Telarc
2004
Devotion
About This Album
Devotion is Courtney Pine's ninth album and his first to be released on American shores since 1999. Those familiar with Pine's restlessly adventurous, knife-edge walk between the jazz explorations of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins and his love affair with reggae, soul, funk, world pop and folk musics, and electronica will be delighted with this (though maybe not happy that the remixes on the U.K. edition were left off). He has balanced all of his passions and inquiries on a record that leaves in the edges, but makes the puzzle pieces fit. Pine's connection to nightclub and street music is in his DNA; he has been employing it since his 1986 debut, Journey to the Urge Within. On Devotion, the studio becomes a lab. He's not interested in watering down his obsessions to make them fit; he's seeking to pump everything up and have genres rub up against each other. Pine plays electric piano, Hammond organ, saxophones, EWI, clarinets, and flute, as well as programming bass and loops. Also starring are guitarist Cameron Pierre, bassist Peter Martin, drummer Robert Fordjour, and various percussionists, including Thomas Dyani.

From the jump, Pine goes into interstellar overgroove. After a kung fu movie intro wedded to sound effects, he kicks it with "Sister Soul," a blistering funky soul-jazz track that pushes all the right buttons with its low-down swagger and Pierre's eight-string glissando guitars.
Track List (try track 3)

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