Review

Courtney Pine’s Jazz Warriors: 'Afropeans'

With a reviving of Courtney’s barrier-breaking black big band of the 80’s – ‘The Jazz Warriors’, he performed a special three hour concert at London’s cavernous Barbican Theatre in October 2007 in celebration of the ‘Abolition Of The Slave Act’ in 1807 (an edited version captured here).

The line-up of musicians performing is more than impressive, mixing established players with the up-and-coming young talent and the recording captures the atmosphere of this exciting concert perfectly.
The sleeve-notes in the cd are especially interesting, giving the thought behind each composition; the subject matter mainly relating to what the concert was about – slavery and displacement. I listened with these notes in front of me to imagine the picture, although a composition about the ritual and celebration of crossing the Sahara desert and the brother and sister that were banished from Africa, walking to Europe and starting civilization there, entitled ‘Crossing The Lands’ stretched my imagination, as it was mainly a fast brazilian samba to chord-changes reminiscent of Incognito’s ‘Still A Friend Of Mine’. Still, I know Courtney is very studied and enthusiastic about black roots culture and, without sounding precious about this, a project done with this amount of knowledge and integrity makes criticism pointless in a way.
The cd itself goes through many styles, time signatures and concepts – all that work well - and everyone gets a chance to shine (with world-class performances, as anticipated). It is musically very challenging and intense and must have been one hell of a concert to have witnessed.
Words SNOWBOY