Mercury Falling: 1996/97

A gentleman flexes his muscles...

New territory? No thanks! Sting sets new standards at the Munich concert.

Write that he has such beautiful upper arms, she said. And that his bass hangs in exactly the right place in front of his trousers. At that point, it became clear why Gordon Matthew Sumner recently said on Oe3 that he had learned to be more stamina not only in music, but also in sex. Mr. Sumner, known as Sting, has thus mutated from a thin-skinned intellectual to a beastly bravado in a muscle shirt.

That's only partially true, of course. On the new CD 'Mercury Falling,' Sting surrenders uninhibitedly to the poetry of the word, has himself photographed as a shy gentleman with a hat and cane, and celebrates completely unobtrusive music. One could almost call it boring, if one weren't inclined to the man.

But on the stage of the 'Zenith,' that beautiful but virtually sound-deprived venue in the north of the city, Sting showed his sting, flexed his muscles, and rocked the house with a mixture of Police songs, early solo pieces, and works from the current album that could be described as skilful or interpreted as a lack of confidence in the new. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, for example (whose former outfit and demeanour he recalled), Sting lives off the resources of his musical life. New territory? No thanks.

But the old hits were cheerfully revamped. Even 'Roxanne' appeared in a new guise and extremely early, rather than, as expected, as an encore. The master gave the musicians, a wild horde of the finest professionals, plenty of room to solo and shine, which trombonist Conrad Thomas and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, in particular, took full advantage of. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta pounded his way through rock, fusion, and jazz with precision and precision. And saxophonist Clark Gayton played the horn with a virtuoso and grace, like Branford Marsalis on the new album.

Thus, the evening - the louder the sound, the better it became - ultimately turned into a lively party; and one was reminded, a bit wistfully, of 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles'. But back then, Sting didn't have such beautiful upper arms.

(c) Sueddeutsche Zeitung by Karl Forster