The Austin Powers scene in which the super-villains get off on a long collective chorus of maniacal laughter and then can't work out how to bring it to a dignified close came to mind at Courtney Pine's jazz festival show. Pine, a consummate showman, instructed the full house to clap hands, dance or mill to the front of the hall. A blizzard of improvised double-time over thundering polyrhythms and many choruses followed and, after a bit of enthusiastic clapping and waving, the crowd started to wonder when to stop or when the tune might return.
However, Pine's show undoubtedly generated a reaction almost unheard of in the jazz of recent times. It drew fans from all generations and cultures, and was an astonishing display of saxophone virtuosity to rival that of Michael Brecker. Singer David McAlmont soulfully delivered John Martyn's Bless the Weather, Carleen Anderson performed a fierce lament on the mood of the world on When the World Turns Blue, and Jacqui Dankworth wrestled with the percussion to cling on to the lyricism of Sign Your Name. Pine visited reggae and Afro-rock (a tribute to Osibisa), and swept though a series of dazzling improvisations to culminate in an extraordinary circular-breathing finale. But it was the conversational soprano sax/sitar duet with Sheema Mukherjee that came closer to the kind of human communication Pine is devoted to nurturing.
Another pioneering British sax hero of Caribbean origins was the late Joe Harriott, a jazz genius whose legacy was explored by young UK alto star Soweto Kinch and musicians from both his and Harriott's generation. After a first-half Harriott seminar, the musicians ran through his bright, spiky, advanced- bop themes. The quintet, including Kinch, trumpeter Byron Wallen and pianist/arranger Andrew McCormack, did a sublime job of reinventing material from Harriott's legendary 1960s albums. But the trio of pianist Michael Garrick, bassist Coleridge Goode and drummer/singer Frank Holder displayed its own kind of special affection. Kinch joined them for a rousing version of Bobby Timmons' soul-jazz classic Moanin' - one of the warmest and most engaging spontaneous performances of a memorable week.
