Donny McCaslin served as band leader on Blackstar, released just before David Bowie’s death in 2016. McCaslin was already an established player but Blackstar saw the saxophonist’s music change direction, and the album provoked a profound change of thinking.
Bowie’s studio mantra was, according to McCaslin, “Go for what you’re hearing. Don’t worry about what it’s going to be called or categorized. Let’s have fun. Let’s play some music.” Donny McCaslin absorbed this and the essence of his playing altered in some ways. No longer afraid of what he might be reaching for, he simply reached and let the music to the rest.
His new album Blow, produced by Steve Wall, is a feast of styles which McCaslin explores with input from his flexible playing styles and the additional parts added from musicians including vocalist Gail Ann Dorsey, Ryan Dahle and fellow Blackstar band mates Tim Lefebvre, Jason Linder and Mark Guliana.
“What About the Body” opens the album. A fugal entry quickly develops into a speed-driven, raucous blast of improvisational music with multi-tracked tenor sax. Vocals from Ryan Dahle tell of the dueling left and right wings of America’s politics. The tumbling drums and rock guitar is reminiscent of ’70s prog-rock bands, with beautiful sax searing out on solo. “Club Kidd” is structured differently with a full band opening, vocal depicting a tale of disjointed life, a search and some crazy-dude lines over emphatic drums. The final descent into chaos is propelled by a sax striving to be heard.
“Break the Bond” has a melodic sax over staccato rhythms from drums and then guitar. This feels like a journey over its nine and a half minutes, taking you where Donny McCaslin leads – gently first, then stepping up the pace, then slow. Look around you, take a breather and we’re off again. We follow along, easily led to the fall. The track changes into a spacey, vacuous void when the synthesized sounds provide echoes and lingering electronic reverberations. Layers of piano, Wurlitzer and guitar add to a sense of abstract. Then we are back, sax and clarity take “Break the Bond” to its conclusion, with a stepped-scale rise and higher register playfulness, breaking down and back again, over the register break time and again. It’s like traveling at speed through a musical landscape of hills and valleys. The track verges on crazy with a magical essence.
“New Kindness” is a re-visit to the story narrative songs of the ’70s and ’80s. Vocals tell a strange story over simple drums, synth, guitar and bass. A track of hope in inner-city ennui, which even the sax line can’t lift. “Exactly Four minutes of Improvised Music” is wonderful: Drums, synths, intricate rhythms, sax adding little stut notes, elongated phrases and wails across the top, interplaying with the minuscule gaps left in the phrasing or soaring out over the top of the tight rhythms. Manic yet dainty, a lovely sax section traveling the scales, this track shows a different side – and it is good. We’ll say nothing about it being actually four minutes and 10 seconds.
“Tiny Kingdom” is a story of a bond between two beings, and the music backs up the lyrics with empathy. There’s a distinct David Bowie feel here from the vocals, production and arrangement. The listener is drawn into the musical voids as the clear and emotive singing wrap around the harmonies. Jeff Taylor’s vocals are a dream. “Great Destroyer” has a driving beat, glam-rock melody and breathy vocal harmonies which develop the song into an almost anthemic narrative.
“The Opener” features Mark Kozelek’s spoken vocals, and these complement the hypnotic music well. The contrast between the silky, honey-laden tones of the voice – so at odds with the story told – and the punctuated rhythms of the accompaniment is effective. It’s all topped off with occasional smooth sax interjections underneath.
“Beast” is beautiful from the start, with a melody set by the sax, supported from the rhythm foundations which change and there is a development into a sweet, sensual top line over car horn-like undertones at one point, which throws the senses. Then it happens: harmonic sax plays over gloopy synth noises and the track runs away, swirling and whirling off, with reedy overblows adding needed texture and diversity. Now, we are in the realms of wonderful.
“Tempest” is short, gorgeous, noisy and a little gem. “Eye of the Beholder” is a ballad and features vocals from Gail Ann Dorsey. It is also reminiscent of Bowie in arrangement. Great vocals over a supportive rhythm section. A responsive sax solo adds to the sweetness of this track.
The thing about Donny McCaslin’s Blow is, for all the talk of exploring and finding new ways, nearly every track reminds you of someone or something else – whether it be David Bowie, Kind Hearts and English, R.E.M. or English prog rock. There is a sense of this being an album which has brought McCaslin to a decision point: Is he a jazz player, an improviser or a rock / pop / stage show player? Does it matter?
It feels as if he isn’t sure. Yet, there are glimpses, as always with Donny McCaslin, of the divine player somewhere in there. Also, there seems to remain a fear of unleashing the amazement which he holds at bay. On the other hand, McCaslin is on a journey and probably, hopefully, this is just part of it. David Bowie was famous for his re-inventions and here Donny McCaslin has done a bit of re-inventing himself.
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