Review: Courtney Pine, St George’s

All the hype about their new album and tour stressed how Courtney Pine was stripping back to an acoustic sound, playing bass clarinet in a simple duet with pianist Zoe Rahman. It was a bit disappointing, therefore, to pass a massive mixing desk on entering the hall. If there’s one venue that could have easily done justice to an unplugged performance it was St George’s, but sure enough the reed instrument and grand piano were both mic-ed up. It was one of many signs that showed how unaccustomed Courtney Pine is to the whole ‘concert’ thing and – try as he might – there was no concealing his real comfort zone of swaggering showmanship on a big stage. 

Thus he began sitting down, simply stating the melody of the opening tune as Zoe Rahman’s deft piano score wove it larger, but then inevitably his interpretation grew in size and complexity until the whole thing burst (happily just as the over-amplified sound was becoming painful). The tune subsided but by then he was on his feet and that’s how he stayed, prowling from one side to the other or drifting away during the piano solos.

The set, like the new CD Song, comprised only ballads and on some – like the harshly forceful Amazing Grace or the unlikely Windmills of Your Mind –  Zoe Rahman did all the jazzing while Courtney Pine simply played the tune. This was a severe test of his tone on a notoriously tricky woodwind instrument that mostly worked, despite the occasional unintended squawk. The reed-heavy mix, however, meant that the subtleties of the piano part were often crushed into near inaudibility and this was a serious loss as Rahman’s assured style was capable of amazing solos, her playing incorporating flavours of everything from Art Tatum to Thelonious Monk and Keith Jarrett.

Other tunes were clearly meant for Pine to feature and he delivered all his trademark stuff, including flamethrower cascades of ultra-bop, insistent repetitions, sudden octave drops and even didgeridoo grumbles. It was the kind of grandstanding that works in his usual electric band context but here felt like a diversion from the business of balladeering. Nevertheless there was a clear sense that the audience wanted more pyrotechnics and he was happy to oblige.

The second half felt truer to the sales pitch with a more balanced sound and Pine working with the piano rather than competing against it. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square saw the clarinet picking its way through the piano part instead of barging it aside, Motherless Child became an evolving work song riff, with Pine’s restrained melodic solo getting the first burst of cheering of the evening. An unadorned reading of Brian McKnight’s schmaltzy One Last Cry became a woodwind-beneath-my-wings anthem that allowed Donny Hathaway’s Someday We’ll All Be Free to blossom into a real performing partnership. The great melody allowed both players the freedom to extend themselves, and finally it felt true to the hype though, sadly, this turned out to be the last number. 

The evening ended as Zoe Rahman left the stage and Courtney Pine remained, his extended address to the audience dissolving into a rambling sales pitch for CDs but really seeming more to be about his need to connect. Usually a great audience motivator, it seemed this was another part of the concert experience that had chafed for him, but despite these awkwardnesses, there did seem to be a very good idea lurking underneath it all. If the great showman had held onto the satisfaction of those truly egalitarian moments when he was part of an organic playing partnership this could indeed have been a revolutionary moment in his deservedly successful career.