Bring On The Night - Sting

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Review from The San Francisco Chronicle by Joel Selvin

Only available as an import, this double-record set captures the former Police chief with his badass set of jazz-fusion firebrands who blew apart the Cow Palace earlier this year at the Amnesty International concert.

Not exactly the sound track to the documentary film of the same name, recently released on home video, the album, like the film, comes from the early part of the band's year-long sojourn with Sting. By the end of the year, the all-star band of heavyweight jazz musicians had forged a singular middle-ground between their world of jazz and Sting's rock arena.

This album finds saxist Branford Marsalis, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, bassist Darryl Jones and drummer Omar Hakin still getting their feet wet in the less demanding rhythms of rock, where drive is often substituted for nuance, something these highly accomplished musicians had clearly learned by the time they hit the Cow Palace.

Some of the first tentative steps toward a fully realized meeting of the musical minds can be detected, although the fusion side of the instrumentalists dominates this scrupulously recorded LP. Sting mixes selections from his solo album with the band, 'Dream of the Blue Turtles', along with Police oldies like 'Demolition Man' and 'Tea in the Sahara' and, while these recordive already made this one of the most popular import LPs of the past couple of years.

Review from The Miami Herald by Tom Moon

This was the sound Sting wanted all along. The sound Sting wanted for his jazz band didn't really come out on 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles'. It started to happen only when the six-piece outfit hit the road: Natural segues developed, linking past and present Sting compositions in a way he couldn't have orchestrated. Riffs delivered casually one night became huge motifs the next. For Sting, the static pop song was no more. His band played fresh, to the moment. Anything could happen.

So it's a good thing he chose to record the 'Blue Turtles' world tour. This two-record set, taken from the European segment, contains some classic Kenny Kirkland piano improvisations (especially on 'When the World Is Running Down'), some near-brilliant Branford Marsalis (on 'One World', where he quotes the standard 'Let's Fall in Love'), as well as propulsion from the never-let-up rhythm team of drummer Omar Hakim and bassist Darryl Jones.

The highlight is an 11-minute medley, 'One World (Not Three)' into 'Love Is the Seventh Wave'. Once the initial commotion dies down, Sting begins a long development section with Wes Montgomery-influenced block guitar chords. Soon the background vocalists come in, and an exchange develops over the 'Seventh Wave' lyrics. Just as the energy peaks, Sting switches to 'One World', leading a series of rhythmically challenging chant phrases that build to a furious soul revue-style climax. 'Bring on the Night' is the album Sting wanted to make all along, a genre-busting statement that works brilliantly on many levels.

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Review from The Times by David Sinclair

Sting's double live album 'Bring on the Night' draws a neat line under the first year's activities of his all-star jazz musicians' band. The collection features songs from The Dream of the Blue Turtles album, and some reworked Police material, all expertly played, and expertly produced by Sting and his co-manager, Kim Turner. Perhaps the strongest feature to emerge is how well Sting has maintained his extraordinary facility to write great songs over a prolonged period of time. But the album's air of meticulous precision, which makes it hard to believe that it is a live album, is a worrying pointer to the future, suggesting that Sting needs the Police to protect him from his own perfectionist tendencies. If he is not careful, a couple more years with his current line-up and Sting will find himself entering the high-gloss middle-ground currently dominated by Phil Collins.

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