Donny McCaslin Goes Beyond Now At Birdland – January 9, 2017

It was one year ago, last January, when we got the amazing Blackstar album from David Bowie and then learned of his death two days later.  I had been fortunate enough to speak to Tony Visconti shortly before the release so I had an inkling for what was in store.  The gist of Tony’s preview was that a brilliant local jazz quartet led by Donny McCaslin were playing rock written and sung by David Bowie.  Visconti raved about how drummer Mark Guiliana ‘changed all of our lives’ and no less of a dude than Derek Trucks is on the record as to Tim Lefevbre being a phenomenal bass player. Nate Wood, by the way, performs very admirably when Tim can’t turn up, as was the case on Monday.  In the bonus video below, Donny speaks to myriad influences and how he hooked up with said co-conspirators along with keys-man Jason Linder.  

The phenomenal success of Blackstar still has not completely run its course as was made plain by a phone call that McCaslin received while I was setting up my camera backstage at Birdland on Monday night.  The subject of the call was being in attendance at the grammy ceremony next month as a representative in case the album wins any of the handful of awards it has been nominated for.  Earlier this month, three non-album tracks from the sessions were released as David Bowie’s No Plan EP and McCaslin let its momentum carry him towards his new album Beyond Now.  That’s not to suggest by any means that Beyond Now is Blackstar Part Two.  Some of its spirit is in there surely including a pair of Bowie covers and the realization of a song begun during the recordings with him.  However, as a musician in the truest sense who is constantly evolving and incorporating new influences, Beyond Now also includes interpretations of compositions by Deadmau5 and Mutemath.  Bowie’s parting gift to the world wasn’t just Blackstar.  It was turning people on to Donny McCaslin.  

Loving Farewells To David Bowie At NYC Tribute Concerts – Quick peek at Radio City show on 4/1/16 and interview with Woody Woodmansey

The series of tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall, that Michael Dorf (best known as the man behind the Knitting Factory and now City Wineries) began in 2004 have become a highlight of the NYC Spring calendar. They’ve raised a lot of dough, over a million bucks prior to this year, for music education programs and celebrated the music of giants like Paul Simon Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, REM, The Who, Neil Young, Prince, and the Rolling Stones. In January it was announced that this year David Bowie would be in the spotlight. Coincidentally, the announcement came on the same day that news broke of Bowie’s untimely death. It soon became clear that one night wouldn’t satisfy the demand of artists who wanted to participate – to say nothing of the fans who wanted to attend – so a second night at Radio City was added. Last week, the shows began with a rehearsal in front of an audience at City Winery on Wednesday before stepping up to Carenegie and Radio City on Thursday and Friday respectively.

On Friday afternoon, I was able to meet with Mick (Woody) Woodmansey at Radio City as show preparations were underway. Woody first played with Bowie in an outfit called The Hype that mutated into The Spiders From Mars. He played drums on 1970’s The Man Who Sold The World, 1971’s Hunky Dory, 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and 1973’s Aladdin Sane. Along with the above NY1 report on the shows, here is some bonus footage of the chat with Woody. In includes some great insight into Bowie from the man who, sadly, is the last living member of the quartet (Mick Ronson and Trevor Bolder were the others) who made what stands to many as Bowie’s best loved and most memorable period. You can also scroll down and link to the January report featuring an interview with Tony Visconti who was musical director and led the house band for the tribute shows. Visconti spoke about Blackstar, gave his perspective of David in the studio, and revealed his favorite 3 Bowie albums. Visconti and Woodmansey will continue their Holy Holy tour tomorrow night (April 5th) in Boston.

The Loser’s Lounge is a phrase you may have heard of if you have been around the city since the early nineties when the concept was born.  The prime mover is Joe McGinty who was coming off a five year gig playing keyboards with The Psychedelic Furs.  He explained that the name was self-deprecating as in we are the struggling artists paying tribute to our heroes who have made indelible marks with their music.  The series has achieved great success; somewhere along the line becoming a New York institution in its own right.  The Loser’s Lounge has played all around the city while while tipping their hats to over thirty different artists across genres.  The artists Joe chooses tend to be great songwriters that have bodies of work that encompass different decades and eras so he and the band, including over twenty different singers, have plenty of material to interpret.  That’s Royce Peterson (who knows something about tributes as his main gig is leading a band that does metal versions of Bee Gees songs) in the video singing Changes, Ereni Sevasti (whose activities include performing a Joni Mitchell show) doing The Man Who Sold The World, and Connie Petruk (who worked with DB himself) was featured on vocals for Life On Mars.

It was a natural for the music of  David Bowie to be celebrated following his recent and unexpected death.  The Loser’s Lounge had tackled him before including – intensely, in what was the first night out after 9/11 for many New Yorkers, in September of 2001.  It was a different kind of strong feeling at Joe’s Pub on February 18th, 2016 as fans as well as the musicians on stage had a chance to immerse themselves in Bowie’s songs and reflect on not only the artist but perhaps their own lives too in the context of the soundtrack he provided.

Joe McGinty by the way, in addition to leading The Loser’s Lounge, also is the proprietor of the Carousel Vintage Keyboard Studio and recently opened up his own bar in Chelsea called Sid Gold’s Request Room.

Iggy Pop Will Spearhead Tibet House Benefit Concert; Philip Glass Interview

A tremendous lineup headed by Iggy Pop has been unveiled for this year’s Tibet House benefit concert happening Monday, February 22nd at Carnegie Hall.  FKA twigs, Sharon Jones, Basia Bulat and Dechen Shak-Dagsay with Helge van Dyk will all perform as well along with Philip Glass who – besides being a brilliant composer – has been a pillar of Tibet House since its inception. who generously sat down with me last week to speak about the event and its reason for being.  Even though Patti Smith can’t make it this year, her band will be on hand so, as seen in some of the video that I shot 2 years ago, Iggy and Lenny Kaye may share the stage again.

In addition to all the other great features of the Tibet House benefit concert, a tribute to David Bowie seems like a natural this year as both Philip Glass and Iggy Pop worked with him intimately.

I’ve included a bonus video here because Philip spoke about David Bowie.  He not only based symphonies on two of the albums that Bowie made with Eno but, as he alludes to, he crossed paths with him quite a bit in the first few years of the century when Bowie recorded at Looking Glass Studios in Soho.  Glass even reveals he may yet complete a symphony for Lodger as well as Heroes and Low!

Brilliant photo of David with Iggy and Lou in London in 1972 was taken by Mick Rock who has a website.
1-15-16 WWW of David Bowie

6p

1 Life On Mars                                              David Bowie

2 The Bewlay Brothers                                David Bowie

3 Changes                                                       Seu Jorge

4 Rebel Rebel                                                 Rikki Lee Jones

5 All The Young Dudes                                 Mott The Hoople

6 One of the Boys                                           Mott The Hoople

7 Shapes of Things                                          Yardbirds

8 Where Have All The Good Times Gone  Kinks

9 Vicious                                                           Lou Reed

10 Satellite of Love                                          Lou Reed

11 White Light White Heat                            Velvet Underground

12 Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere                    The Who

13 Here Comes The Night                              Them

14   Let’s Spend The Night Together            Rolling Stones

15 Growin’ Up                                                  Bruce Springsteen

7p

1 Where Are We Now                                     David Bowie

2 Lazarus                                                           David Bowie

3 Trying To Get To Heaven                           Bob Dylan

4 Never Let You Down                                   Britt Daniel

5  Across The Universe                                   Beatles

6 Heroes                                                            Nico

7  Jeepster                                                         T-Rex

8 20th Century Boy                                         T-Rex

9 Strutter                                                           Kiss

10 Looking For A Kiss                                       New York Dolls

11 Ballroom Blitz                                               The Sweet

12 Lust For Life                                                Iggy Pop

13 Sister Moonlight                                          Iggy Pop

14 I Wanna Be Your Dog                                The Stooges

8p

1 Suffragette City                                            David Bowie

2 Moorage Daydream                                    David Bowie

3 Couldn€t Stand The Weather                     SRV

4 Cactus                                                             The Pixies

5 Pretty Pink Rose                                           David Bowie

6 Discipline                                                       King Crimson

7 You Belong In Rock & Roll                         Tin Machine

8 Reflektor                                                         Arcade Fire

9 Province                                                          TVOTR

10 The Man Who Sold the World                  Nirvana

11 Shine On                                                        The Kooks

12 Life On Mars                                                 The Bad Plus

David Bowie Obit: “He Was The Best There Is”

I woke up, I suppose like most of us did today, to find the world was a poorer place; to find that David Bowie had died.  Along with the news was a directive from my editor at NY1 requesting an obit on the lickety split that will be married to video by my cohorts there.  Strangely, I’ve been immersed in Bowie’s music recently as preparation for my interview last week with Tony Visconti and the release of the new record Blackstar.   This prepared for the task but also made the shock of his passing more acute.  Here’s what I wrote –

                                   This photo and the one in the mirror are by Mick Rock.

Just two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 25 album, David Bowie has died after a reported 18 month battle with liver cancer.   His immortality was secured decades ago; his influence on generations of musicians was profound.

Bowie personified the ideal of the ever-changing artist remaining a step ahead of his audience and the music world.  His ode to impermanence – the song Changes from the Hunky Dory album – captured the transitory nature not only of his image and art but life as well and fittingly was the last song he played live on a stage in 2006. That stage was in New York City where the Londoner born as David Jones spent most of the second half of his life.

Bowie’s sense of fashion, his flair for the visual and theatrical, and his fearless musical exploration informed his most essential albums of the 70’s.  The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars epitomized glam while offering an androgynous alien persona. Young Americans mined Philadelphia soul while flirting with disco and funk and included Fame; a collaboration with John Lennon which became his first number one song in the states.

Closest to the artist’s heart however was the work he did with help from Brian Eno on what came to be known as the Berlin trilogy: Low, Heroes, and Lodger.  Bowie said his complete being, his DNA were in those albums that were driven by synthesizers and electronics instead of guitars and incorporated ambient music and minimalism.

With the smash hits Modern Love, China Girl, and the title track, Let’s Dance in ’83 was Bowie’s high water mark commercially.  As the 80’s became the 90’s, he made a pair of hard rock albums as a member of Tin Machine.  In ’96, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In 2013, he released his first album in a decade: The Next Day.  It was followed by Blackstar last Friday that producer Tony Visconti said Bowie planned as a parting gift to fans before his death.

Iggy Pop, whose signature song Lust for Life was written by David Bowie, summed up his late friend’s life better than anyone: I never met such a brilliant person.  He was the best there is.

For more, HERE is the remembrance from Jon Pareles of The New York Times.

1-6-16 Producer Tony Visconti Talks David Bowie and Blackstar 

UPDATED 1-9 with video from last night’s Holy Holy show…

I was excited for the opportunity to speak to Tony Visconti who has amassed an absolutely stunning body of work as a producer.  Not only the most essential Bowie albums but the best work of T-Rex and rewarding collaborations with everyone from T-Rex to John Hiatt to Angelique Kidjo to Alejandro Escovedo.  As I would expect from a guy from Brooklyn, Tony was a straight shooter of a conversationalist with not a hint of pretension.  We recorded the interview just two days ago in The Log Cabin – a beautiful studio whose atmosphere is captured in its name.  The studio wizard who was manning the cabin had crossed paths with Visconti before and spoke of him as something of a mentor.  He was even more delighted than me to have a man of Visconti’s discography in the house.

Above is the 2 minute piece airing on NY1 today in which Visconti speaks about the new Bowie album Blackstar.  Like the last one, The Next Day, it was done secretly at another lovely studio The Magic Shop in Soho.  He revealed that he and Bowie share a long held affinity for jazz and they finally incorporated that form in a big way by getting another New Yorker  (since 91) Donny McCaslin and his quartet involved.  The first Bowie song McCaslin’s sax made it onto was Sue (or in a season of crime) which led off the nifty 2014 collection Nothing Has Changed.  That song was reworked for Blackstar  and McCaslin – along with his mates Jason Lindner on keyboards, Tim Lefebvre on bass and Mark Guiliana on drums- were the core band.  Linder, by the way, is doing a Monday night residency at Nublu in the East Village this month.  Guiliana will lead his own quartet at Subculture (also in the village) next Friday the 15th.  Lefebvre will be at The Apollo playing a gig with his main group the Tedeschi Trucks Band on the 26th and the full Donny McCaslin quartet minus Lefebvre and plus Nate Wood on bass will be  at the Village Vanguard doing a 6 night run that starts on the 19th of this month.

Visconti also explained what Holy Holy is all about.  That’s the band he is in who are on tour and who played last night at the Highline Ballroom.  As we had such a good chat, I’m offering some bonus material as well: Tony on his favorite 3 Bowie albums.  Oh, and this is a good article on Bowie btw that explains what Tony did that he referenced while speaking about Heroes.

Ho Ho Ho!  Here’s some suggestions if you’d like to give (or receive) the gift of music this holiday season whether it is boxed or unboxed.

1 Nick Cave; Push The Sky Away
2 Smith Westerns; Soft Will
3 The White Buffalo; Shadows, Greys & Evil Ways
4 Queens of The Stone Age; Like Clockwork
5 Clairy Browne & The Bangin’ Rackettes; Baby Caught the Bus
6 Elvis Costello & The Roots; Wise Up Ghost
7 David Bowie; The Next Day
8 Richard Thompson; Electric
9 Foxygen; We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
10 Palma Violets; 180