When British jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine talks about going back to his roots, he means the kaleidoscope of cultures that was Notting Hill and West Kilburn in London in the ’60s and ’70s—a neighbourhood with a rich mix of communities—West London cockney, Irish, South Asian, African, and Caribbean. His latest release, House of Legends, celebrates those influences on his formative years.

“If I didn’t grow up there I wouldn’t have the keys to this album,” says Pine, reached in London. “Because of the multidiversity—the buzzword right now—you had a lot of great music, great energy. One of the tracks, ‘Claudia Jones’, is about a journalist from Trinidad, deported from America because of connections with the Communist party, who ended up in Notting Hill Gate.”

In the late ’50s there were race riots in the area. A few years later, Jones brought a festive antidote to the still-simmering tensions. “She came up with the idea of having a carnival, and it’s going on today—Europe’s biggest street festival! I pay tribute to her. When I mention it in concert, people have never heard of the woman. That’s the basis of what this album’s about.”

Early black artists in the U.K., many of whom served in the armed forces during the Second World War, are also saluted. “We have such a deep jazz theme here. This album has dug up so much knowledge about musicians like Leslie Hutchinson, leader of the first black big band in Britain. I dedicate ‘Hutch’ to him. I had no idea these guys were here, not only defending the country but also creating the music scene.”

House of Legends begins with a brief elegy to another black Londoner—an opening butterfly flurry of notes on sax and piano settles into the serene “The Tale of Stephen Lawrence”, inspired by a man whose name is synonymous with antiracism in the U.K. through the efforts of his mother to bring his murderers to justice.

“I’ve met her on several occasions and supported her events, and always wanted to pay tribute to her effort,” Pine says. “For me, it sets the album off really well because I’m not only paying tribute to the past, it’s also about what’s going on now. The case is unfinished—two of the four guys have recently been imprisoned, the others are still free. The police initially denied any knowledge of who was involved, but they messed with the wrong woman.”