6
Pae 8-The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 11, 1988
Pine looks back
The magic of
Mambazo
to move ahead
4
A few years ago, Ladysmith
Black Mambazo wouldn't
have had so much reason to
i look this happy. But
thanks to their newfound
49 fame, owing to its work on
g Paul Simon's African-
: influenced Graceland
album, the South African a
k capella folk singing
group, has been playing to
much larger audiences, like
the one at Hil Auditorium
Wednesday night. Mambazo
showed off their unique
harmonies, accompanied
only by their own clapping
and stomping through a
lively set and two encores.
BY LIAM FLAHERTY
ENGLAND, at times, still seems
to think of the United States as a
wayward colony. Which makes
Courtney Pine all the more remark-
able. He is 23 years old, Black, and
British. And he plays jazz in his
homeland, spearheading a movement
for a music which is indigenous to
America.
Pine's first instrument as a child
was the clarinet. He moved on to the
saxophone, playing with reggae and
funk bands around London. His move
to jazz was prompted by the Sonny
Rollins album Way Out West,
especially the cover photo with
Rollins bedecked in Stetson hat,
holster, and sax. A fortuitous bit of
kitsch, as Pine immersed himself in
jazz, touching on Lester Young, Al-
bert Ayler, and John Coltrane.
JOHN MUNSON/Daily
9
T HE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL
presents
The Thomas M. Cooley Lectures
Thirty-sixth Series
CONSTITUTIONALISM, DEMOCRACY AND
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Coltrane's vision still looms large
for today's young jazz players. Any-
one who avoids him is conspicuous
by their omission. Those who grap-
ple with him are often overwhelmed.
Pine is holding steady through this
passage of his journey. He definitely
has the Coltrane sound down, the'
"sheets of sound" approach, as Ira
Gitler expressed it. But it is not mu-
sical muscle-flexing, or a passionless,
technical exercise in History of Jazz
Playing 101. Like 'trane, Pine's so-
los have an ineluctable logic. Mere
anarchy it is not, as a spiritual
awareness defines their center.
Once again, like 'trane, Pine is a
spiritual man. But while Coltrane
found his primary inspiration above,
Pine looks back. He sees himself as
part of a continuing evolution, a
Black aesthetic dawning, one whose
past must be nurtured while insist
tently moving foward.
Pine's second album, Destiny'S
Song and the Image of Pursuance, it
full of references to the past and for-
ays into the future. You can heat
Young's broad sound, Rollins' maso
tery, Coltrane's searching. But Pine
comes through quite clearly. It is a
process unfolding, with his reggae,
ska, and calypso background sifting,
looking for a place to land.
Pine takes his quest seriously. His
talent on tenor and soprano sax is fer
rocious, honed constantly through
four hours of practice a day. He leads
his own quintet and is a member of a
20-piece band called the Jazz War-
riors, as well as an all-saxophond
group called the World's First Saxo
phone Posse. Two years ago ie
founded The Abibi Jazz Arts, an or
ganization for the furtherance of
Black music and culture.
Art Blakey and Elvin Jones,.leg-
endary jazz drummers, asked Pine to'
join their groups. But Pine sees his
mission in the U.K. and he declined.
The choice of refusing Jones must
have been particularly wrenching, as,
he was part of Coltrane's classio.
quartet - the muse's rhythmic;
pulse.
It is doubtful there will be many
more chances to see Pine in such a;
small venue as the Michigan Union
Ballroom. He is an artist, in a time
when the word has been rendered im-
potent through overuse. Like any?
true innovator, he understands that
we must see where we've been, be-"
fore he takes us where we're going.- ::
Louis Henkin
University Professor Emeritus
Columbia University School of Law
November 14,15,16, 1988
Lecture I
Lecture II
Lecture III
Monday, November 11
Tuesday, November 15
Wednesday, November 16
Tension in the Twilight Zone; Congress and The President
The Treaty Makers
Courts in Foreign Affairs
4:00 P.M.
Hutchins Hall, Room 100 Ann Arbor, Michigan
<4
impulsel
COURTNEY PINE comes to the
Michigan Union Ballroom SundaV
night at 7:30 and 9 p.m. Tickets arO
$10 and available at the Union Tick4
Office.
ROSE BOWL '89
Dec. 30-Jan. 3
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A TRIBUTE r0,
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Trane's remarkable legacy an E
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