Superstar Sting stirs his 'students' with jazz stylings, international beat...
Wouldn't you have loved to have had Gordon Sumner as your schoolteacher?
His classes must have made learning fun. In a way, he's as educational as he is entertaining to this day.
For as Sting, the former convent school English teacher makes even the most complex song structures, jazzy solos and intellectual lyrics accessible and enjoyable.
It didn't take the international multi-media superstar long to win the attention of last night's "class." Just 10 minutes into the show the hands of the approximately 8,000 fans at Starwood Amphitheatre were up in the air, clapping with a vigour that ignored the steamy temperature.
No wonder. The music was as hot as the weather.
Sting's multi-racial, eight-piece backing band seemed to represent the rhythms of the United Nations. At various times the music drew on African music, reggae, be-bop, American pop, English rock and jazz. The star made it all equally palatable.
Much of the material was drawn from Sting's remarkably diverse 1987 double LP 'Nothing Like the Sun', a collection apparently familiar to almost everyone in attendance.
When he signalled for some crowd singing on 'We'll Be Together' he got it easily.
"How do you feel tonight?" he asked his "pupils." Then he strolled the length of the stage absorbing the wild response.
The easy-going melody of 'Englishman in New York' was embellished by the exquisite reed work of Branford Marsalis, whose tenor and soprano sax work was easily as gripping as the star's singing. Marsalis also commanded the spotlight on the even more languid 'Sister Moon'.
After the suave jazzy interlude it was time for something a little lighter, and the bouncy 'Rock Steady' filled the bill. Executed with some good-natured clowning, the number drew whistles and roars of approval from the young crowd.
The star-audience interplay intensified. "One world is enough," sang Sting. "For all of us," responded the devotees loudly.
During a wonderfully inventive Kenny Kirkland piano solo Sting led the rest of the band in some merry, high-stepping dance moves. Inspired by the on-stage example, several members of the crowd began executing their own inventive steps.
Both performers and fans were in a soaking lather in no time.
Sting reached into the past for a stirring treatment of 1985's 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free'. Dedicated to South African political prisoners, it began as an ominous rhythmic chant, then built into a shout of celebration, catharsis and liberation.
At one point, he paused to show off a Nashville present, a Gibson guitar presented to him by Chet Atkins yesterday afternoon, then used it to good effect on 'Bring On the Night'.
Sting touched on his days as the lead vocalist of The Police with songs like 'King of Pain'. But the most eloquent and intellectually challenging material was newer: The Chilean protest, Amnesty-inspired 'They Dance Alone', for instance, was arguably the most eloquent, poignant performance of the night.
The recent hit 'Be Still My Beating Heart' had a fullness of sound quite a bit better than the comparatively tepid recorded version. Indeed, if there was a single thread running through last night's show it was how much better Sting's material is in performance than on record.
But then, every great teacher is better in class than on your buddy's tape recorder.
(c) The Tennessean by Robert K. Oermann
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