Police members Sting and Andy Summers performed together for the first time since the band’s 2007-08 reunion tour on “Murder by Numbers,” a track on the upcoming Christian McBride Big Band album, Without Further Ado, Vol. 1. The album will be released on Aug. 29 but the song can be heard now; you can listen to it below.
Sting sings on hard-swinging track, Summers plays guitar and McBride plays bass. Percussionist Pedrito Martínez also joins the Big Band for the track, and Nabaté Isles takes the trumpet solo.
The song, co-written by Sting and Summers, was originally released as the B-side of The Police’s 1983 single “Every Breath You Take.”
Without Further Ado, Vol. 1 also features appearances by singers such as Dianne Reeves and Jeffrey Osborne. According to a press release, the Big Band’s participation at the annual NJPAC gala inspired the album; the group has served as the event’s house band, with McBride as musical director, since 2012.
“We’ve always invited a bunch of great singers to come and perform at the Gala, and as musical director, I’m responsible for arranging all of the music,” McBride said in the press release. “After so many years of writing big band charts for these incredible singers, I realized that I had stacks of music that had only been played once. This has been a fantastic opportunity to finally record some of these arrangements and to play them with some of my favorite singers.”
Here are the songs on the album:
“Murder by Numbers” (with Sting and Andy Summers)
“Back in Love Again (with Jeffrey Osborne)
“Old Folks” (with Samara Joy)
“Moanin’ ” (with José James)
“All Through the Night” (with Cécile McLorin Salvant)
“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” (with Dianne Reeves)
“Come Rain or Come Shine” (with Antoinette Henry)
“Op. 49 — Cold Chicken Suite, 3rd Movement”
For more about McBride, visit christianmcbride.com.
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