Nothing Like The Sun: 1987/88

Sting tries out his new sound...

On the opening night of his U.S. tour in January, Sting confessed that he had come not only to entertain but perhaps to educate his audience.

So, as percussionist Minu Cinelu slapped open the beat of 'Straight to My Heart' in 7/4 time, the singer said that some considered this meter ''dance-proof'' - then coaxed his fans to their feet with this exotic beat anyway.

This was a night when Sting's every musical venture succeeded well beyond expectations. No other music lesson could be as exhilarating as the show the former Police leader gave for about 9,000 fans at the Sun Dome in Tampa.

Sting and his band played with a degree of improvisation, sophistication, swing and grace too rarely heard in an arena concert. The generous 20-song show ran nearly three hours, including an intermission. It featured primarily songs from Sting's new LP, '...Nothing Like the Sun', as well as Police hits such as 'Roxanne', in a lovely guitar and sax arrangement, and the slow-tempo version of 'Don't Stand So Close to Me'.

Going well beyond the broad-brushed canvas of basic rock, his exceptional seven-piece ensemble fashioned a colourful mosaic of rock, reggae, jazz, blues and more. Borrowing songs or riffs, the group paid tribute to predecessors including Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Lennon and McCartney and - in Branford Marsalis' quote from 'It Ain't Necessarily So' during 'Sister Moon' - even the Gershwins.

Marsalis, who along with keyboardist Kenny Kirkland form the jazz core of Sting's band, played mostly sweet soprano sax lines. He opted for loose, lyrical solos instead of the bebop fluency he has shown with brother Wynton.

The concert's thematic unity gave it even more impact. Much of the set featured the same sequence of songs as on Sting's LP. Beginning with 'The Lazarus Heart', a meditation on mother-son relationships that opened the show, to the Police hit 'Message in a Bottle', which closed it, the songs dwelt on mysteries of intimacy and communication.

And in one of the concert's most poignant moments, Sting dedicated his song 'Fragile' to Florida's Jaco Pastorius, the renowned bassist who died last year a homeless derelict. It also was a reminder that Sting's sound today builds upon the music made by Pastorius and other jazz-rock pioneers of the late '60s and early '70s.

The question that lingered over Sting's career recently was would the tour collapse under the weight of his artistic ambitions - would his new sound translate to a pop concert setting?

His debut removed all doubt.

(c) The Orlando Sentinel by Thom Duffy

Sting's sophisticated sound pleases Sun Dome crowd...

It was heartening to realize that the heady, sophisticated music Sting and his band played at the Sun Dome Wednesday night could still make a hit with an arena-sized audience in 1988.

The ex-Policeman and his seven-piece group put on a two-hour-plus show, split by a 20-minute intermission, that featured the kind of superb musicianship not often found within a pop context. The 8,300 fans on hand were aware that it was in their best interest to listen instead of scream and shout.

That's not to say that people sat on their hands. To the contrary, there was plenty of audience enthusiasm when the situation called for it. In fact, Sting's mere presence elicited gleeful cheers: He walked on stage with a regal stroll, his shoulders squared and head cocked back. With his hair shoulder-length and fly-away, and dressed in a cream-colored jacket and black baggy slacks, Sting adeptly combined the charismatic swagger of a rock star with the heightened musical sensibility that his backing ensemble represents with such aplomb. He danced around a bit and struck a few poses, but clearly the music was the first priority.

The band was tremendous. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis snaked parts around and through the tunes - his soprano meshed beautifully with Sting's voice. Keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, one of the best jazz piano players on the planet, played a number of sizzling solos. His best moment came just before the intermission when he cut loose on a ripping improvisation to the Police song 'When the World is Running Down You Make the Best of What's Still Around'.

The rhythm section played with telepathic precision and verve, swinging mightily on 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', coolly on 'Consider Me Gone'.

Sting concentrated on songs from his current solo album, '...Nothing Like the Sun'. Surprisingly, he did not play anything from his first solo album, 1985's 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', until more than 45 minutes into the show when he lit into a smooth-swinging 'Consider Me Gone'.

During the second set the band hit stride with a moving version of 'Fragile', dedicated to the late bassist Jaco Pastorius, which led into a simmering turn at Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing'. Guitarist Jeff Campbell brought the song to a searing climax with stinging solos that thankfully didn't copycat Hendrix.

Reportedly, Sting was going to give 'Roxanne' a rest for this tour, but he played a warm intimate version of the first-ever Police hit, backed only by his own guitar and Marsalis' soprano sax. Sting and company's show was not a blow-'em-down, cathartic affair. Rather, it was a case of great material sung and played with passion and expertise, anchored by crystal-clear sound production.

What more could you ask?

(c) The St Petersburg Times by Eric Snider

Sting adds touch of jazz in kicking off U.S. tour...

Sting tried to teach jazz to a rock'n'roll audience during his concert at the USF Sun Dome on Wednesday night that kicked off the American leg of his world tour.

Sting and his seven-piece band that included saxophonist Branford Marsalis, percussionist Mino Cinelo and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland played largely as an ensemble taking little time out for lead breaks.

Guitarist Jeff Campbell took the spotlight on 'Little Wing', a reworking of a Jimi Hendrix tune, and Kirkland, who wore an ecstatic grin the entire night, had a chance to shine on 'Rock Steady'. But most of the songs showcased a band building songs together.

During his years as a member of the rock band the Police, Sting churned out reggae inflected pop songs, first about love and later about politics and the human condition. Two years into his solo career, he's adding sophistication to pop songs with jazz musicians.

Sting may have an image of being a serious, brooding egomaniac, but on stage he pranced around with the playful charm of a school- boy. But even so, everything from the music to the stage set reeked of sophistication.

The neat and tidy set was full of nifty gizmos a computer, a humidifier, a little contraption on his microphone to hold a cup of water. Security guards wore coats and ties rather than the standard T-shirt.

The show got better as it went along the band loosened up halfway into the first set, and a bass-heavy sound mix lightened up.

Sting dedicated the first 45 minutes of his almost three-hour show to songs from his latest album, '...Nothing Like the Sun'.

Each song segued smoothly into the next. Marsalis, picking from an arsenal of horns, eased the playful 'Englishman in New York' into the smoky 'Sister Moon'.

In the interest of educating his audience, Sting introduced 'Straight to My Heart' by explaining that it's played in 7/4 time and demonstrating how to count it out and how to dance to it.

(c) Tampa Tribune by Janet Wilkof

Tour gets off to slow start...

Sting, the ex-Police chief who has mostly abandoned the precise, global pop practiced by that influential trio, must have figured the idea looked swell on paper. 

Assemble a group of hot, young-ish jazz and rock players; offer elegant, lyrical songs given to romance and to a certain enlightened left-wing political stance; provide the outfit with a singer whose forceful personality and appealing, distinctive voice can make it all happen.

And the plan works. 

Sort of. 

Occasionally. 

Partially.

Sting brought his newest seven-member fusion band to the University of South Florida Sun Dome on Wednesday night for an ambitious show that despite moments of inspiration was less dazzling than it might have been.

The nearly two and a half hour concert, the official start of the band's world tour, brought to light something about the new group that the 'Bring on the Night' video proved about Sting's last band.

An ensemble this large, loaded with this much individual talent - saxophonist Branford Marsalis and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, first-rank jazz players, are back and equipped with material this complex, needs time to jell before it goes public.

Percussionist Mino Cinelu opened Wednesday's show with an extended percussion offering, and the band quickly moved into the rhythms of the moody 'The Lazarus Heart', the opening cut from Sting's recent '...Nothing Like the Sun' LP.

Sting and co. followed that with a sluggish work- out on 'Too Much Information' (from the Police's 1981 'Ghost in the Machine') and five tunes from the new LP: the percolating jump-start funk of 'We'll Be Together', infused with a few unexpected unison breaks; the bouncy 'Englishman in New York', bolstered by a modified reggae beat and adorned with Marsalis' soulful, angular soprano saxophone fills; 'Sister Moon', with more inspired solo work from Marsalis; the rap-meets-blues moves of 'Rock Steady' and the tricky rhythmic manoeuvres of 'Straight to My Heart'.

Next up was a lethargic, rusty run-through of "Spirits in the Material World' and a better performance of 'One World (Not Three)'.

It was during the latter of the two tunes from 'Ghost in the Machine' that Sting's newest onstage persona became downright annoying. For his current tour, Sting is affecting the drunken poet look, complete with long, unkempt blonde hair and a three-day beard, and he insists on oversized, ill-fitting garb.

Meet Gordon Sumner, self-styled noble savage-genius of the streets. "This is what it looks like," he explained early in the show. "Like a sheepdog. I can't do anything with it."

During 'One World', Sting followed Cinelu in a floppy tumble across the stage.

Was this an audition piece for the role that Mickey Rourke nabbed in "Barfly"?

The stiffness of the earlier numbers was left behind on 'Consider Me Gone', topped with second keyboardist Delmar Brown's George Benson-ish piano/vocal improvisation, and on 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', a pair of 'Dream of the Blue Turtles' tunes on which the band began to hone in on the missing groove.

The band's greater ease perhaps stemmed from a halftime pep talk given by Sting to three integral new members bassist Tracy Wormworth; guitarist Jeff Campbell, a University of Miami alumni; and French-born drummer Jean Paul Cecarelli, a last-minute tour replacement for jazz drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith.

Wormworth, Campbell and Cecarelli were noticeably underconfident during the show's first set.

'They Dance Alone', a measured, Latin-influenced piece protesting political persecution in Pinochet's Chile, prompted another brilliant solo excursion from Kirkland, while the band felt comfortable enough to tack on a few bars of Herbie Hancock's 'Chameleon to the end of 'Be Still My Beating Heart'.

'Fragile', dominated by Sting's acoustic guitar picking and strumming, used a riff from Jimi Hendrix's 'Voodoo Chile' as a segue into Hendrix's 'Little Wing', a showcase for the metal-oriented sturm und drang of Campbell's guitar playing.

Those with dreams of the Police were treated with the show's best moments.

Sting, after asking "What Do You Want Me to Sing?" wielded his guitar and plunged into a solo version of 'Roxanne', by any account one of the most infectious, streamlined, perfect pop nuggets of the '70s. 

Marsalis walked onstage a few minutes later in order to bounce a few soulful soprano sax lines off of his boss' lyrics.

The show ended in a similar fashion, with Sting's sparse, solo workout on 'Message in a Bottle'.

He invigorated the catchy tune with jazzy chord substitutions and some guitar popping and slapping, and prompted the audience into a sing-along on the chorus: "Sending out an SOS."

Sting's jazz-fusion project has been a grand experiment. But, by the measure of his solo LPs and his stage shows, the Sting work destined for survival will be the cleanly constructed, invigorating reggae-inflected pop anthems of The Police.

(c) The Ledger by Philip Booth