Bring On The Night is Sting’s first live album and second of his solo career, recorded from May 29 to December 23, 1985 during live performances in Paris, Rome and Arnhem and released on July 1, 1986 by A&M Records.

The album’s title comes from a song by the Police from their 1979 album Reggatta de Blanc. The songs featured include new material by Sting from his solo studio album The Dream Of The Blue Turtles as well as from his time with the Police, with some of the performances heard being a combination of both periods. The touring band included prominent jazz musicians Branford Marsalis, Darryl Jones, Kenny Kirkland and Omar Hakim.

Although the album did not produce any hit singles, it reached No. 16 in the UK album charts and earned Sting the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Bring On The Night”, which also provided the title for the 1985 documentary film directed by Michael Apted that covered all the formative stages of Sting’s solo career, which was released on DVD in 2005.

Sting was genuinely enamored with the idea that the band behind Dream Of the Blue Turtles was a real jazz band, and he was right. However, he cut her out of Wynton Marsalis’ band, which angered him and encouraged his anti-rock stance, while at the same time a sibling rivalry emerged between the trumpeter and Wynton’s saxophonist brother, Branford, which developed into a hat trick, since Sting was originally a jazz bassist and thus fit in nicely with the whole group.

In any case, it seemed like a monumental period for Sting because, as we mentioned before, all the material, showing the evolution of the band since the era of The Dream Of The Blue Turtles, was recorded in a documentary, from which this double live album was released in stores a year later, essentially as a soundtrack. Of course, this could also be considered “hubris”, especially since the appearance of the live album seems like a way to promote jazz and Sting as a jazz musician.

Most of the songs are around five minutes long and there are three medleys, two of which marry the old Police sound with the melodies of The Dream Of The Blue Turtles .

Being Sting’s second solo album, it may have seemed a bit redundant, even if the relaxed but effective performances show what Sting tried to achieve with his debut album. Even so, the album is considered a cult.

From this excellent live album I select the medley “Bring On The Night and When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around”.
 
Tracklist

A1. Bring On The Night / When The World Is Running Down You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around 11:42
A2. Consider Me Gone 4:55
A3. Low Life 4:06

B1. We Work The Black Seam 6:59
B2. Driven To Tears 7:00
B3. The Dream Of The Blue Turtles / Demolition Man 5:55

C1. One World (Not Three) / Love Is The Seventh Wave 11:08
C2. Moon Over Bourbon Street 4:19
C3. I Burn For You 5:24

D1. Another Day 4:47
D2. Children’s Crusade 5:26
D3. Down So Long 4:38
D4. Tea In The Sahara 6:25