Blue Turtles: 1985/86

Sting Stands Fans Up on Their Chairs...

Sting worries about the world... but he still enjoys himself playing for ''a great audience.''

Have you ever before seen half of the main - floor crowd standing on chairs 20 minutes BEFORE a concert started?

Neither had I until I walked into the City Auditorium Arena Friday night. That was just before 8; nobody sat down until Sting and his band took the stage shortly after 8:15 and played for two hours, including three encores.

By the end, everybody was standing and cheering and singing along.

The Auditorium announced the crowd at 4,997. Sting, returning to the stage for the third encore, pronounced it ''a great audience.''

''I don't know what to say, really,'' he added, standing alone except for his guitar. ''I'll just say'' and he began playing 'Message in a Bottle', one of his old hits with the Police.

It was slower, more spare, more thoughtful than the familiar Police version, but its message of hope through reaching out and communicating brought the show to an appropriate end.

Sting worries about the world. He sang about war ('Children's Crusade'), about the plight of British coal miners ('We Work the Black Seam'), about the difficulty of keeping a relationship alive ('If You Love Somebody Set Them Free'), about a relationship that didn't make it ('Consider Me Gone').

The songs were thought - provoking but never depressing because of the driving music that went with the sometimes - somber words. Even some of the ''downer'' songs were quite danceable.

Sting also has a cheery side, exemplified by 'One World Is Enough for All of Us', with its bouncy Jamaican - style music and its calliopelike ''doot - doot'' backing vocals.

He followed with 'Love Is the Seventh Wave', which he playfully called ''the first surfing song I've written.''

Although he seldom smiled, Sting occasionally joked with the audience and seemed to enjoy himself. He danced around the stage and frequently exhorted the crowd to clap or sing along.

Sting drew his musicians from the jazz world. It showed to various degrees all night, although nearly every song also had a strong rock backbeat.

The featured instrumentalist was Branford Marsalis on tenor and soprano saxophones. He was sensationally good, whether playing solos or staying in the background.

He blended the soprano especially beautifully with Sting's voice on 'Roxanne', the Police's first hit, which Sting sang to open the first encore.

Keyboardist Kenny Kirkland got only a couple of solos, but he made the most of them. His playing on 'When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around' was especially hot.

Drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Darryl Jones and singers Dollette McDonald and Janice Pendaris also were superb.

The group played a few other Police tunes, the best - known being 'Every Breath You Take'; everything from Sting's solo album, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', except 'Russians'; and a few other odds and ends.

The musical variety was considerable: a little straight - ahead jazz, a lot of the quirky rock Sting has been creating alone or with the Police for years, a couple of pretty straightforward blues songs, even a nod to the old Tin Pan Alley days with 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', which was extremely reminiscent in both melody and melancholy of 'Autumn Leaves'.

The exceptional lighting effects alone drew several bursts of cheers.

(c) Omaha World-Herald by Steve Millburg

At Omaha Friday night - Sting concert fuses rock, jazz...

British rock star Sting on Friday night treated concert-goers at Omaha's Civic Auditorium to a propulsive brand of jazz-rock that demonstrated the best of both worlds.

Unlike most at tempts to fuse the free-flowing improvisation of jazz with the rigid structure of rock, Sting's ensemble did not rely on flashy guitar runs or synthesizer wizardry. Driven by the rhythmic fire of drummer Omar Hakim and bassist Darryl Jones, the band's performance centered on Sting's piercing, high-octave vocals and adept rhythm guitar, punctuated by the soaring soprano sax of Branford Marsalis and the deft electric piano and organ fills of Kenny Kirkland.

Fleshing out the music with backing vocals and percussion were singers Janice Pendarvis and Dolette McDonald.

The audience was on its feet from the minute the band launched into its first number, the up-tempo 'Shadows in the Rain'. Metal folding chairs that had been placed on the floor of the auditorium immediately became footstools for the enthusiastic crowd, and even people in the stands remained on their feet throughout most of the concert. 

Those who did not have an elevated vantage point were aided by the design of the stage. Hakim and Kirkland performed from raised platforms set into a stairway at the back of the stage. Sting, Marsalis and Jones frequently roamed up and down the stairs during extended instrumental passages.

The two-hour concert, which included three encores, primarily was a showcase for Sting's new album, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', which is nearing the top of the national charts. But the show also included a sprinkling of songs recorded on five albums during Sting's tenure as leader of the rock trio The Police.

Introducing one of those older tunes, 'One World (Is Enough for All of Us)', Sting said the song "means something different every year. This year it means something for Africa." The songwriter frequently has penned songs of social comment and recently performed at the Live Aid concert in London to raise money for the starving in Africa.

During a song Sting wrote for the movie 'Brimstone and Treacle', smoke rose from the back of the stage and billowed out over the audience, creating an eerie effect that set the scene for a thundering drum solo by Hakim.

The main set ended with the new album's hit single, 'If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free', which featured imaginative stage lighting and Marsalis on tenor sax. Encore highlights included a Sting-Marsalis duet on 'Roxanne', traditional blues solos by Kirkland and Marsalis on 'Been Down So Long, It Feels Like Up to Me', and the quirky jazz instrumental, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', which led into an explosive rendition of 'Demolition Man', featuring Kirkland on synthesizer.

Omaha was the seventh stop on the American leg of Sting's worldwide tour, which is scheduled to end in March.

(c) Lincoln Journal Star by Tom Ineck