It may be hard, in 2023, to gauge the pressure Courtney Pine was under when he made this debut almost 40 years ago in 1986. He was young, gifted and black (and British), and stood at the centre of huge media interest in the new wave of mostly London born jazz musicians of Caribbean heritage. Pine had to deliver.

‘Generation Jazz Warriors’, which included the likes of Gary Crosby, Orphy Robinson, Cleveland Watkiss and Mark Mondesir, were all part of Pine’s studio group and to a certain extent this session was a consolidation of a collective energy as well as the leader’s individuality. The then-21 year-old’s performance on tenor and soprano saxophone and bass clarinet gave a surefire indication of the virtuoso he would become in the 1990s and beyond, while the aforementioned players, as well as the likes of pianist Julian Joseph, all set the bar high.

What catches the ear is the way the ensemble negotiated ‘tradition’, epitomised by Coltrane, Shorter, Blakey et al, upholding the central tenet of swing and occasionally infusing an ‘island’ flavour. Even more impressive was the decision to cover The Real Thing’s soul anthem ‘Children Of The Ghetto’, one of the landmark political statements of the ‘Thatcher years’, which gives centre stage to Susaye Greene, whose voice has immense subtlety as well as intensity.

It was a key validation of the lived experience of West Indians and a startlingly mature use of African-American musical vocabulary. Pine would go on to stir many more rootsy flavours into his artistic mix, to get closer to home. This beautifully-packaged and great-sounding edition on new label Analogue October, was mastered at Gearbox Records and is issued on vinyl for the first time since the 1980s.