I am not a big fan of "live" albums. I generally don't buy them unless they are from an artist that I really like, and even then I tend not to listen to them very much. Usually a live album seems to highlight the weaknesses that the performers attempt to hide (with varying degrees of trickery) in the studio recordings. They also tend to be half-hearted recordings made by artists attempting to fulfill the requirements of their contracts, offering vastly inferior renditions of the source material. This album doesn't fit into any of those categories. Sting and his band of talented jazz musicians bring a punchiness to this recording that the studio album (1995's Dream of the Blue Turtles) lacked. When a band as brilliant as this one (Omar Hakim, Kenny Kirkland, and Branford Marsalis among others) cuts loose to explore the possibilities in the arrangements of Sting's pop songs, they discover something much more fresh and original than the typical rock band (who has to vamp in the same chord progression while the guitarist solos) is able to stumble across in a live environment. This band moves as a unit through some very daring musical leaps, and the result is a stunningly impressive (and expressive) live album. Just listen to Kenny Kirkland blaze through his impressive solo in "When the World is Running Down..." and you'll know what I mean. It is often discouraging that rock and roll doesn't really emphasize the mastery of one's instrument. The mythology tells us that being able to play too well sucks the life and energy out of a performance, that learning two or three chords is enough as long as you can sound like you "mean it." Well, based on that line of thinking there are a lot of bands that suck but "mean it." The line of thinking behind jazz is that the mastery of one's instrument allows a freedom to explore and discover new depths in the music without being limited by physical ability - in other words, to be able to play music the way that you imagine music. This also keeps live performance of the music fresh and alive, because the explorations can head down different paths on a nightly basis. Another important concept in jazz is the notion that the solo exists to serve the song, not vice versa. This is what separates the truly talented musicians and bands from, say, Poison: tasteful playing. If ever a case was made for skillful musicianship in the pop/rock genre, as well at the tearing down of all the stupid rules that prevent rock musicians from progressing to more inspired levels, this album is it.
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