Courtney Pine: Back in the Day – ‘Lady Day and

(John Coltrane), ‘Inner State (of Mind)’ and

‘Love and Affection’
(for component 3: Appraising)
Background information and performance circumstances
Courtney Pine is one of the most successful British jazz musicians of the modern era. He has achieved
more commercial success than most of his contemporary musicians, partly through his use of a variety
of modern popular styles in fusion with American modern jazz elements. His jazz influences have
included American greats such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. The song in this selection
titled ‘Lady Day and (John Coltrane)’ pays tribute to two of the greatest twentieth-century jazz
performers – the female vocalist Billie Holiday and the tenor saxophonist Coltrane.

Pine’s parents are from the Caribbean island of Jamaica and that country’s reggae music has had a
profound influence on his work. More recently hip-hop styles, themselves based on black American
popular music, began to feature in his recordings and in the music played by his touring bands. Back in
the Day includes standard features of hip-hop, including rap and turntable performers.

As well as being a multi-instrumentalist (tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and bass clarinet), he has
also worked as a DJ, so he is well versed in turntable and other techniques. He produced and mixed the
album himself.

Though much modern jazz is original, it has been a common feature of the music to use covers of well-
known popular songs of the period. Miles Davis, for instance used material by Michael Jackson. Pine
does the same for a number of pieces on this album, including the Joan Armatrading song ‘Love and
Affection’.

‘Lady Day and (John Coltrane)’

The music bears little relation to the musicians of the title (Billie Holiday and John Coltrane). Holiday
(nicknamed Lady Day) was a singer in the big band swing jazz era. John Coltrane was a tenor saxophonist
in the era of the modern jazz combo. This music, on the other hand, is more closely connected with
blues and soul. After the eight-bar intro, the music has the sound of a 12-bar blues but with eight bars
of fast tempo tonic C before moving to the subdominant F. The chord sequences at the end of the verse
become more complex and jazz influenced.

Note: These set works guides are Pearson’s interpretation of the set works and every effort has been made to ensure
these are appropriate for use in the classroom. There may be other interpretations which are also valid and any such
differences would not be considered errors, or require any updates to the guides.
Structure
Bars 1–4 Turntable effects lead to a fast tempo rock rhythm featuring C7(♯9) chords (see notes on
Intro ‘Inner State of Mind’). There is a melisma (several notes to a syllable) featuring a blue
note flattened fifth. (bar 3)

Bars 5–36 Eight bars on the extended tonic chord C7(♯9) for vocalist and rhythm section. The
First Verse keyboard is set to sound like a Hammond organ, used in much early blues and soul
music. The sound features a vibrato effect. The singer is the blues and soul specialist
Lynden David Hall. There are short improvised saxophone links, or fills, between the
phrases. The harmony then moves to the subdominant as in a standard blues. It’s again
an extended chord, F7(♯9). Again the flat third of the chord has the effect of a blue note.

After four bars the harmony returns to the tonic as in a blues. The extended
turnaround from bar 21 is much more complex, with faster harmonic rhythm (rate of
chord change). There’s a conventional dominant (Gm7) and subdominant (Fm7). Then it
becomes more interesting with a thirteenth chord on the flat seventh (B♭). In bar 25 the
harmonic rhythm becomes faster still with a chromatic descent through a series of
seventh chords, before returning again to the B♭ thirteenth chord, and via a bar with no
harmony (stop time effect), to the tonic chord at the beginning of the first time bars
(eight bars on the tonic).

Bars 5–44 The second verse has the same music (as in standard strophic form). At the second
Second time bar there’s additional backing vocal harmony, mainly in fifths.
Verse
The saxophone phrase includes a slow lip vibrato, i.e. vibrato controlled by the lips
rather than the breath.

Bars 45–76 An improvised sax solo includes pitch bend technique as Pine gradually slides from D up
a semitone to E♭. The harmony is altered to form a new four-chord sequence, including
E♭ ninth chords (E♭7 with an F major ninth above the root) and G+7 chords (a G7 chord
with augmented fifth). The augmented fifth D♯ is notated as its enharmonic equivalent
E♭ in the score.

The saxophone moves into a very high tessitura (pitch range) with more glissandos,
chromatic scales and short slides up to and down from the note. The sax solo ends with
a long, rapid descending chromatic scale (bar 75).

Dal Segno The music then goes back to the sign at bar 5 and the first verse is repeated. At the end
to Coda of bar 26 the music moves to the coda. The harmony of the coda begins on B♭ with an
extended chord of B♭13. The whole harmony then shifts up a semitone to B11 before
returning to B♭. Through this section the singer improvises and the sax provides a
counterpoint, often at a much lower tessitura than in the long solo earlier.

The harmony changes to an ostinato three-chord sequence of subdominant (F),

dominant (G) and tonic (C), all with ninths – from bar 89. The sequence repeats until
bar 118.

Note: These set works guides are Pearson’s interpretation of the set works and every effort has been made to ensure
these are appropriate for use in the classroom. There may be other interpretations which are also valid and any such
differences would not be considered errors, or require any updates to the guides.
 At bar 119 the drum rhythm stops and there’s a G+ chord (G augmented) sustained
over four bars. The E♭ is the enharmonic equivalent of the augmented fifth (D♯). This
dominant chord resolves on the tonic with six bars of C7(♯9). A bar with no chord leads to
a pause on a final B♭ minor seventh chord with an added fourth (E♭).

During this last section, Pine uses two extended techniques on the saxophone:
multiphonic (producing several distorted notes at once) and key clicks where Pine
presses the keys down hard without actually blowing.

‘Inner State of Mind’

The music is an original composition by Courtney Pine, but it demonstrates an eclectic mix of influences.
The music includes rap, sampling and turntable techniques. The vocal solo, sung by the jazz singer Eska
Mtungwezi, pays tribute to the Gershwin classic ‘Summertime’. The original words ‘and the livin’ is easy’
are transformed into ‘and the living ain’t easy’. The initial minor third interval is the same as in the
original song. The pair of chords in the ‘horn’ (brass) section are taken from the Miles Davis piece ‘So
What’. Blue notes, as on the very first saxophone note, testify to the blues influence in this and almost
any jazz piece.

Structure
Bars 1–9 Introductory material, beginning with a distorted sample of guitar music, then a
Instrumental one-bar a cappella style vocal phrase beginning with a four crotchet rising idea
Intro ending with a Cm7 plus an added second, D.

The saxophone has improvised music with syncopation (bar 4), occasional slides up
to notes, e.g. first note. There’s a rock beat. The saxophone line uses notes from the
Dorian mode on C. A mode in its original form is like a white note scale on the piano.
The Dorian mode untransposed is the mode from D to D. It features a minor third
and minor seventh (often called a flat third and flat seventh in jazz harmony). In this
piece the mode is transposed to C. So the scale is C–D–E♭–F–G–A–B♭–C. Apart from
the G♭ blue note, all other notes here are diatonic within that mode. There is a
grace note G♭acciaccatura in bar 9.

Throughout this first section there is a rhythm section accompaniment based on

just two chords. As in most jazz, the chords are based on sevenths (the third and
seventh are the most important notes in jazz harmony) – Cm7 and Dm7 alternate.

The texture is melody-dominated homophony (melody and accompaniment).

Bars 10–21 The voice enters with the main theme of the song. We have already mentioned its
Vocal section close relationship to the melody of ‘Summertime’. The pairs of brass ensemble
chords starting at bar 11 are a tribute to the chords of Miles Davis’ ‘So What’
(though the harmonies are altered). There’s no real change to the subdominant
chord of F at the word ‘power’ as there is at ‘jumpin’ in Gershwin’s original.

Note: These set works guides are Pearson’s interpretation of the set works and every effort has been made to ensure
these are appropriate for use in the classroom. There may be other interpretations which are also valid and any such
differences would not be considered errors, or require any updates to the guides.
 The texture from bar 10 is just melody and bass with no chords. Fuller harmony
returns at bar 18 with a C7(♯9) chord. The sharp ninth is D♯ (which doesn’t appear).
It’s notated as E♭. It’s a common chord in jazz and blues, and can also be interpreted
as a seventh chord with both a blue note flat third together with a raised third.

The chord sequence here is Cm to F with extensions. Chord extensions, i.e. seventh
chords with additional higher notes (ninth, elevenths and thirteenths) are common
in jazz.

Bars 22–35 The chord sequence from the beginning returns as an accompaniment to rap. There
Rap are a couple of short saxophone improvised links.

Bars 36–53 There’s now a varied version of the ‘Summertime’ vocals. There are some
Vocal section turntabling effects and the music is interrupted briefly at bar 44 by the crotchet
rising figure from the beginning. The voice has blue notes in bars 46–47 and there
are simultaneous multi-tracked vocal backing harmonies from bar 47. The vocal solo
dissolves into scat singing (nonsense syllables) at bar 52.

Bars 54–71 Rap returns over the Cm7–F chord progression. There is some improvisation on the
Rap flute, before the saxophone returns. There are occasional vocal phrases. There’s an
interesting homorhythmic tutti instrumental link at bar 70 (all parts using the same
rhythm).

Bars 72–93 Further varied versions of the ‘Summertime’ music lead to more scat singing with
Vocal section occasional turntable effects. There’s a long rising glissando from bar 91, produced
entirely as a pitch bend on the saxophone. This is followed by the crotchet vocal
phrase from bar 1 (this time accompanied by the bass). The soprano saxophone
enters at bar 90 with a quick two-bar burst.
Bars 94–end There’s then a long improvisation on the soprano saxophone. Notice the scalic
Instrumental music at bar 97. Later there’s free vocal improvisation and some pentatonic guitar
section riffs (e.g. bar 104). At the end there’s a long high saxophone trill on the ninth above
the Cm7 chord. This is accompanied by a silent pause at the very end.

‘Love and Affection’

This song was a hit single in the 1970s, composed and performed by the Caribbean-born British singer
Joan Armatrading. The original song itself demonstrated some jazz influence, with a saxophone solo and
some occasional complex harmony. Armatrading combined elements of two different songs to make the
final version.

Instrumentation
Courtney Pine’s cover features the singer Kele le Roc performing at the original pitch, accompanied by
guitar and synthesised string sounds. Backing vocals are supplied by the London Community Gospel
Choir, singing with unison female voices, sometimes adding male voices in octaves. The guitar sounds
are distorted, very different from the 12-string acoustic guitar of the original. Pine plays a bass clarinet,
as well as a saxophone. The sound of the bass clarinet is particularly unusual in a rock song. It is

Note: These set works guides are Pearson’s interpretation of the set works and every effort has been made to ensure
these are appropriate for use in the classroom. There may be other interpretations which are also valid and any such
differences would not be considered errors, or require any updates to the guides.
generally used for short chromatic scale passages, low in the register (e.g. bars 30–32). These create
links between sections of the song.

Structure
Bars 1–31 The beginning is in free rhythm with no percussion. The harmony too is relatively
free, moving around the chords contained in the scale of E, but mainly avoiding E
itself. Then everything stops for two and a half beats (bars 13–14). Rock drum
rhythms start at bar 15 and continue to the end with occasional stop time bars (e.g.
bars 30–31).

The main two-bar chord sequence of the song appears briefly at bar 22. The gently
syncopated rising bass of E–G♯–A–B is the underlying bass riff that helps to make the
song memorable. The chord above the G♯ is a first inversion. The dominant chord B
has an added fourth (E).

The harmonies then change at the end of this section.

Bars 32–45 After a descending chromatic scale on the bass clarinet the main section of the song
begins. The bass riff continues for 14 bars with repeated vocal phrases on ‘really love’
and off-beat notes on ‘love’ in bars 36–37.

Bars 46–53 This is the middle eight – an eight-bar contrasting section with changed harmonies,
starting with the subdominant A. Notice the repeated notes in the vocal part, as well
as the occasional blue notes (e.g. G natural, bar 47). As in standard middle eights, the
last chord is the dominant to lead back to the tonic of the main section.

Bars 54–65 The main section with the bass riff returns, with the title hook on a version of the title
words: ‘Just make love with affection’. There is a new four-bar link from bar 62, where
the harmonies descend chromatically from G down to E, with improvised vocals rising
high in the range. The voice has the whole range of blue notes – flat third, fifth and
seventh.

Bars 66–75 The sax solo now begins – with a crescendo on a long note. The bass line holds a pedal
E while the riff harmonies continue above.

Bars 76–83 The title hook returns over the bass riff. There are occasional backing vocals. The
texture becomes more polyphonic with solo voice and saxophone improvising,
together with the backing vocal track, all over the rhythm section chords.

Bars 84–end A new descending synthesised string section passage is introduced here. It features a
number of blue notes. The sax solo joins in with free improvisation. The backing
singers end the song on a paused tonic chord. They have a three-part chord (the
tonic, E Major).

Note: These set works guides are Pearson’s interpretation of the set works and every effort has been made to ensure
these are appropriate for use in the classroom. There may be other interpretations which are also valid and any such
differences would not be considered errors, or require any updates to the guides.