Courtney Pine - Destiny's Songs (The Energy of Pursuance)

Courtney Pine's 2nd LP / CD "Destiny's Song" from 1988 seems a long time ago now for contemporary jazz fans of quality , urbane sax led music. expectation ran high at the time as the follow up to Pine's media promoted + very fine debut LP "Journey to the Urge Within" + "DS" overall does not disappoint. a recent re-acquisition + I'm glad I rebought this fine cd of fluid post-hard bop quartet jazz that features Pine on both tenor + soprano sax with fine interplay from fellow UK players - own leader Julian Joseph - piano, a remarkable Mark Mondesir on drums (think Miles era Tony Williams for high octane nulti-rythmics time keeping) ,Gary Crosby / Paul Hunt on upright bass.

keen to develop his reputation at the time for virtuostic, post Coltrane sax pyrotechnics - Pine clearly issued a statement of intent here with "DS" as he ups the ante further after his marvelous multi level debut with a narrower focus on mainly up-tempo hard bop/post-bop tracks , with a rare respite of a slow ballad also impresses here. However Pine's debut "Journey to the Urge Within" offers a wider more satisfying palette of moods than "DS".

later UK sax leaders such as Soweto Kinch + Denys Baptiste took their cues from Pine's earlier work such as this , in their own inventive ways of course, but here "DS" offers many hours of genuinely thrilling sax led pin sharp jazz that appeals to both the hard bop hardcore fans as well open minded lovers of dazzling acoustic music. a fine antidote + reminder that the UK jazz scene produces inventive players with their own ideas away from the US scene : Greg Osby, Joshua Redman et al arguably do not offer the elan that Pine did at this time.

a fine recommended jazz LP, but newcomers to Pine are probably best served by the Spectrum label best of "Up Behind the Beat" collection first, that offers a wide + quality overview of Pine across his first 4 LPs .