Fields

Early in his solo career, Sting defined himself as a man of taste, choosing to work with jazz musicians instead of rockers. Inevitably, this meant he walked the thin line between sophisticated pop and adult contemporary, but he did it with grace from 1985's Dream of the Blue Turtles to 1993's Ten Summoner's Tales. Unfortunately, Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting doesn't illustrate what a deft trick he pulled off with that quartet of albums…

Keyboardist Graham Field was a founding member of Rare Bird, one of the very earliest British progressive bands, who had a major European hit in 1970 with the song "Sympathy." He presumably founded Fields to provide more of an outlet for his compositions and fleet-fingered keyboard work, but the group didn't last very long, splitting up after the band's self-titled 1971 debut without having made much of a commercial impact. As a showcase for Field's instrumental abilities, the album can't be faulted - the leader's classic-rock exploits on piano and organ show that he was fully capable of giving Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, et al. a run for their money…