Born in London in 1964, Pine has been an ambiguous and controversial standard bearer for British jazz since his overnight emergence in the mid-'80s with his debut album, Journey to the Urge Within (Antilles, 1986). For a few giddy moments, it seemed that jazz was about to storm the citadels of rock and pop, and the album even spawned a single, 'Children of the Ghetto', which reached the Top 10. The saxophonist also toured briefly with American heavyweights George Russell and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, thus acquiring the credentials of a front rank mainstream jazz musician, but since then he has followed a very individual path, seeking to incorporate the musical heritage of black, urban Britain into his own take on the jazz tradition.

The sounds, and the political views, of London's Caribbean, African and Asian communities have all featured prominently in his output, fused into a kind of musical polemic that has given a new voice to Britain's black community and has opened the door for a younger generation of black British jazz musicians like Denys Baptiste and Soweto Kinch.

His latest release, Resistance (Destin-E, 2005), continues his political journey and has been widely praised in the UK press. The group he brings to Kinsale also features guitarist Cameron Pierre and keyboardist Chris Jerome, and support for the night comes from The Republic of Loose.

>>The ballroom of Charleville Castle in Tullamore is the venue next Sunday for the only Irish performance by Barcelona-based singer Violetta. Originally from Philadelphia, one of the hothouses of American music in general and jazz in particular, Violetta is something of an unknown quantity.

She is the daughter of pianist Paul Curry who arranged and conducted for tap dancer Gregory Hines and played with Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. These two are cited as influences by the daughter, but judging by the few examples available, her style and her repertoire is more soul-oriented, with strains of Stevie Wonder and Dione Warwick more audible in her lithe, improvisatory vocals.

She is joined for this one-off concert, part of Tullamore's Phoenix Festival, by Catalan pianist Jaume Vilaseca. Vilaseca's roots are in Barcelona's thriving Brazilian music scene, but he describes the perfect musician as having "Brad Mehldau's hands and improvisation, Peter Gabriel's risk and imagination, Antonio Carlos Jobim's class, Marvin Gaye's blood and John Lennon's soul."

Meanwhile, those with a more immediate need to hear a vocalist should get along to the Pendulum club at JJ Smyths tonight. Singer Dorothy Murphy is one of the few vocalists on the Irish scene with a consistent dedication to contemporary jazz. Her latest project, Circleways, features new music composed by the singer and her partner, saxophonist Sean Og. The group also features cellist Claire Fitch, bassist Cormac O'Brien and drummer Phil MacMullan.