Nothing Like The Sun: 1987/88

Sting in San Antonio...

Starting with 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', much of Sting's music has been tinged with jazz elements, but there is minimal improvisation on stage.

Kirkland and Marsalis fly some, but the other band members are primarily a supporting cast. The concert runs about two hours, plus a 20-minute intermission. According to Wormworth, there is a constant fine-tuning of the play list.

After Brazil, the band dropped three songs and added five others. 'Bourbon Street' was dropped recently, and prior to the concert last Monday in San Antonio, the band was rehearsing a Frank Zappa tune (not yet ready for the lineup). What San Diego concertgoers can expect in Sting's Sports Arena concert next Tuesday is everything from the new album (except 'History Will Teach Us Nothing', an odd exclusion for a former teacher), a sampling from 'Blue Turtles' and even some Police hits like 'Roxanne', 'Message in a Bottle' and 'King of Pain'.

In San Antonio Sting spiced up the roster with 'Home on the Range', the 'Bonanza' theme and 'The Yellow Rose of Texas' with customized lyrics. Who says Sting is a stuffy pop aristocrat? Little of his work invites levity, but Sting found the odd moment here and there.

In truth, the singer seemed to work very hard at being a regular guy. He shook hands with fans (while grimacing with mock pain), cracked an occasional joke and goofed around with the band. Cool and aloof but loose, much looser than expected. Many of Sting's gestures while singing had an exaggerated, mechanical thespianism to them that was rather endearing, sort of like a schoolboy giving a speech.

The show's wittiest moment: 'Rock Steady', Sting noted at the end of the song, is about TV evangelists, a group he finds ''fascinating and repulsive at the same time.'' That drew lusty cheers. ''Now,'' continued Sting, ''it's not in my nature to kick someone when they're down...''

Quickly reading the direction in which he was headed, the crowd urged him to do exactly that. He did. Sting recalled that four years ago, Jimmy Swaggart denounced a ''song by the Police as written by the devil, performed by Satan...'' He paused, mustering profound indignation, ''I wrote the (bleeping) song!'' To even lustier cheers he plunged into 'Murder by Numbers'.

Unquestionably the emotional high point of the night came with the only non-Sting composition on the list, Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing'. Near the end of the second set, this was the first chance for guitarist Campbell to soar, and soar he did. Not once but twice, with devastating solo attacks. And there are enough arcane '60s-through-'80s references in both Campbell's licks and Sting's tailored lyrics to satisfy any musicologist.

While '...Nothing Like the Sun' is generally regarded as Sting's finest work to date (especially 'They Dance Alone', 'Fragile', 'Sister Moon' and 'Secret Marriage') it was obvious that his fans haven't quite caught up with his music. At least in San Antonio, the newer works received a fairly lukewarm reception.

Nevertheless, this was one of the fastest-selling concerts in recent memory here, according to an hall official. In fact, Performance magazine this week calls Sting the ''king of sellouts,'' citing recent full houses at Madison Square Garden (New York), Maple Leaf Gardens (Toronto), Montreal Forum and Boston Garden.

(c) The San Diego Union-Tribune by Robert J Hawkins

Municipal Auditorium crowd stung, swung by Sting...

Sting's performance Monday night at the Municipal Auditorium was, like Steve Winwood's concert a year ago, one of those you wished would never end. 

It was the first San Antonio appearance for Sting, a.k.a. British school teacher-turned-rocker-turned-movie star Gordon Sumner, and the sell-out crowd loved every move he made, every breath he took. 

Sting, the embodiment of cool passion, mostly performed material from 'The Dream Of the Blue Turtles' and '... Nothing Like the Sun', his two solo albums since leaving the popular rock group, the Police.

Backed by a tight seven-piece band that played it funky but chic, most of the material, including the Police chestnut 'One World Is Enough', swung mightily.

While it is difficult to categorize Sting's music - a cornucopia of Third World rhythms, big-band jazz, Hispanic rhythms, reggae, rock and funk - it easily reaches a large cross section of music fans.

And although some critics have given a thumbs-down to Sting's neo-pop-jazz leanings, his music while not as sophisticated as pure jazz, is too mature to be labelled as mere pop. Certainly it avoids the predictable.

Opening with the lyrically introspective 'Lazarus Heart', Sting followed with his pop-funk hit 'We'll Be Together', a song that sounds tailor-made for a lite beer commercial.

However, his tribute to Quentin Crisp, 'An Englishman In New York', set a more cerebral tone for the rest of his set.

The bluesy vamp 'Sister Moon' showcased Sting's haunting tenor voice, and benefited considerably from Branford Marsalis's floating soprano sax sound and pianist Kenny Kirkland's icy tinkling.

During the bottom-heavy 'Rock Steady', a song about Noah's Ark and religious fervour, Sting took some cheeky pokes at TV evangelism ("Something I find both repulsive and fascinating at the same time").

Directing most of his comments at Jimmy Swaggart, the man who once called the Police song 'Murder By Numbers' the work of the devil, Sting delivered a spirited rendition of the tune.

The driving rhythms of 'Bring On the Night' showcased Sting's band, with each member getting into some funky non-choreographed dance routines that infected the audience, moving many out of their seats and into the aisles.

(c) San Antonio Light by Ron Young

Sting leaves S.A. audience abuzz...

So what do you get when you mix style with substance, talent, literacy, a variety of musical rhythms, bound- less energy and a red-hot band?

Why, Sting and his group in concert, of course.

Concerts come and go in this city, but Monday night, in front of a full house at Municipal Auditorium, Sting and company put on a marathon show that people won't soon forget.

Sting has established himself through solo projects and his work with the Police. He's had a number of hit singles and, at this stage in his career could probably find a hit-making formula and coast or turn to acting full time.

Instead, as he proved with a big musical exclamation point Monday, the singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassist/showman has chosen to surround himself with excellent players and expand the boundaries of rock'n'roll.

Monday's show found Sting and his eight-piece backing group wrapping combinations of rock, reggae, calypso and jazz around intelligent, compelling lyrics.

Municipal Auditorium, a jewel in its own right, was the perfect setting for songs which require listeners to bring along heart, soul and the need for a backbeat.

While the group concentrated on tunes from Sting's latest LP, 'Nothing Like the Sun', Police songs and numbers from Sting's album 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' weren't forgotten.

The new universal dance beat of 'We'll Be Together' excited radio listeners and aisle dancers in the crowd before giving way to the reggae-influenced 'Englishman In New York'.

Reed wizard Branford Marsalis provided a lovely soprano sax segue into 'Sister Moon', a slow, sultry, moving Sting composition which wouldn't feel out of place in the Gershwin songbook.

Though many of his songs deal with serious subjects such as the stark lessons of history and the wars being waged in our back yards, Sting also displayed a playful side and a healthy regard for irony by working the crowd and delivering a well-placed broadside at television evangelists through the song 'Rock Steady'.

Monday's concert was well balanced, well paced. Sting and his band are professionals who haven't lost sight of the need for variety, fun and a large dose of common sense. They mixed it up, they broke a sweat, they delivered all the goods and they played long enough to wear down even the most jaded concertgoers.

(c) San Antonio Express News by Jim Beal