The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 2
© Greg Camden
By this time he had already written a good deal of the material he was interested in putting on his first solo album and recorded it in demo form, but exactly how to follow it up was another matter. His first idea was to get another group to record the music (upon which he would later add his vocals), and so he gave the demos to a synthesizer-based band called Torch Song. However, before this project was very far underway, Sting had a change of heart and decided he wanted to put together an ad hoc group of jazz musicians. To this end he rang up Vic Garbarini, editor of Musician, and solicited his advice and aid in gathering together a group of the best young jazz musicians in the world. "I knew I needed to find musicians who complemented me on some level, and I know I'm right in doing this thing," Sting explained to Musician during the recording his first solo record. "But I'm doing it for reasons I still don't really understand." After a series of auditions (more like jam sessions), Sting decided on Branford Marsalis (saxophone), Kenny Kirkland (keyboards), Darryl Jones (bass), and Omar Hakim (drums). Sting himself decided to handle guitar duties; and the band would later add backup singers Dolette McDonald (who had toured with The Police on their last tour) and Janice Pendarvis.
When the group went into the studio to record what would become The Dream of the Blue Turtles, the tension which had largely defined the later recording sessions with his old band was non-existent. "This new band is more clearly defined," Sting told the New Music Express in June 1985. "I hired them to play, and I'm the songwriter and singer. So there are no arguments about roles, which makes the process a lot easier. But there's still room for the dialectic to and fro." However, Sting was also in a new and unfamiliar situation, playing a new type of music, and so there were moments when his confidence was shaken, as evidenced in his comments to Garbarini during the sessions: "Is the album any good? I don't know anymore. My voice, it's so weak. I was even tearful before. I just wanted to forget the band. I wanted to go home, crawl into bed, just forget the whole thing because I can't sing."
