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Having
achieved stardom as singer, bassist, and principal
songwriter for the Police [see entry], Sting dissolved
that band at the peak of its career in the mid-Eighties.
Sting’s solo career is characterized by a restless yen
to experiment and, by pop standards, take risks. He has
sought to push the canny musicianship and affinity for
exotic musical styles that distinguished his former group
in directions that a trio could never have considered.
Consequently, some have lamented the absence of the
Police’s striking economy, just as they’ve found
Sting’s literary and historical references pretentious.
To his admirers, though, Sting’s post-Police projects
have ensured his place among the most articulate and
intuitive rock musicians of his generation.
For his
first solo effort, The Dream of the Blue Turtles (#2,
1985), Sting enlisted a group of young jazz musicians,
including saxophonist Branford Marsalis and Weather Report
drummer Omar Hakim. The album was widely viewed as a
reclamation of the musical turf Sting had covered while
playing in jazz ensembles during his youth. But Turtles
also drew on elements of classical music, funk, and
perhaps most predictably, reggae. Moreover, the hit songs
"If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" (#3, 1985)
and "Fortress Around Your Heart" (#8, 1985) were
as pop-savvy as any Police singles. The 1986 concert album
and documentary Bring On the Night featured the
players that Sting had assembled for Turtles offering
live renditions of his new songs, as well as fresh takes
on a few Police favorites.
... Nothing
Like the Sun (#9, 1987), released shortly after
Sting’s mother died and dedicated to her, featured a
revised, expanded lineup of musicians dominated by
Marsalis’ saxophone. As on Turtles, Sting often
played guitar rather than his primary instrument, bass. A
moody album full of dense, delicate orchestration, Sun spawned
only one Top Ten single, the atypically funky
"We’ll Be Together" (#7, 1987). (The album
fared well in South America, though, thanks in part to its
various Latin-flavored instrumental touches; hence the EP Nada
Como el Sol, featuring tracks from Sun rendered
in Spanish.)
The Soul
Cages, inspired
by Sting’s father’s death, was darker still, full of
haunted ballads, religious imagery, and traditional
English folk flourishes that embellished a newly spare
foundation provided by guitarist Dominic Miller,
keyboardist David Sancious, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, and
Sting on bass. Again, an anomaly proved the one big hit:
the upbeat "All This Time" went to #5. (On that
single’s strength, the album peaked at #2.) Sting
unexpectedly shifted gears for 1993’s breezy, buoyant Ten
Summoner’s Tales (#2), which featured the same core
of musicians who had appeared on Cages. The album
went double platinum, yielding the hits "If I Ever
Lose My Faith in You" (#17,1993) (which also won a
Grammy) and "Fields of Gold" (#23, 1993). That
same year, Sting shared a #1 megahit single with Bryan
Adams and Rod Stewart, via "All for Love," from
the film The Three Musketeers. An anthology, Fields
of Gold, was released in 1994, featuring two
previously unreleased tracks.
Equally
unpredictable outside the studio, Sting supplemented his
numerous film appearances (including Dune, Stormy
Monday and Plenty) in 1989 by starring
in a Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera; four
years later he opened a series of stadium shows for the
Grateful Dead. What’s remained constant is his devotion
to human-rights and environmental issues. In the late
Eighties he not only toured with other stars to benefit
Amnesty International but helped establish the Rainforest
Foundation, and he has since crusaded to raise funds and
awareness on behalf of the preservation of this endangered
Brazilian territory.
Born
Gordon Matthew Sumner, October 2, 1951, Newcastle, England
1985 -- The
Dream of the Blue Turtles (A&M)
1986 -- Bring On the Night
1987 -- ... Nothing Like the Sun
1988 -- Nada Como el Sol EP
1991 -- The Soul Cages
1993 -- Ten Summoner’s Tales; Demolition Man
soundtrack
1994 -- Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting
1999 -- Brand New Day
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