The headlines may be about the eye-catching collaboration with Omar, but more significantly Black Notes From The Deep finds Pine turning to the tenor for the first time in a decade, wrestling with his horn and the challenge that is about being black and British in our interesting times. As if given confidence by the no frills vibe of The Ballad Book, Pine has taken the intimacy of the classic quartet structure and assembled an album of ballads and blues pierced through with soul and sharp intelligence. The tone is set by the assertive but never aggressive ‘Rules’, with Omar declaiming, “Let's state our rules… be in control of the main thing”. And control is the key to Black Notes: the tenor of course can be tough and terrifying, yet Pine keeps it proud and purposeful, never being seduced by anger, even on the chillingly titled ‘Rivers of Blood’. His achievement is to refect on the current spirit of our age, filter it through references to past experience (check his ‘A Change Is Sure To Come’ or the noirish blues of ‘You Know Who You Are’) and then re-present it to us dark, blue and occasionally bible black, but always clear-eyed and courageous. Of his own admission, Pine sometimes writes essays to ‘explain’ his works, especially the epic scaled messages of House of Legends or Europa: but with Black Notes from The Deep, the jazz warrior has stiffened his tenor sinews and summoned the blood to let the music do the talking, and Omar do the singing.