Blue Turtles: 1985/86

Sting fumbles with jazz fusion...

Sting on his own? Just what the world needs... another pompous British rock star.

For his first solo work since the Police more or less broke up two years ago, singer-composer Sting chose to work with some of the finest young turks of jazz fusion.

Any succulent thoughts of some kind of inspired marriage of Sting's often irresistible melodics and the high-tech polish of these progressive virtuosos vanished shortly after the band started playing Friday at UC Berkeley's Greek Theater.

Sting hamstrung the fusion firebrands with some dreadfully pedestrian material, which showed neither the instrumentalists nor Sting to best advantage. The man who wrote all those memorable songs on 'Synchronicity', the last Police album, undermined his own best musical instincts to accommodate the spare helpings of jazz infused by the band, while the musicians were never cut loose to do what they do best.

The meeting of the minds never took place.

Most of the two-hour-plus program was drawn from the recent Sting solo debut LP, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles'. The title alone should have served as a warning.

Solo bandleader Sting does not play bass this time around; he plays guitar, although not so you notice it. He interspersed a few lesser known Police songs, sang a stark 'Roxanne' during the encores, and played to the screaming teenyboppers in the crowd with his rock star bag of tricks.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis of the distinguished family of New Orleans jazz musicians looked distinctly ill at ease doing the boogaloo between solos.

Sting's rhythm section featured Omar Hakim, drummer for fusion kingpins Weather Report, and bassist Darryl Jones of the Miles Davis band. These exquisitely proficient technicians never found any kind of satisfactory groove, unaccustomed as they are to the restraint of self-expression imposed by the rudimentary 4/4 beat of rock. They also unwittingly pointed up the significant role played in the Police by drummer Stewart Copeland.

Sting and the Police burst on a turgid rock scene in the late '70s, an era dominated by overbearing, witless rock by groups like Styx and REO Speedwagon. The trio was a refreshing blast from England's burgeoning new wave scene with a spare and supple, reggae-infused style.

The Police became the first new waveers to break the American radio barrier and, subsequently, the first new wave band to climb to the level of selling out baseball stadiums. Sting, bassist, vocalist and songwriter, became the popular focal point, with his matinee-idol looks and quotable interviews.

For Sting, the jumbled sound of his new group may represent a kind of ultra-hip fashion, trying to be one step ahead of the crowd, testing what might be laughingly called artistic growth.

Or it could be a bluff.

How could he have hoped to rectify the expectations of his youthful following with the pseudo-sophistication of his new act? While the most enthusiastic fans jammed up against the stage Friday, shrieking and screaming, the patrons sitting further away on the hill couldn't conceal their boredom.

(c) The San Francisco Chronicle by Joel Selvin

Sting tries to jazz it up and almost pulls it off...

It was such a brilliant idea that I wish it had worked better. Much like Joni Mitchell did a few years back with mixed results, rock superstar Sting, minus the rest of his band, the Police, has put together a new band made of the cream of young, black jazz players.

It or more accurately, its token white singer - drew 17,000 listeners to Berkeley's Greek Theater Friday and Saturday, including Robin Williams, Wavy Gravy and Carlos Santana.

The Police were easily the most popular band of the '80s until the Bruce Springsteen tour, and Sting (born Gordon Sumner) is in a perfect position to try something new.

The last local show he did was with the Police in front of 68,000 fans at the Oakland Coliseum. But, rather than come back to a large venue, he chose the fairly intimate Greek for two shows, although the way the crowd mobbed the stagefront at the start made it apparent they weren't there just to listen to Sting's social and political lyrics in a jazzy setting.

As if to appease the rockers, he included a bunch of Police songs, had the band dance around at times, used a stage set with a wide staircase backdrop, lots of lighting gimmicks and even fog machines.

In spite of the rock trappings, the quartet played as no rock band could hope to, with amazing technique and empathy.

Sting's concept of playing pop music with a jazz band is fascinating, but sometimes boring. The musicians kept hedging their bets, not taking chances that were obvious. It's as if they're afraid to lay real jazz on a crowd that wants to hear 'Every Breath You Take', but too smart to play even that song with rock's single-mindedness.

I remember the Police playing with more of a jazz bent in their 1979 local debut a block away at Zellerbach Auditorium.

Before the show, saxophonist Branford Marsalis explained. "This is not jazz. It's a band playing in the pop idiom with jazz sensibility. We're operating with musical tastes. rather than jumping around and looking good."

Yet, they did jump around and look good, even Marsalis.

The real issue isn't whether the band is playing jazz or rock or something else, but whether it makes good music. And, about half the time, it did quite nicely, with a few standout numbers.

Moving over from his Police role as bass player. Sting, 33. now plays rhythm guitar.

Backing him for his current solo album, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', and on the around-the-world tour that began two weeks ago and concludes next March, are a brilliant, young, saxophonist Branford Marsalis (brother of trumpet, star Wynton), keyboardist Kenny Kirkland (from the Marsalis band), bassist Darryl Jones (of Miles Davis' band) and Weather Report drummer Omar Hakim, plus, at odd times; singers Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis. Most are under 25.

There was a fairly even. three-way mix of material, drawn from the solo album, some Police hits, and a few odds and ends, including a very off-the-wall version of the blues, 'I Need Your Love So Bad', with Sting doing a B.B. King impression on guitar.

Far better was his rendition of the first Police hit and the evening's most requested song. 'Roxanne', with Sting singing and plucking his guitar, accompanied only by Marsalis on soprano sax.

There were a couple of other highlights in the two-hour, 20-song set. 'I Burn for You', from a flop film Sting starred in a few years back, 'Brimstone and Treacle'. was a weak remake of the original. Once the vocal portion was finished, however, the band took over and blazed through a powerful jam. For the song's finale, the group jumped to the 'Brimstone' theme with two female vocalist and Sting wordlessly singing the melody while drummer Hakim went wild and the rest of the band played counter-point and counter-rhythm, much as early fusion band Weather Report did with its 'Boogie Woogie Waltz'.

It was so effective that the belching fog machines and flashing spotlights were out of place.

A dark song with pretty melody, 'Children's Crusade,' was introduced by Sting as "a cheerful little ditty about children, war and heroin."

Following a medley of 'One World (Not Three)' and the new 'Love is the Seventh Wave', he quipped that the latter was the first surfing song he has written. 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', a thinly disguised take off on 'Autumn Leaves', was the quietest song of the night. About a vampire with a conscience, it was the only one where the lyrics could be distinctly understood. It was also one of the few without political import.

The current hit, ungrammatically titled 'If You Love Some- body Set Them Free', was delivered in a mish-mash arrangement, leading into 40 minutes of encores.

What the music world needs is more artists like Sting, willing to try something different and more challenging, even if the results aren't perfect. Even so, such partial successes are far more interesting than hearing the same old reruns passing themselves off as new pop music these days.

(c) Oakland Tribune by Larry Kelp