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.

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.