Sting Shift

SPOTLIGHT

Police, where is thy

Sting? Busy as a you-know-what with solo projects, thanks very much. The tireless thirty-three-year-old, ne Gordon Sumner, is currently putting the finishing mixes on the first album of his own, due out this summer. It's not jazz, contrary to published reports. "Complete rubbish," he sighs in a voice hoarse from trying out new material at the Ritz. His band included Branford Marsalis and Kenny Kirkland of Wynton Marsalis's combo, Weather Report's Omar Hakim, and Miles Davis alumnus Darryl Jones. "Having young black musicians interpret my work," he rasps, "what we'll end up with is something that stretches me and stretches them and is new and fresh. And that's just part of it, anyway; a lot of the album will be with an orchestra." Sting had barely finished the Police "Synchronicity" tour when he plunged straight into three back-to-back movie roles. The less said about Dune the better, but next month he'll appear as Dr. Frankenstein in The Bride, and come October Plenty puts him opposite Meryl Streep, his first "major major" co-star. He has no immediate plans to take time off, even with another baby on the way (that makes four—two with ex-wife Frances Tomelty and two with his current queen bee, actress Trudie Styler). "Life is a vacation," he declares. "I enjoy working; I don't really enjoy time off." So when's the next Police project? "Don't know," he sniffs. "There's no plan.. .no plan at all."

Cyndi Stivers