Track Listing

1. Fragile
2. 1000 Years
3. Perfect Love Gone Wrong
4. All This Time
5. Hounds of Winter
6. Don't Stand So Close To Me
7. When We Dance
8. Dienda
9. Roxanne
10. (If You Love Somebody) Set Them Free
11. Brand New Day
12. Fields of Gold
13. Moon Over Bourbon Street
14. If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
15. Every Breath You Take

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10005 in Music
• Released on: 2001-11-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Album Description
Import edition of 2001 live release includes one track that's unavailable on the US pressing, 'Mad About You'. In a moonlit courtyard in Tuscany, on the evening of September 11th, 2001, Sting hosted a musical evening for 200 fans & friends. With his long-time band & several guest musicians, Sting performed songs from his triple-platinum album, Brand New Day as well as some his many of his celebrated hits. In his inimitable style, Sting reinvented these songs through constructed, intimate arrangements. Other tracks include, 'Fragile' & 'A Thousand Years'.

Amazon.com
Give Sting credit for craftily averting the downside of worldwide pop stardom: finding yourself at 50 playing decades-old hits at some dusty state fair. The trick, of course, is to have your artistic cake and eat it, too; and that's just what the singer has done--reinvented himself first as a coolly crooning jazz head, then infused that sensibility with some spiritually vague Euro-trance affectations. Sting's Brand New Day touring band languorously reworks 15 songs before a couple hundred handpicked fans during a moonlit Tuscan evening--it's a live shot that feels funkier and less self-conscious than its '80s predecessor, Bring on the Night. While familiar solo-career nuggets like "Set Them Free," "Fields of Gold," and "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" have insightful new shadings, it's the sparingly doled Police hits that seem rebuilt from the ground up; "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Roxanne" are now hued with sad cellos and weary vocals hinting that even sexual tension eventually leads to fatigue. Tasteful, spare, and nearly performance-perfect, ...All This Time is still a far cry from the jazz of Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme, and if you hear a quiet, English-accented chuckle behind you in line at the bank, don't turn around. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Stellar Sting!
Recorded on 9/11/01 & dedicated to all of the lives lost on that day, Sting delivers new renditions of his classics with jazzy bass, world-beat rhythms, cellos and tender vocals. "Fragile" opens this 15 track set, and reeling in the events of that day, the words are heartfelt and wrought with meaning. "Don't Stand So Close To Me" gently glides into "When We Dance" and is hauntingly delivered with more warmth of feeling than ever before. Equally enjoyable are the reworks of "Roxanne" and "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You". Even his latest work "Brand New Day" has a brand new sound. Sting's creative rearranging brings some surprising twists to familiar songs and makes one wonder while listening, "why wasn't the song recorded like this originally?"... they are that good! Listening to this cd is an experience and makes us realize (to quote Sting) "how fragile we are".

Jazzier than typical Sting, but very beautiful
Sting comes back with this live recording made on September 11 (he respectfully dedicates it to the victims of the tragedy). This time around he revisits tunes from all his periods (The Police, early and late solo material) but with a very jazzy feel to most of the songs.

What can be said about this album, that has not been said about Sting at some point? It's brilliant: he grabs his songs and virtually reinvents them, to the point where they sound almost like different songs. This is the case with almost all songs in this recording which, like all previous Sting works, is impeccably recorded and produced.

Particularly enjoyable I found his beautiful rendition of the Police classics "Don't stand so close to me" and "Roxanne" as well as the tracks included from his least popular album, 'Mercury Falling' and the mix of "A Thousand Years" and "PerfectLove... Gone Wrong," much in the same style of his earlier live double-album. Interesting results his Traffic-like version of his very own "If you love somebody set them free"... Grrrrooovy!!!! New tracks anyone? Yes! "Dienda" in the style of his interpretation of the Zappa song, "The Idiot Bastard song" which some lucky people were able to hear back during some sessions he played in Chicago several years ago.

Overall, one of those jewels that oughta become part of your musical collection.

Profoundly Influenced By The Day's Tragedy
This shouldn't be dismissed just as another Sting album. It's a document which expresses, especially at the beginning, our feelings at the time of the 9-11 tragedy. Beyond that, it expresses the need for healing and adjustment. I am surprised that there are no spoken words on the recording, but maybe this is for the best.

I have read some of the strong negative reviews and I hope these people keep this CD for listening in the future after they have lived more of their life. I believe they will have a deeper understanding and appreciation for what Sting has done here at that time.

The opening number, "Fragile", captures the mood of the day, and the progression in mood and jazz flavor throughout the album provides the healing. Thus, this is an album which might be quite appropriate to listen to in times of sorrow, because it doesn't stay at the sorrowful level, but progresses to a level of healing, rebuilding, and of steadfast hope.

Had the recording been postponed, we would have a different album. It's my personal opinion that we have a more valuable recording because it was not postponed.