Back in the Day – Lady Day Back in the Day – Inner Back in the Day – Love and
and (John Coltrane), State (of Mind), Courtney Affection, Courtney Pine
Courtney Pine Pine
Context Courtney Pine: one of the most successful British jazz musicians of the modern-era, partly through his use of a
variety of modern popular styles in fusion with American modern jazz elements, his parents are from Jamaica –
the country’s reggae music has had a profound influence on his work, hip-hop styles (based on black America
pop music) feature including rap + turntables, multi-instrumentalist (sax, flute, bass clarinet, keyboard),
worked as a DJ so produced + mixed the album himself, some of his songs have influences of rhythmic calypso
+ fast-paced bebop (complex, virtuosic style of small-band jazz), led a jazz revival by broadening its appeal to
younger audiences
Back in the Day: released in 2000, encapsulates Pine’s interest in combining drum & bass, hip hop, blues, soul,
funk, bebop and jazz into a new-sounding style, his 8th album, his intention was to produce a sound that was
old and new at the same time
Jazz history: blues, ragtime, swing, bebop, cool jazz, symphonic jazz
Pays tribute to two of the greatest Uses sound bytes A cover of a well-known pop song
20th century jazz performers – released in the 1970s – original
female vocalist Billie Holiday (big song demonstrated some jazz
band, swing jazz) and tenor influences (sax solo, occasional
saxophonist John Coltrane (modern complex harmonies) – Pine shows a
jazz combo) – though the music is lot of respect for the track, but
more closely connected to blues + adds new interesting dimensions
soul
Perform Vocals Rap, sampling + turntable effects in Vocal
ing Turntable effects (e.g. intro) vocal 2/3 Distorted electric guitar (original
Keyboard set to sound like a Vocal solo by a jazz singer – contained acoustic) + synthesised
Forces
Hammond organ (features a dissolves into scat string sounds
vibrato effect, syncopated chords, Tenor sax + flute provide Backing vocals by a gospel choir of
used in much early blues/soul) improvised links/phrases in rap unison female voices + sometimes
Saxophone – links/fills in verses, Brass chordal interjections male voices added in octaves
slow lip vibrato ends verse 2, Soprano sax solo + guitar solo Bass clarinet (unusual) – generally
multiphonics + key clicks used at answer used for low short chromatic scale
end, slides/gliss, acciaccaturas Guitar alternates between rhythmic passages as links between sections
Drum + bass programming + live strumming + finger-style melodic Tenor sax solo, synthesised strings
drums = driving rhythm work
Chordal piano
Sonority Sax, backing vocals + Hammond Intro – distorted sample of guitar Arpeggiated guitar in intro
, organ heavily panned music distorted with reverb
Reverb on vocal + sax Contrasting free lyrical vocal + Verse 1 different to rest of song
Various samples taken from track intensive rhythmically driven rap + Unusual sonority of bass clarinet
+ random spoken-word sources brass rhythmic ostinato + drum Echo of ‘love’ at start of chorus
that sound like newscasts at start beats
+ end
Structur 8 bar intro, verse 1, chorus, Instrumental intro, vocal section 1 Verse 1, verse 2, link, chorus,
e extended turnaround, verse 2, (refrain, 4 equal phrases + 2 phrase middle-eight, chorus, link,
chorus, turnaround, instrumental, link), rap, vocal section 2, rap, vocal instrumental, chorus extension
verse 3 (repeat of verse 1), chorus, section 3, instrumental section, Verses contrast a lot + choruses all
coda coda typical hip hop structure quite different (e.g. first has
Verse 1 – 12-bar blues influenced Vocal 2 interrupted briefly by the different lyrics + last includes sax
structure (12-bar blues = 4 bar of vocal intro melody + vocal 3 ends + different backing vocal answers)
I, next 4 bars introduce IV and last with it accompanied by the bass +
4 bars introduce V) repeated in instrumental + at end
Texture Mainly melody (sax or vocals) Melody dominated homophony Verse 1: vocals over broken electric
dominated homophony (bass in octaves with chords above) guitar chords – thin/simple
(accompaniment very similar Groove breaks down at key Chorus: answers/imitation by
throughout) moments (e.g. start of new sections) gospel choir
Verse 2 multi-tracked backing + returns in a ‘drop’ = contrast Texture becomes more polyphonic
vocal harmony mainly in 5ths Vocal 2: simultaneous multi-tracked in last chorus/coda: solo voice +
Coda: singer improvises + sax vocal backing harmonies then sax improvising + bass riff +
provides counterpoint + backing improvised answers to the main backing vocal track + rhythm
singers answer with vocal hook phrases section chords
Mainly melody dominated
homophony
Tonality C major Saxophone uses notes from the E major – tonally ambiguous in
Passing modulation to B major in Dorian mode on C (flat 3rd + flat 7th) intro, but all other chord sequences
coda when melody/chords shifts with one blues note include E, there are E pedals +
down a semitone ends with perfect cadence in E
major
Harmon Blue note of flattened 3rd + Blue notes (e.g. intro sax improv Verse 1: relatively free harmony
y flattened 5th using Gb) moving around chords of E maj, but
Verses: tonic C7(#9) for 8 bars + Intro + rap chords – Cm7 and Dm7 mainly avoiding E (C#m, F#, A, B,
subdominant F7(#9) for 4 bars, then alternate G#m) – stops for two + a half bars
returns to tonic Pair of chords in brass section to outline the main harmonic riff
Turnaround: faster harmonic altered from Miles Davis’ ‘So What’ based around E-B-A
