Strained Sting...
Sax with everything from 'Roxanne' to 'Russians' is Sting's new style and it went down a storm when he played to a packed house at the Brighton Centre.
Sting has moved on from playing white man's reggae with The Police to producing dynamic sophisticated rock music with his talented new band.
Indeed the four young black American jazz musicians who worked with him on the 'Dream Of The Blue Turtles' album and have stayed for the world tour are such an integral part of Sting's act that they should have been given equal billing.
Sting is a very capable live performer but his musical talents positively pale besides the likes of drummer Omar Hakim, bassist Darryl Jones, sax player Branford Marsalis and Kenny Kirkland on keyboards.
And the high spots of the show were when they were all jammin' together, producing an original, exciting sound that got everyone on the floor dancing.
Artists have to work hard to warm up the rather barren atmosphere of the Centre, but numbers such as 'If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free' and 'Love Is The Seventh Wave' set the place alight.
Where the show fell down was with some of the old Police numbers. The raw edge of songs such as 'Bring On The Night' and 'When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around' disappeared in jazzed up but overdone new arrangements.
Others, such as 'Roxanne' and 'Message In A Bottle', were very understated just Sting and his guitar with Branford Marsalis joining in on sax, in 'Roxanne', giving it a Sadeish feel.
But Sting's voice could not really cope with the demands of these quieter tracks, without backing singers Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis to bolster him up.
He sings from his throat which gives his voice its distinctive impassioned quality, but also meant that by the end of his two hour set he was unable to hold any notes for more than a second or two and sounded decidedly strained.
At the Brighton Centre no-one seemed to mind - they were all too busy singing along themselves, but whether it'll last for the rest of his tour is another matter.
(c) The Mid Sussex Times
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