Blue Turtles: 1985/86

Concert a pleasant surprise - Sting's new band pops up with jazz...

Sting and his gang of merry jazzers pulled off Tuesday night something rarely seen in Northeast Ohio: they made thousands of pop fans scream for skin-tight funky fusion and electric blues at Blossom Music Centre.

You usually don't hear music like this outside the close quarters of small clubs, unless maybe the JVJ (Kool) Jazz Festival is in town, and that takes a slew of headliners to pack 'em in.

It wasn't a jazz concert, and the band didn't play fusion or blues to the exclusion of the pop stuff. Sting and company pleased the old Police fans with renditions of Police tunes like 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Roxanne'. They fulfilled obligations by playing the Police-like pop hits 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' and 'Fortress Around Your Heart' from Sting's solo album, 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles'.

The fashionable new-wavish audience lapped up the hits of course. But the brightest moments in the concert, when the most energy seemed to flow out into the cheering crowd, came when the group was playing stuff that sounded like a cross between Weather Report, Prince (at his jazziest, like the live version of 'I Would Die 4 U'), and Miles Davis.

That style came out most strongly on 'World Running Down' from the 'Zenyatta Mondatta' album. The tune was transformed from the pre-'Synchronicity' Police sound, a little raw and sparse, to something beyond anything the Police could have done. They just didn't have the feel for a groove this band locks into.

Sting put this band together, he has said on his solo album's cover, to try a mixture of pop and jazz which would take the two forms out beyond the limitations of each. With saxman Branford Marsalis and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, who play with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' straight-ahead acoustic jazz group, Miles Davis bassist Darryl Jones, and Weather Report drummer Omar Hakim, Sting promised to invent some new form.

Then they started playing 'If You Love Somebody' on the radio, and it sounded like the Police with back up players. Catchy tune, but very predictable.

After hearing this band cook on some of the newer tunes you don't hear on the airwaves, though, it sounds like Sting has kept his promise. This is not the Police, and if he can keep it together, the spiky-haired singer-songwriter may have a vehicle to bring high-quality jazz music to the mass public.

(c) The Chronicle-Telegram by Gavin Smith

Sting puts jazzy mark on Blossom...

His real name is Gordon Sumner. But everybody just calls him Sting. These days they're calling him often, too. And with good reason.

The 33-year-old British musician and actor (he's appeared in several films, including the current 'The Bride') who hit the bigs about four years ago with his band, the Police, is soloing this summer and creating quite a buzz.

Surrounded by a distinguished cast including saxophonist Branford Marsalis (brother of Wynton), keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Darryl Jones, vocalists Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis and the peerless drumming of Omar Hakim, Sting, at least temporarily, has abandoned his rock'n'roll roots for progressive jazz stylings.

The results are dazzling. Tuesday, in his Blossom Music Center debut, the bright-eyed, fair-haired boy, who resembles Jimmy Connors and actor Malcolm McDowell, put together a powerful, two-hour, 20-tune set that was nothing short of sensational.

With the exception of a white staircase that stretched nearly the width of the stage, the performance offered little in the way of elaborate props, lighting or special effects.

In baggy white trousers, sneakers and a denim jacket, Sting didn't look very special, either. The music, however, was special enough.

Although it may not be quite as accessible as the reggae-inflected pop-rock that carried him to the top of the charts with the Police, it is loaded with depth, energy and emotion and presented in such epic fashion that it is all but irresistible - at least for those willing to take the time to properly digest it.

Such tunes as 'We Work the Black Seam', a rather deep number about coal strikes in England that's featured on his 'Dream of the Blue Turtles' solo LP, are hardly bubblegum.

Neither are 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', a haunting little gem about a vampire, 'Children's Crusade' and a lengthy 'One World/Love Is the Seventh Wave' combo.

But not everything was quite so esoteric. Jazzed-up versions of such Police hits as 'Every Breath You Take', 'Message in a Bottle' and 'Roxanne', along with his solo hits, including the wildly exhilarating 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', gave middle-of-the-roaders plenty to shout about, too. So did bouncy versions of 'Bring on the Night', 'Fortress Around Your Heart' and a superbly played 'Another Day'.

But without doubt, the evening's centrepiece was a devastating version of 'I Burn for You' that fairly ignited the crowd of about 8,000. From Marsalis' searing alto sax licks, through Hakim's relentless, incendiary drumming, the tune seemed locked in an ever-accelerating upward swirl that threatened to lift the roof off the pavilion.

Sting had stung.

(c) The Akron Beacon Journal by Mark Faris

New Band fuels fans with jazz...

That stirring sound you heard Tues- day night at Blossom Music Center was Police star Sting "crossing over."

He blended the rock rhythms of his Police band with the jazz sounds of his new four-man solo band. The resulting two-hour trip was the best he has ever done in this area - arresting, and yet tasteful. At times it was almost a celebration.

"It's a cold night we'd better warm you up," the British singer/guitarist said just before the second selection, 'Driven to Tears'. Then the band gave that song a fiery treatment, much funkier than on Police's 'Zenyatta Mondatta' album.

But then Sting had the right fuel- a standout group with Branford Marsalis (brother of Wynton) on saxophone and clarinet, Darryl Jones on bass, Kenny Kirkland on keyboards and Omar Hakim on drums. They're the new young Turks of jazz, and Sting had the good taste to acquire them.

Sting introduced them early in the show (a gracious step many band leaders don't think to take) and reintroduced them near the end.

Sting said earlier that he has enjoyed this tour more than any in recent years. It showed. He still squinted, wrinkling his nose as he has in previous concerts, but he smiled more, too. In his close-cropped haircut, white baggy pants and checked shirt hanging outside his blue denim jacket he looked less like Huck Finn than before. He jumped in the air at the end of songs and lined up with Jones and danced with abandon.

There were many highlights during the 21-song salute, but for drama few topped "I Burn for You," from the 'Brimstone and Treacle' sound track.

Here Marsalis started out on a tambourine and soon soared with his clarinet. Hakim, formerly with Weather Report, suddenly flashed the drums, then stopped, then erupted again, then did a flaming solo that would have drawn all the fans up on their feet if they hadn't been up on them already. Sting wound up on a stand-up bass and the band just kept cooking.

The band's jams weren't overdone, though. In fact, there was nothing in the show to alienate rock fans, just extend their interest

That rouser that followed 'I Burn' was the band's poppier single, 'If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free', an emotionally appealing song familiar through its MTV video. Sting never left rock too far behind in this show. There was only one gamble, the atmospheric, almost spooky 'Moon Over Bourbon Street'.

"Let's have one loud scream," Sting said, while the 7,500 fans roared out with a sound that would have rattled dishes in Rocky River. "There, that's the end."

The crowd quieted then as Sting stood by himself at the left side of the stage. Softly, eerily, "I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing that I love," he sang as Marsalis played lightly on the clarinet. A boor behind me yelled out "Roxanne!" calling for a rockier song. Many kept mumbling. Well, the song probably wasn't the best choice for a site like Blossom, but then the whole evening was kind of an experiment.

Sting did do 'Roxanne', the song about a French prostitute, from the Police's first album, "Outlandos d'Amour," singing it by himself in the latter Police material portion of the show. His tenor voice was a little raspy, but still in great shape. The concert included songs from all five Police albums and eight from the solo band's 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' A&M LP. Of the older ones, 'Message in a Bottle' aroused the most reaction. The audience continued the words even after Sting stopped singing.

There were a few times when Sting's voice seemed a little subdued by the band. In 'Children's Crusade' the first verses were drowned out, but the final one was clear.

He's a bassist in Police, but played a very credible guitar here. He's kind of a contrast. He can be little reserved, but conversational at other times, explaining why he had tea drinks during the show. "English," he said.

The staging was just right, spare but dramatic with 13 levels up to the top where Kirkland played.

Not that the Police shows weren't exhilarating. In fact its Coliseum show two years ago drew 18,500 and was one of the best concerts of that year. But the jazz musicians in this band gave Sting a chance to expand and explore. Two backup singers, Janice Pendarvis and Dollette McDonald, gave Sting a chance to harmonize.

"We hope that we may have opened people's ears to improvisation in a pop format," said Hakim after the show. Amen.

(c) The Plain Dealer by Jane Scott