Modern Day Jazz. It’s the name of one of Courtney Pine’s albums and really sums up the whole idea of his work over the last thirty-odd years. Universally recognised as one of the greatest contemporary British musicians in any style, the 37 year-old Pine has brought his trademark blend of jazz, hip-hop, funk and soul to Bristol venues several times before, but never on such a scale as this, a special show put on by the organisers of the Commonwealth Games as a demonstration of co-operation between the varied talents of the Commonwealth countries. The show promised a huge band of musicians from all over the world, a truly multi-cultural sound combined with the extraordinary saxophone playing of Pine. This looked like being something never heard in Bristol before...

The show began with a short monologue by Goodness Gracious Me and Meet The Kumars star Sanjeev Bhaskar, who amused the audience with a story or two, and introduced Pine ‘by satellite link’. What followed was a film of Pine speaking to the camera, but through accident or design there was no accompanying sound, a fact atoned for by Bhaskar then paying tribute to “the great mime skills of Courtney Pine!” There then appeared from the back of the auditorium a procession of brightly-dressed people all shaking and banging assorted percussion instruments, led by Pine, dreadlocked, bearded, clad in bright yellow attire and looking not unlike the large one from Kenan and Kel. Immediately they took the stage, Pine led the eighteen-piece band into a fabulous ethnic-funk number, featuring the versatile frontman on flute rather than his usual saxophone.

With the audience still reeling from such an onslaught (not in terms of volume but just sheer energy), Pine proceeded to tear through a few more tracks, largely instrumentals featuring solos by various members of his own band and the guest performers, most notably a jaw-dropping bass solo from Peter Martin and a superb piece of guitar-twanging by South African guest Jimmy Dludlu. There was no gap between tracks, one beginning even as Pine thanked the audience for applauding the previous one - Courtney Pine apparently doesn’t do dull moments. However, he took a minute to introduce three new additions on stage - Indian guests Shri Sriram (bass) and Vivek Rajgopalan (percussion), and sitar player Sheema Mukherjee. These three then performed a fifteen-minute-or-so interlude of asian-influenced music, incorporating some astounding solos, in particular some frenzied tabla-playing by Rajgopalan and interplay between him and Sriram, which left Indian music behind to sound very much like drum ‘n’ bass at times. The contrast between this, (which received a huge round of applause) and the mellow wash of sound that emanated from Mukherjee’s sitar was one of the high points of the evening.

Pine then picked up the baton again, and introduced some more afro-caribbean influences, in the form of Nigerian talking-drum player Olusegun Sunday Abioye and Canadian rapper Spek, formerly of hip-hop band The Dream Warriors. Both of these performed admirable but lengthy (in my opinion too lengthy) solos: the talking-drum was impressive but is limited in its range of sounds. The hugely afro-ed Spek, whilst being very cool and undoubtedly adding a new sound to the cauldron of music, wore a bit thin and when freestyling appeared to be slightly obsessed with the phrase “I rock the microphone”. However he did provide a number of amusing and appropriate comments within his stream of speech, two examples being “dis mah maan Courtney Pine, he do his ‘ting and it sounds so fine...” and “I got funky hair here”, which nobody could dispute.  

After a storming set including a number of tracks from Pine’s latest CD Underground, the band finished the evening with a moving rendition of a classic Bob Marley song, the band playing on whilst Pine first went down into the audience and then returned to thank each and every player, each of whom then gave Pine the high five and left the stage, the sound diminishing as more musicians left until just Pine remained to say thankyou and goodnight. Throughout the show Pine, and indeed all the musicians exuded an air of real enjoyment and excitement in what they were doing, the sheer amount of energy and enthusiasm captured in Pine’s enormous and constant grin defied any idea of a mercenary in it for the money, and the tremendous reception that the band received from the audience only served to enhance this aspect of the show.

This gig was utterly mind-blowing in terms of musicianship and technical ability, and left many jaws on the floor, mine included. However, the rather  unimaginative use of the video screen (generally clichés such as pictures of African grannies and grinning Indian children) meant that the real spectacle was the players - the music spoke for itself without the need for such a gimmick. The set, whilst looking very nice and orange, was not spectacular, and certain instrumental things went on too long (the talking drum and the rapping in particular). However, for anyone even vaguely interested in jazz or world music I would definitely recommend this show, as its enormous range of styles and cultural diversity makes for a one-off musical experience that you are unlikely to hear again for quite some time, and that I for one will not be forgetting. Courtney Pine said two wise things during the show that rang true - “I think Bristol is more happening than London” - which we all know to be the case - and his reasons for setting up such a production  “music brings people together”. Spot on, Courtney.

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