* Special Bonus * In honor of my concert tonight - Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats Live at Red Rocks - check out the album by the same name to get a taste of what I'm witnessing out here in Colorado.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0K4oI3JOco&list=PL4wGwko1DhrOPJLBODlq9JgBPigFmdJKS
1985
Link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDWuw6swbY&list=PLVSmE10fWX-AFWSnMjV3azN3moNJ9OwEu
When Sting broke off from the Police, many thought he was crazy; after all, they had just released the biggest selling and just down right BEST album of their career - Synchronicity - which was packed with hits. They had become a constant on classic rock as well as Top 40 radio.
But the Police's decision to go on hiatus was the perfect time for Sting to assemble a team of the best young musicians who knew Ellington-style swing, rock and jazz - and who were wiling to challenge Sing himself. He raises his vocal game when Branford Marsalis unspools curlicues of sax around his lines. And the rhythm team of Omar Hakim (drummer from the jazz band Weather Report) and Daryl Jones (of the Miles Davis Group) at times pound harder than Stewart Copeland (Police's drummer), forcing Sting to really bust from the diaphragm, and not just sing louder.
They stretch out in the middle of the plodding "Children's Crusade," which bemoans lost generations.
And the improvisations in Hakim's drumming and the swing of Marsalis on shadows in the Rain is as fun as Kenny Kirkland's wildly sprinkled keys. But when they come together in the dance jam that eventually fades out the song, the teamwork is as impressive as the solos.
But then, at other times, like on "We Work the Black Seam" and "Russian" things slow down to perhaps better showcase Sting's socially-aware themes (mining and cold war insanity). Sometimes the lyrics wax a little too simplistic or maudlin, but in every one of those cases, the music still delivers.
Sting shines best on three singles from the four that swarmed the radio: "If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free," "Love is the Seventh Wave (a Caribbean flavored pop song that may be my favorites)," and "Fortress Around Your Heart."
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