CourtneyPine

Began professional career playing saxophone for reggae artist - Black Harmony , Michael Prophet , Al Campbell , Barrington Levi , General Saint and Clint Eastwood , Aswad , Freddie Mcgregor......switched to playing jazz with the community music group where he meet and played with John Stevens , Harry Becket , Evan Parker , Elton Dean , Paul Rogers , Charlie Watts . Went to the Nice jazz festival playing with Ginger Baker , Jack Bruce and Bereli Lagrene , worked with George Russell and then signed a record deal with Island records in 1986. Debut album Journey to the urge within became the first serious jazz record to enter the British national pop charts and ever since Courtney has been on a non stop world tour . 1996 saw Courtney signing to the American record label Polyram for a 7 year deal , his debut on that label Modern Day Jazz Stories won a Mercury Music prize for album of the year. Recently he has worked with Omar , Jazz Jamaica ,Mick Jagger , Bryan Ferry , Kate Bush , Peter Frampton , Manu Dibango , Salif Keita , Talvin Singh , Jazzmatazz , Carlene Anderson , Beverley Knight , Desmond Dekker , Lynden David Hall , Janet Kay , Elton John , Branford Marsalis , Cassandra Wilson , 4Hero. He has recorded 11 studio albums , 3 film scores and is in production for his first live recording. His radio show for BBC radio 2 called Courtney Pine's Jazz Crusade is in it's 10th series .