Photo by Paul Cox

Dominic Miller, Sting's guitarist, has had a hit with a true oldie.

The soprano Maria Ewing recently wondered whether there wasn’t a better term than "crossover" to describe her foray into jazz. Dominic Miller, guitarist with Sting for 14 years, has made the journey in the opposite direction. His album, Shapes, has lately dominated the classical chart and he too hates the “c” word.
"Crossover is truly horrible marketing jargon. But I don’t know what else to call it," he says of his versions of compositions by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Albinoni transposed for the guitar. "The idea was simply to make a record that was accessible and fun and could speak to people who are afraid of classical music."

The project began on Sting's last world tour. "Before the first gig, Sting gave me a book of Bach sonatas and partitas," he recalls. "He thought it would keep me out of trouble." As the tour was a two-year marathon, Miller and Bach had plenty of time to become better acquainted. "In fact, I became totally obsessed," the guitarist says.

While the rest of the band were out partying, Miller and Sting would shut themselves away in hotel rooms and work out how to transpose to the guitar music that Bach had originally composed for the violin. "I was practising it three or four hours a day and pretty soon I realised my technique was getting better," Miller recalls. "And after playing that stuff, going on stage with Sting was like falling off a log."

When the tour was finally over, Miller began to put together a solo record of his own indie-styled rock songs. A couple of tracks short of a full album, he added two of the Bach pieces as fillers. Then he played his demos to the producer Nick Patrick. "He listened politely to my songs and clearly wasn’t interested. Then, just as he was leaving, I played him one of the Bach tunes and he asked if there were any more. He rang back the next week and suggested doing an entire album."

Not surprisingly, his boss also makes an appearance, singing on an orchestral version of Shape of My Heart, the song the pair originally co-wrote for Sting's Ten Summoners Tales albums.

Miller knows that his efforts will upset many in the classical world. "It would be nice if they could accept what I've done and appreciate that it brings a new audience. But if they can't, that’s their problem," he says. "My versions aren't better than the originals. They're simply different."

© The Times | July 2003

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