Courtney Pine - Back in the Day

Courtney Pine - Back in the Day

1. Background information

   • One of the most successful British jazz musicians of modern era
   • Uses modern popular styles in fusion with American jazz elements
   • 'Lady Day' pays tribute to two great 20th century jazz performers - Billie Holiday and John Coltrane
   • Hip-hop used in this album; indicative of Pine's more recent works
     • e.g rap and turntables
   • Pine is a multi-instrumentalist and mixed the album himself

2. Inner State of Mind

   • Structure
     • Instrumental intro - distorted sample of guitar music, one bar a cappella vocal phrase; saxophone instrumentation
     • Vocal section - voice enters with main theme; rhythmic brass ensemble chords
     • Rap section with short improvised saxophone links
     • Second vocal section - varied vocals which dissolve into scat singing
     • Second rap - improvisation on flute before saxophone return, occasional vocal phrases, homorhythmic tutti link
     • Third vocal section - further varied versions of 'Summertime'; long rising saxophone glissando
     • Outro - long improvisation on soprano saxophone
   • Harmony
     • As in most jazz, chords based on sevenths
       • Introduction alternates on two chords - Cm7 and Dm7
         • They don't support the key; harmony is less functional
     • First vocal section begins with just melody and bass (no chords)
       • Fuller harmony returns with C7(#9) chord - common in jazz and blues, can be interpreted as seventh chord with blue note flat third and raised third on top
         • Top D# notated as Eb
       • When chord sequence returns it is C to F with 9th, 11th and 13th extensions (common in jazz)
         • This continues over second rap
     • During instrumental section there are pentatonic guitar riffs
   • Tonality
     • Based on Dorian mode transposed to C, which features minor third and minor seventh (flat third and flat seventh)
     • All notes are diatonic on the mode, except for blue not Gb

3. Lady Day

   • Structure
     • Intro - turntable effects lead to fast tempo rock thythm and scat vocals
     • Verse 1 - short improvised saxophone fills between phrases
     • Verse 2 - has same music (strophic form), with additional backing vocals; saxophone phrases includes lip vibrato
       • Lip vibrato is wobbling pitch with lips rather than breath
     • Sax solo - pitch bend technique; very high tessitura; chromatic scales; short slides; ends with rapid descending chromatic scale
     • Coda - singer improvises; sax provides counterpoint at much lower tessitura
     • Verse repeated
   • Harmony
     • Based roughly on 12-bar blues structure
       • Standard - 4 bars I, 2 bars IV, 2 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV, 2 bars I
       • Lady Day - 8 bars I, 4 bars IV, 4 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV
       • Chorus then uses chords not in the original structure
     • 12-bar blues chords are extended (C7#9) etc.
     • Harmony altered during sax solo to form new four-chord sequence featuring Eb9 (Eb7 with F on top) and G+7 (G7 chord with aug. 5th)
     • During coda whole tonality shifts up a semitone and back down again, before falling into IV (F) V (G) I (C) with ninths ostinato

4. Love and Affection

   • Structure
     • Beginning - rubato time with no percussion; silence for 2.5 beats; rock rhythms start and bass riff (gently syncopated starts)
     • Main section - bass riff continues with vocal phrases
     • Middle eight with changed harmonies
     • Main section 2 - bass riff returns with hook on version of title words; new four bar link with descending harmonies
     • Sax solo begins with crescendo on long note
     • Title hook returns over bass riff; texture becomes more polyphonic; voice and saxophone improvise over rhythm section chords
     • New descending synthesised string section passage; sax solo joins in with free improvisation
   • Harmony and tonality
     • Beginning - harmony relatively free; moving around chords contained in E scale but never E itself; rising bass line E-G#-A-B riff; with alterations such as slash chord on G# and added fourth on E
       • After this harmony is relatively functional
     • Middle eight - contrasting section starting with subdominant A; as with most middle eights dominant is last chord which leads back to tonic
     • Main section 2 - four bar link where harmonies descend chromatically; voice has range of blue notes
     • Backing singers end song on paused tonic chord (three-part)