Donny McCaslin via Matrix

Donny McCaslin I CURATE

Network Node

Name: Donny McCaslin
City/Place: Brooklyn, NY
Country: United States

CURATION

from this node by: Matrix+

Life & Work

Bio: Days before his January 2016 death, David Bowie released his final album, Blackstar. While the record represented an endpoint for the legendary artist, it also marked a new beginning for jazz lifer Donny McCaslin who, armed with his saxophone, defined Blackstar's visionary stylistic fusion.

Now, two and a half years after Blackstar's release, McCaslin returns with a new album, Blow., a new definitive statement that fully realizes Bowie's influence and McCaslin’s evolved artistic direction. "Before working with him, things like this didn't seem possible to me," McCaslin says of Blow., the most daring work of his two-decade, GRAMMY®-nominated career – set for October 5 release on Motéma Music. "The affirmation of that project and how wonderfully that turned out artistically — I feel like anything is possible now."

Despite McCaslin's extensive, acclaimed career — he grew up gigging with his father's jazz ensembles in Santa Cruz, California, attended Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music, and began his recording career in the late '90s — collaborating with Bowie altered how he approached his craft. "His aesthetic in the studio was, 'Go for what you're hearing, don't worry about what it's going to be called or categorized as,'" McCaslin recalls of the late icon. "'Let's have some fun. Let's make some music.'" With the expansive, diverse Blow., McCaslin takes Bowie's philosophy to heart.

McCaslin hinted at his new direction earlier this summer with the release of the project's first single "What About the Body," a sizzling cut that blends alt-rock, jazz, and politically suggestive lyrics from singer-songwriter Ryan Dahle (Limblifter, Mounties) for a potent product — but it's just one of the many flavors he explores on the diverse record.

Supported by a top-notch cast of musicians that includes Sun Kil Moon's Mark Kozelek, Blackstar bandmate Tim Lefebvre, and fellow Bowie collaborator Gail Ann Dorsey, McCaslin applies his jazz roots in thrilling ways throughout Blow.'s hour runtime. "The idea was to just really go for exploring these collaborations and documenting everything," explains McCaslin, adding that the project had a "good gestation process" and developed "in a way that didn't feel rushed."

McCaslin emphasizes Blow.'s "wide range of moods," and some of them — like the driving, 10-minute instrumental "Break the Bond" or the chaotic and appropriately titled "Exactlyfourminutesofimprovisedmusic" — will sound familiar to longtime McCaslin fans. Others, not so much. "Tempest," a searing blast of prog-punk, clocks in at only 79 seconds and features off-the-cuff vocals from Jeff Taylor. Dorsey's soulful pipes complete the downtempo quiet storm of closer "Eye of the Beholder." And Kozelek — who McCaslin met and performed with when their tour itineraries recently intersected in Australia — delivers a hyper-detailed, characteristically batty narrative on "The Opener" to accompany an instrumental influenced by Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest.

Naturally, McCaslin's horn unites Blow.'s disparate elements, though not in the way one might expect. Thinking back to the Blackstar sessions, McCaslin remembers how Bowie urged him to manipulate his instrument's sound, to create "different loops and textures" while improvising. "That really stuck with me” says McCaslin. "It’s such a big part of what I'm doing now, how I integrate the electronics and the saxophone.”

According to McCaslin, the "natural progression" that led to Blow. began with 2016's Beyond Now. Compromised of originals written after Blackstar's recording but before Bowie's death, as well as covers of Bowie, Mutemath, and Deadmau5, the record contains what McCaslin describes as "the seed" that grew into Blow.: His moody, electro-tinged rendition of Bowie's "A Small Plot of Land." "That's the connecting point for what I'm doing now," he says.

But because McCaslin recorded Beyond Now nearly immediately after Bowie's death, it didn't capture Blackstar's full influence on his playing and writing — it took months of relentless touring for those lessons to seep in. "I was hearing something different and trying to explore what that was," he reveals. "The direction of this record is something I wouldn't have imagined myself doing 10 years ago. But having the opportunity to play so much and then see where my creative imagination would go, and to be in that space for a lot longer, led me down this new pathway." Adds McCaslin: "Because we had been playing so much, it felt pretty natural just to go into the studio and do this."

Once he got down to business on Blow. pre-production in the fall 2017, McCaslin says producer Steve Wall (Lucius, Tall Heights) began to conceptually tie the album's many diverse styles together. “He’s very methodical and deliberate. I give a lot of credit to Steve," McCaslin shares, “he had a vision for this album from the beginning and was right there working with me as the music developed. He’s a unique talent and he does it all; engineering, mixing, song writing, producing, sound design.”

Vocals also play a crucial role on Blow., in ways that they haven't previously in McCaslin's career. "There's so much that's possible," he realized after the Blackstar sessions. "Why don't I make a vocal record?" Besides his fruitful collaborations with Taylor, Dorsey, and Kozelek, McCaslin teamed with Dahle on "What About the Body" and three other tracks — "New Kindness," "Club Kidd," and "Great Destroyer" — that constitute the album's emotional core.

"There's some social commentary" on "New Kindness," says McCaslin, likening the song's themes of partisan polarization to those on "What About the Body." "At least from my perspective, we're in a really f---ed-up time in this country — sorry for the French," he notes wryly. "What's going to get us out of this? Maybe it's new kindness. I think that's something that's really timely and really powerful." "Club Kidd," meanwhile, unites two unlikely topics — bee migration and McCaslin's own experiences as a college student going to club shows — for a unique, intricate result.

Ultimately, McCaslin returns repeatedly to a specific phrase: "new territory." Along with his bandmates, he's propelling his music to places that seemed unreachable — to the extent that he'd even conceived of them —just a few years ago. And Blow. isn't the endpoint. "The live show is really evolving," says McCaslin, thrilled to share his fresh material with audiences around the world. "It's going to continue to evolve and we have this vision of how it's going to evolve. It's going to be much different from what it has been." Recent years have been a whirlwind for McCaslin, but Blow. proves he's ready for his next chapter: "Going all in with new territory is really stimulating to me."

Contact Information

Management/Booking: Management:
Steven Saporta
Invasion Group, Ltd
[email protected]
212-414-0505 x102

Booking Inquires:
Epstein & Company
[email protected]
256-344-7469

Media | Markets

▶ Buy My Music: (downloads/CDs/DVDs) http://donnymccaslin.merchdirect.com/
▶ Buy My Vinyl: http://donnymccaslin.merchdirect.com/
▶ Buy My Merch: http://donnymccaslin.merchdirect.com/
▶ Twitter: DonnyMcCaslin
▶ Instagram: donnymccaslinmusic
▶ Website: http://www.donnymccaslin.com
▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChFPtIa43nuaEuV5a3WP2xw
▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UChCSL0LDvRBTJ_yI4kuTZ-g
▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/1n1fLfkVtWxBjtDB44STDp?si=7c0d08764f6a415a
▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/5smb24NOxlxKOQTMfSNmSg?si=19b38173bf6e46f3
▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/60GZJyntKspBvsw7J9TTki?si=2e2ace16efa14d65
▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/4jV2RWMwMjRfIoxYNqpTAZ?si=b85ec3f747d5420c
▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/5yvWwpInfrM1owxLN3n1eH?si=dc198c3fd8244de5
▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/4Sy2PYoA2JK9xqyDz1Yp7P?si=13cde3a0a0d647c3

Clips (more may be added)

3:24
Reckoning - Donny McCaslin (Official Music Video)
By Donny McCaslin

158 views
0:07:54
From Blackstar to Blow: A Conversation with Donny McCaslin and Michael Alago
By Donny McCaslin

163 views
5:04
Donny McCaslin feat. Gail Ann Dorsey & Jason Lindner - Eye of the Beholder (WMA Studio Session)
By Donny McCaslin

122 views

Donny McCaslin Curated

What's Been Happening?

A video was posted re Donny McCaslin:

Reckoning - Donny McCaslin (Official Music Video)
"Reckoning" by Donny McCaslin.
- March 26, 2021
A video was posted re Donny McCaslin:

From Blackstar to Blow: A Conversation with Donny McCaslin and Michael Alago
Donny McCaslin talks to record executive Michael Alago about his transformative musical journey from working with David Bowie on Blackstar to creating a vocal-driven sound on his new album Blow.
- March 26, 2021
A video was posted re Donny McCaslin:

Donny McCaslin feat. Gail Ann Dorsey & Jason Lindner - Eye of the Beholder (WMA Studio Session)
Gail Ann Dorsey features on "Eye of the Beholder" from Donny McCaslin's album 'Blow.'
- March 26, 2021
A category was added to Donny McCaslin:

Composer
- March 26, 2021
A category was added to Donny McCaslin:

Brooklyn, NY
- March 26, 2021
A category was added to Donny McCaslin:

Jazz
- March 26, 2021
A category was added to Donny McCaslin:

Saxophone
- March 26, 2021
Donny McCaslin is matrixed!
- March 26, 2021

em português →

ARE YOU MATRIXED?

"Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
We're touched too Mr Webber! (Julian Lloyd Webber is among the most deservedly praised cello players of all time)

"Obrigado!"
✅—Founding Member Darius Mans (economist, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); president-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

"I'm truly thankful ... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini (piano, Blue Note recording artist)

"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals (klezmer fiddle; founder of The Klezmatics)

"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad (composer & piano; compositions recorded by Yo Yo Ma and played by orchestras around the world)

This is a matrix in the original sense of "source" ("matrix" derives from "mater", Latin for "mother"). The platform was built in Bahia, Brazil in order to provide a means by which Bahian artists could be reached from around the world. But there's a beautiful catch: To work for these people the platform must work for ALL in the global creative economy. It must (work to) create an INTEGRATED GLOBAL CREATIVE ECONOMY.
How a) Inside this matrix you have a node (a page) — a calling card to the universe — from which you can curate (recommend) other people in the network, and by which they can recommend you.
How b) In mathematics there is something called "the small world phenomenon". Human society is "small world" (which is how most of the 8 billion of us of are within some 6 or so steps of each other). Neurons in the human brain are "small world". The internet is "small world".
How c) This matrix is "small world". Nodes tend to be a small number of steps apart. You can potentially step from any node to any other. You can get to João do Boi from Quincy Jones in 4 steps. And from Quincy Jones to you.
Participation is free to people. Businesses outside of Bahia, Brazil will be levied a nominal fee.
Artificial intelligence not necessary. Real intelligence, yes. The matrix is a real mother for ya! Odoyá!

← in english

VOCÊ ESTÁ NO MATRIX?

"Muito obrigado por isso - estou tocado!"
✅—Julian Lloyd Webber
Estamos tocados também Sr. Webber! (Julian Lloyd Webber está entre os merecidamente mais elogiados violoncelistas de todos os tempos)

"Obrigado!"
✅—Membro Fundador Darius Mans (economista, doutorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); presidente eleito do Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

"Estou realmente agradecido... Sohlangana ngokuzayo :)"
✅—Nduduzo Makhathini (piano, artista da Blue Note)

"Obrigada, esta é uma ideia brilhante!!"
✅—Alicia Svigals (violino klezmer; fundadora da The Klezmatics)

"Este é um trabalho super impressionante! Parabéns! Obrigada por me incluir :)))"
✅—Clarice Assad (compositora & piano; composições gravadas por Yo Yo Ma e tocadas por orquestras ao redor do mundo)

Este é uma matrix no sentido original de "fonte" ("matrix" deriva de "mater", latim para "mãe"). A plataforma foi construída na Bahia, Brasil, a fim de fornecer um meio pelo qual artistas baianos pudessem ser alcançados de ao redor do mundo. Mas existe um porém lindo: Para funcionar para essas pessoas a plataforma deve funcionar para TODOS na economia criativa global. Deve (trabalhar pra) criar uma ECONOMIA CRIATIVA GLOBAL INTEGRADA.
Como a) O matrix é uma rede de pessoas/entidades na economia criativa global. Você tem um nó (uma página) — um cartão de visita para o universo numa lista de informações do século 21 que circula o mundo — de onde pode selecionar (recomendar) outras pessoas na rede, e elas podem recomendar você.
Como b) Na matemática existe algo chamado "o fenômeno do mundo pequeno". A sociedade humana é um "mundo pequeno" (que é como a maioria dos 8 bilhões de nós estão dentro de mais ou menos 6 passos de um ao outro). Os neurônios no cérebro humano são um "mundo pequeno". A internet é um "mundo pequeno".
Como c) Este matrix é "pequeno mundo". Os nós tendem a estar separados por um pequeno número de etapas. Você pode potencialmente passar de qualquer nó para qualquer outro. Você pode chegar ao João do Boi de Quincy Jones em 4 etapas. E de Quincy Jones a você.
A participação é gratuita para pessoas. As empresas fora da Bahia, Brasil serão cobradas uma taxa nominal.
Inteligência artificial não necessária. Inteligência real, sim. O matrix é uma verdadeira mãe! Odoyá!