Blue Turtles: 1985/86

Sting Concert Displays Dazzling Musicianship...

The pop concert was redefined Thursday night at the Centrum in Worcester, Mass., when Sting proved that arena audiences can embrace a wealth of musical styles and ideas.

For the past few years, Sting has been stretching the confines of pop music as lead singer-songwriter of the Police and again this year with his solo, jazz-rooted album, 'The Dream of the Blue Turtle'.

At the nearly 22-hour Centrum show, he also showed that such complex and intelligent musicianship can be extended to the arena stage, and he was cheered through two encores by a sold-out house of 12,000.

Gone were the cliché rock idol poses, the grandstand playing, and the songs designed with an eye for the video clip and an ear for the three-minute radio formula.

Instead, the focus was on musicianship and the artful blending of a variety of musical sensibilities, ranging from jazz to reggae to blues to rock and pop. Matching the complex melodies and rhythms were lyrics that ranged from the politically potent to the acutely personal.

His band, made up of the same musicians from his 'Blue Turtle' album, gave a depth of playing rarely seen on the arena stage. Omar Hakim on drums, Darryl Jones on bass, Kenny Kirkland on keyboards and Bradford Marsalis on reeds created a tapestry rich in colours, textures and feeling. Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis were fine, but underused, as the backup singers.

As he performed on stage with a relaxed confidence, Sting seemed to be relieved from the pressures of being a rock star, though a healthy contingent of screaming teenage girls periodically reminded him that he hadn't lost all vestiges of idolatry.

Dressed in denim jacket, jersey and baggy white slacks, Sting skipped the coy remarks and even tossed aside without comment a bra someone had thrown on stage.

His role was more of the patient teacher, or of a guide who possessed the secret smile of someone who was taking his tour to a wonderful spot off the beaten track.

The ensemble performed most of the tracks off the album but with exciting embellishments. It also played a few blues tunes and some Police standards (among them, a comparatively unsubtle 'Roxanne', a beguiling 'Message in a Bottle' and a richly swirling 'One World'.)

Few rock stars at this point in their careers have dared such a move away from the security of past successes.

"If you love music, set it free," Sting seemed to be saying Thursday night. And together with his audience, the liberation was thrilling.

(c) The Hartford Courant by Frank Rizzo

Sting, in Worcester, still has sting...
 
The latest stage of the phenomenon known as Sting presents disparate images.

There's Sting the teen idol. Girls scream hysterically with every move this blond man makes, flinging chocolate kisses or little stuffed bees with every step his tall, lean athletic body takes.

Then there's Sting the pop star with a new twist, jazzed up via his current band of talented young black musicians. They cook grooving, jamming, reworking harmonies, extending choruses and occasionally transforming familiar pop melodies into uncharted territory.

But clash was the word that most came to mind last week at the Worcester Centrum, where the music seemed inappropriate in this huge, tin box. Any subtlety was lost amid intestine-like pipes suspended visibly throughout the building.

And the high-pitched squeals of high-school girls served as loud distractions to social commentary songs about nuclear arms, the coal miners' strike in England, heroin addiction, and more personal messages about emotional pain and loneliness. It's hardly uplifting material to smile and have a good time over, yet the audience did.

And so did the band, although maybe not for the same reasons.

That's Sting, an admittedly confusing character at times, and one who relishes in it. He's hitting the masses from every imaginable angle. A milkman's son from Newcastle, England, he moved on to teaching, music and then acting. There are even inklings he may take up directing at some point, and who knows what next.

Gordon Sumner - more familiarly Sting since the age of 27 - rose to fame and fortune with a three-man band, The Police, one of the most successful rock acts of the '80s on a global scale. Their appeal extended to critics and the masses, both hip and conformist, male and female.

Included among those numbers was a large chunk of adoring female followers attracted to the group's bleached blond locks and pretty faces. And this latest "solo" venture of Sting's shows that most of that adulation was directed at him. Guitarist Andy Summers' extracurricular projects - a photography book and two albums with Robert Fripp - and drummer Stewart Copeland's film endeavours have commanded nothing approaching the attention afforded Sting.

His 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' album soared to the top of the charts and spawned two hit singles, 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' and 'Fortress Around Your Heart'. And Sting hasn't had trouble finding work as an actor either, with his most recent releases 'Plenty', alongside Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, and 'The Bride', with 'Flashdance' star Jennifer Beals.

He also managed to squeeze in enough interviews to work his handsome face onto the covers of magazines as varied as GQ, People and Rolling Stone in time for his world tour. And for good measure, he donated time to Live Aid, performing solo and with Phil Collins and Dire Straits, and lip-syncing at the MTV video awards show.

Busy, busy man. He's every- where. A great example of the "become a star, now you can do anything" theory.

Except Sting hates to fail and treats each project very seriously. Despite teen-idol status more associated with the likes of Rick Spring- field, he has retained artistic integrity and prompted descriptions like Renaissance man. He likes to stretch his audience, piquing fans' curiosity about the likes of Vladimir Nabokov, with a passing reference to the Russian author in The Police hit, 'Don't Stand So Close To Me', and psychologist Carl Jung, using his little-known theory of synchronicity as the title for the last Police album. Sting enjoys pursuing what he calls "risks," which include anything from playing evil characters like a rapist in 'Brimstone and Treacle' or the bad guy in 'Dune' to using some of the best young American jazz artists in a pop music context.

Although Sting may be taking musical chances now, he's also played it safe enough to stay popular. An example is his inclusion of the catchy 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', an obvious companion piece to The Police's biggest hit, 'Every Breath You Take', on his new album.

He wanted this project to be accepted, but one can only wonder what he thought of the overwhelming response of the starry-eyed, lovesick followers at the Centrum. He appeared sincere before his third encore when he said, "Thank you for being so kind. I've had a great time tonight."

But clearly, the audience hadn't been as attentive as he might have liked. In introducing 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', a song inspired by Anne Rice's novel, 'Interview With a Vampire', he good-naturedly instructed, "This next song is very quiet. And it involves, of course, you being very quiet. So that means no indiscriminate, random screaming, like aaahh. No clapping out of time. No macho shouting, like Urgh Sting. You know the kind of thing I mean."

The response was all of the above. Still he didn't make any rude remarks or show signs of displeasure. He just laughed and shrugged periodically at his band, particularly saxophonist Branford Marsalis, brother of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who reportedly fired Branford from his band in a move presumably related to the Sting association and a straying from jazz purist roots.

Nevertheless, the whole jazz-turned-pop crew - which also included Wynton Marsalis keyboardist Kenny Kirkland, Miles Davis bassist Darryl Jones Weather Report drummer Omar Hakim, and singers Janice Pendarvis and Dolette McDonald appeared to have fun in their new environment. And Sting looked much loose than at Police concerts, when he had to split the limelight three ways He smiled and mingled more with the band members, prompting will, enthusiastic responses.

Some of the songs warranted that, like the danceable '"One World-Love is the Seventh Wave' medley and old Police songs like 'Bring On the Night', 'When the World is Running Down' and 'Demolition Man'. Others were more contemplative, like 'Children's Crusade' and 'We Work the Black Seam', and got wild responses anyway.

There was melancholy alongside celebration. Risk paired with time- tested standards. And somehow that suited the nature of this beast.

(c) The Berkshire Eagle by Carol Sliwa

Turtle soap...

Confusion hung over the crowd like a dark cloud on a stormy night ''When's he gonna cut the mellow shit,'' grumbled a belligerent punter, oblivious to the new musical course Sting is charting these days.

Call it what you like - jazz/rock/fusion - I call it fine music. Sting, for all his shortcomings as a musician, was smart enough at least to bring his studio pills on tour and to give them free rein to sculpture the sound. Drummer Omar Hakim and saxophonist Branford Marsalis are gifted musical craftsmen and they saved Sting's ass (does this sound familiar, Police fans?).

As for the off-duty copper... this concert, and the album its promoting ('The Dream Of The Blue Turtles') strip Sting down and expose his lowest common musical denominator.

His voice could pierce a brick shithouse but his six-string guitar-playing should be locked inside one.

This is not to minimize Sting's talent as a songwriter. I for one believe that the world of popular music still has a hallowed place reserved for music with a social message but then I still listen to The Clash and the Jam. 'We Work The Black Seam' and 'Children's Crusade' are more than just songs about coal mining and world wars; they are important counterpoints to Maggie and Ronnie's vision of 1985.

Sting isn't all politics of course, and he knows how to craft a decent pop song - a good thing, since it's unlikely his blue fusion will ever be mainstream. The latest two, 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' and 'Fortress Around Your Heart', feel like ten milligrams of morphine during a difficult amputation... alas, the patient died but the leg was saved. Roxanne turned her back and walked off into the night.

(c) Sounds by Charles Dodson

Sting as heartthrob, not headmaster...

Back home in England, some rock writers have started to call Sting ''The Headmaster'' for his stern, scholastic preachings about personal conduct and world affairs.

In interview after interview he's talked about the same concerns he's sung about on his recent solo album - nuclear war, heroin addiction, British coal miners, weeping children, soldiers killed at the peak of their youth, and last but of course not least, the pangs of modern love vs. individual freedom.

All of which looks very serious and cerebral on paper (no wonder Rolling Stone has called him the ''thinking fan's rock star''), but doesn't address his almost overwhelming role as a global heartthrob. This is the essential nature of his fame, whether he likes to admit it or not.

Certainly no one could argue last night about which role - headmaster or heartthrob - was most prominent. It was heartthrob all the way, as shrieking teens screamed at his every nod, his every step, his every smile, his every word, his every everything.

Sting performed quite admirably - with much more high-energy zeal than his mellow and jazzified album would suggest - but one's heart went out to him. He appeared to be, oddly enough, so straitjacketed by his fame and movie-idol good looks that the political content of his songs, about which he cares so much, was virtually buried amid the hail of primal, ear-splitting screams.

This at times felt more like a Rick Springfield or Leif Garrett concert; not the kind of event, to say the least, conducive to any soul-searching. Sting reacted to the hero worship pleasantly enough, but still could scarcely contain his frustrations. When a stuffed toy animal landed at his feet midway through, he couldn't help saying: ''When I go to sleep at night, I got little squirrels and little bumblebees in the bed. I can't sleep, man. Thank you anyway, but there's no room for me in my own bed.''

At another time, just before commencing the hushed 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', he said, ''All right, no indiscriminate clapping or macho noises. Let's have one last scream which will have to last you for the next four minutes.''

He was congenial about it, but the very fact he had to be so big brother-like was a distraction both to the show and to his art. The screaming reached Richter scale-shattering levels during his latest hits, 'Set Me Free' and 'Fortress Around Your Heart', each of which carried more bite than the vinyl versions, though these latter have still propelled his 'Dream of the Blue Turtles' solo album to the No. 2 spot on this week's Billboard charts.

The rafters shook again for the several songs he played from his core band, the Police, including a slithery 'Bring On the Night', a minimally arranged 'Roxanne' (with only the luminous saxman Branford Marsalis on backup), and a communally inspiring 'Every Breath You Take', which is so famous at this point that it sounded as if it had been dug out of the Smithsonian archives.

Sting, who has always been a musician's musician ever since learning jazz as a milkman's son in Newcastle, England, allotted generous chunks of solo space to his band.

Playing in a hunched-over crouch, with eyes averted from the near-sellout 12,000-plus fans, Marsalis displayed a glistening tone on soprano sax. Drummer Omar Hakim (from Weather Report), bassist Darryl Jones (from Miles Davis' group) and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland were elastic enough to follow Sting's most subtle improvisation. A tip of the hat, too, to backup singers Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis, who have toured with the Police and can fire up the most world-weary lyric.

Changing textures, from reggae to Kraftwerk-like synthesiser journeys, spiced last night's show, but an unexpected high point was the mournful 'I Burn For You', from the underrated (and hard to find) soundtrack for 'Brimstone & Treacle', a low-budget Jekyll-and-Hyde film Sting made four years ago.

Again, however, Sting was victimised by mindless teenyboppers. ''It's the film in which I play the devil for some reason,'' he said to wild screams. Even when he very honestly confessed, ''Very few people saw it,'' he was drowned out by the hysteria. It's often hard to feel sorry for a superstar, but last night was a perfect case in point.

(c) The Boston Globe by Steve Morse