Courtney Pine's second album stays very much within the
Marsalis-imposed boundaries of post-
Miles post-bop; indeed, a Marsalis brother,
Delfeayo, is the producer, and the album's subtitle uses the patented kind of wordplay that the New Orleans dynasty indulges in. As before,
Pine's guiding star is
John Coltrane, of whom he had become a fervent and skillful acolyte, tossing off endless streams of heated playing on tenor and soprano inside and outside.
Pine also uses alternating expert teams of English acoustic jazz specialists --
Julian Joseph or
Joe Bashorun on piano, Paul Hunt or Gary Crosby on bass, and
Mark Mondesir on drums -- as backup. There are some really good
Pine compositions here; "Sacrifice" sounds as if it could have made it as a standard in mainstream and/or electric jazz. Although the novelty of a young black Englishman playing Afro-American acoustic jazz has long since worn off, much of this CD repays repeated latter-day listening. ~ Richard S. Ginell