Blue Turtles: 1985/86

Sting showcases virtuosity in solo concert...

Sting can write his own musical ticket. He proved it last night during a solo concert at Radio City Music Hall.

Stepping away from the Police line-up, the trio that he fronts as lead vocalist and bassist, Sting opened a seven-night, sold-out stand at the Music Hall. (He'll be there again tonight, tomorrow, and, after a one-day break, for four consecutive nights...). The 2? hour show was a musical tour de force, successfully mixing rock, reggae, rhythm-and-blues, and a healthy dose of jazz. It also blended Police songs with tunes from Sting's best-selling solo album, The 'Dream of the Blue Turtles'.

The first several songs of the concert, with their heavily jazz-influenced arrangements, were the perfect showcase for the talents of the excellent musicians that Sting, who played guitar for most of the show, has surrounded himself with.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis, brother of jazz and classical trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, nicely punctuated 'Shadows in the Rain', the show's opener, and 'Driven to Tears', while bassist Darryl Jones, drummer Omar Hakim, and Kenny Kirkland on keyboards contributed mightily to the seductive beat of 'Consider Me Gone'. Leaving jazz for a bit of reggae, the reedy-voiced Sting began 'One World Is Enough' with an a cappella introduction before being joined by the rest of the band and backing vocalists Dollette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis.

After several rousing choruses, Sting and company segued into 'Love Is the Seventh Wave'. With Sting and the backup singers trading lines from each song, the effect was spine-tingling. The combining of songs worked just as well with 'Bring On the Night' and 'When the World Is Running Down'.

In addition to allowing Sting and company to demonstrate their rock sensibilities, the up-tempo numbers permitted them to exhibit some fancy footwork. While Sting allowed the band members their time in the spotlight, with many instrumental passages turned into full-blown jam sessions, his presence came strongly to the forefront midway through the show.

The moody 'Moon Over Bourbon Street', a song Sting described as being about a vampire ''with a conscience'', was given a dramatic reading by the 33-year-old singer. Clad in a black T-shirt and loose-fitting suit, he seemed to take on the persona of the vampire as he sang over the soft instrumentation.

His gutsy rendition of the mid-tempo ballad, 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', was no less arresting.

As good as the entire show was, it was in the three encores that Sting really showcased his virtuosity. With just Marsalis providing musical support, Sting tenderly sang 'Roxanne' before switching gears, and getting the band together, for some gritty blues and a full-bodied rendition of 'Every Breath You Take'. Sting then went solo, concluding the show with a gentle but moving 'Message in a Bottle'.

(c) The Bergen Record by Barbara Jaeger

Sting strives to be heard in Radio City show...

Sting brought his new band of jazz-funk musicians and backup singers to Radio City Music Hall Monday night for the first of six sold-out concerts, and by the end of the evening, it was unclear whether the British rock musician has enough musical authority to police his new band, and enough appeal to control his Police-era fans.

When this new band appears on 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles', Sting's latest album, Sting (born Gordon Sumner) exerts full artistic control. That's not surprising, since he wrote the songs and produced the album, mixing the instruments exactly the way he wanted them to sound, and, more important, controlling the mix and volume of his voice.

However, in person, Sting must assert himself vocally over a band of exuberant musicians with a lot of natural and amplified volume at their disposal. Judging from Sting's vocals Monday night, he's having a rough time of it. He was obviously straining often, coming out with a hoarse shout in places where his voice hits easy high notes on record. At the end of the two-hour concert, what was left of the voice was frayed and ragged, leaving doubt about how much he'll be singing by Sunday. 

As the vocalist and bassist with The Police, Sting dominated that pop-rock-reggae trio, both on record and in person. In this new band he sings and plays guitar, but his guitar is not a dominant instrument. That honour goes to Kenny Kirkland's keyboards and the saxophones of Branford Marsalis, both much more in the foreground than on the album.

Where the two jazz musicians' instruments were used for background textures on the album, they play a much more important role in concert, as Sting allows many of the songs to expand with extended instrumental solos. And whereas the album stresses moods linked to the lyrics, in person the band generates a much stronger funk-dance groove, with the rhythm section building to party-down climaxes powered by Omar Hakim's ferocious drums and Darryl Jones' get-down, funky bass.

The groove the band generated Monday night was often so strong that Sting's vocals almost seemed superfluous, especially when their sober didacticism ("If you love somebody, set them free;" beware nuclear destruction) appeared at odds with the high-spirited vibes being generated by the band.

If Sting was occasionally like an overseer who's lost control of the work force, at least he had the advantage of being the leader of the group on stage.

He had much less control over his hysterically screaming fans. While the band could be heard over the crowd din, Sting's softer vocals could not. And his appeals to the audience to be quiet fell on deaf ears, so that he had little choice but to crank up the volume, losing the dynamic subtleties of his softer and slower songs, like 'Moon Over Bourbon Street' and 'Children's Crusade'.

Marsalis and Kirkland were recruited by Sting from Wynton Marsalis' they make to Sting's music don't justify fine jazz quintet, but the contributions the aborting of what was becoming one of the best jazz groups on the contemporary scene. For the two must temper their jazz sensibilities to Sting's rock conception, often soloing below their creative potential. For Sting's jazz-rock is limited in form, the best of it a re- hash of vamps and moods established years before by Steely Dan.

Despite the rock limitations, Marsalis and Kirkland contributed some compelling solos, but they did not seem to captivate Sting's fans, who reacted most vociferously to 'If You Love Somebody', played straight (without jazz solos) like the current video, and 'Every Breath You Take', one of The Police's biggest hits, also played like the familiar recording.

(c) The Star Ledger by George Kanzler