Resistance reveals how far he has come in creating a style that could only have come from Britain. Covering everything from Beatles-style harmonies to pure machine music, the album is a long way from the classic American songbook.
“You can never stop paying homage to the traditions of jazz," he says, when asked about the evolution of his style. “But the music has changed, and we can't ignore the technology that has the capacity to liberate us."
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