British saxophonist Courtney Pine was a leader in the movement to restore the place of jazz in popular music in the U.K. during the 1980s and '90s. One of the founders and key members of the group the Jazz Warriors from 1986 to 1994, Pine is both a skilled improviser and an outspoken proponent of jazz as part of the black community's musical and cultural identity. His solo career began with 1986's JOURNEY TO THE URGE WITHIN, and continued steadily thereafter. Pine was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009.