All This Time

His Marlay Park concert this summer failed to take off, becoming too often mired in a jazz-fusion dead-end, confirming suspicions that Sting is, and always has been a frustrated jazz musician.

Recorded in Italy on September 11th 2001 at an intimate fan club gig, this live album (and soundtrack to an upcoming DVD) presents more or less the same show in a similar format. But what started out as an end-of-tour celebration for the former Policeman turned into an emotion-filled requiem for the events that had taken place hours before. At least that’s what it says on the press release.

While the opening lines of ‘Fragile’ – ”If blood will flow... drying in the colour of the evening sun,” no doubt summed up the feelings of many of those present, little of what follows captures the moment when the world changed forever. Despite the intimacy of the setting, the whole thing sounds claustrophobic with Sting’s busy backing band ignoring the dictum that “less is more” and filling every space with fills, frills and frippery.

Still, if you want note-perfect renditions of Sting classics like ‘Fields Of Gold’, Moon Over Bourbon Street’, ‘All This Time’, and ‘Brand New Day’ then you’ll probably enjoy this. However, the unnecessary re-arrangements of earlier numbers such as ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’, ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘Roxanne’ won’t endear fans of his Police career to this pretty meaningless outing.