Nothing Like The Sun: 1987/88

Sting in style - He's light in white and sombre in black for jazz-tinged show...

Although it wouldn't necessarily do to call Sting a fashion maven, his show at Merriweather Post Pavilion last night lended credence to the old maxim, "The clothes make the man."

For the first half of his 18-song, 105-minute set, Sting, looking a bit more dishevelled than usual, donned a baggy white outfit, looking cool enough to groove his way to revisionist bop heaven. He and his eight-piece backing band delivered on the promise of his wardrobe, giving the packed house 10 extended, beat-happy romps to hop to.

After a 15-minute intermission, Sting returned in an antithetical black thing, the duds matching his more serious, almost sombre, look and his minor-key message music.

Although it might have been a bit much to live up to, Sting and company shifted gears impressively, occasionally imbuing the often-sanctimonious one's hits with surprising treatments and energy that belied the fact that this may be the tour that never will end (it's already in its sixth month and, with Sting signed up for a lengthy Amnesty International tour, there's no end in sight.)

Sting started with 'The Lazarus Heart', which won immediate audience recognition from the first toots of Branford Marsalis' soprano sax. Like many of the songs in the set's first half, this one was given a bigger back-beat than it was recorded with. Sting next segued into a rather programmatic fusion (jazz by numbers?) version of 'Too Much Information'.

It wasn't until the third song, 'We'll Be Together', that Sting and the band reached full kick as they allowed their straight-ahead, in-the-groove treatment to run its full course. As quickly as he rocked the crowd, Sting got them back into understated pop mode with the oh-so-civil, not-quite-quaint 'Englishman in New York' and, after the appropriate allusions to Gershwin's 'Summertime', 'Sister Moon'.

Sting breathily made his way through the phrasing of the last one but was eclipsed by Kenny Kirkland's endlessly inventive ivory tickling. 'Rock Steady', Sting's jazz-hipster answer to the story of Noah, was delivered with enough funk to keep the crowd swaying.

Sting's reworking of the latent Police classic, 'One World', may have been the evening's highlight, as the band cleverly and convincingly melded reggae and jazz into a new and strange hybrid. This extended groovefest was filled with quantum time changes, ones that the audience found hilarious but unobtrusive of the prevailing beat.

In a rare moment of proselytizing and you definitely got the feeling that Sting was holding back his social conscience in the first half he dedicated 'Set Them Free' to Nelson Mandela. The choral effect of his backing vocalists on this one was almost chilling.

The second half of the show, for the most part, was much more toned down, but it wasn't lacking in quality. Although the jazzy arrangement to 'King of Pain' was more than a little tricky and overwrought, 'They Dance Alone (Gueca Solo)' was a lesson in poignant simplicity. Sting took shots at some of his favourite targets - Pinochet included but didn't let the speechifying overtake the song's wistful groove.

The last few moments of the set were highlighted by a surprisingly effective version of 'Fragile', a song that sits limp on vinyl, and the light lilting bop of 'Consider Me Gone'.

(c) The Evening Sun by Michael Aft

Sting's varied bag of surprises...

The nicest thing about Sting's sold-out concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion last night was that you never knew quite what to expect. And at times, it seemed, neither did he.

He lambasted the Reagan administration with 'Consider Me Gone', dedicated 'If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)' to Nelson Mandela, conjured up an elegant, nearly Gershwinesque mood with Englishman In New York and frequently danced across the stage with campy abandon, often with at least a few members of his eight-piece ensemble in tow. Near the end of the show, he even followed guitarist Jeff Campbell's searing flight on Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing' with a quaint, basically acoustic version of 'Goodnight Irene'.

As cocky and carefree as ever, Sting flubbed a few lyrics and notes over the course of two lengthy sets (and encores), though it hardly seemed to matter. As long as he's working with saxophonist Branford Marsalis, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland and percussionist Mino Cinelu, who bring plenty of color and drive to his music without indulging in aimless solos or feeling the need to display their jazz credentials, he can afford to be a bit sloppy now and then. Besides, the mistakes were easily overshadowed by moving versions of 'Fragile', 'The Lazarus Heart' and, particularly, 'They Dance Alone'.

(c) The Washington Post by Mike Joyce

Sting takes the lead, and music takes off...

Sting has long been proud of his role as rock's Renaissance man, taking on the status of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, intellectual and all round hunk without complaint.

Last night at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, though, he offered a performance that suggested his greatest talent is as a band leader. Obviously, his other skills were in ample evidence - he sang as well as he ever has: he assayed songs both from his solo albums and his Police days; he took off his shirt but they hardly constituted the core of his concert.

No, to get to the essence of a Sting show you need look to his sidemen (and women). Not that they are hard to miss, for with eight additional players spread across the stage, Sting sometimes seemed on the verge of getting lost in his own crowd. But as much as Sting, playing the star, acted as pilot of the show, his band made it more than clear that they had final say over how it got to where it was going.

From the rhythm arrangements to the thick harmony vocals, the versions of Sting songs presented last night were anything but by the book. "We'll Be Together," for in- stance, may have been a hip hop-influenced pop song when it was on the radio, but in concert it took on an exotic, Caribbean-inflected flavour. 'Sister Moon', on the other hand, started off with a languid, jazzy groove before branching off into a nicely percolating pulse that in turn set up an exquisite Kenny Kirkland piano solo.

Sure, it was slick, the sort of chops-intensive move only the most capable musicians would even attempt. But that's precisely why they did it. Just as Sting is unashamed to show how smart he is, his band- mates are equally unafraid to prove how well they can play.

Somehow, though, all that astonishing musicianship got out of hand. Amusing as it was to catch the occasional knowing allusion in a solo Kirkland quoting 'Flight of the Bumblebee' in 'When the World is Running Down', or saxophonist Branford Marsalis was copping 'Chicago' in his intro to 'Don't So Close to Me' such cleverness turned grating when it got in the way of the songs themselves.

All told, though, even the worst excesses of Sting and company weren't enough to put off the overall infectious feel given to the 20 songs offered last night.

(c) The Baltimore Sun by J D Considine