Blackstar Symphony: The Music of David Bowie | 7:30pm | Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street | All ages | $45–$135
Over a nearly 50-year career, David Bowie thrilled and inspired audiences with his memorable songs, and constantly evolving musical style and image. Blackstar, his final album, was a typically adventurous turn into a fusion of free jazz and electronic music. It also turned out to be a farewell from the artist to his fans, as Bowie passed away several days after the album’s release. Part of Blackstar’s bold and interesting appeal was the supporting musicians who helped bring Bowie’s vision to life. One of them was Donny McCaslin, who played tenor saxophone, flute, and woodwinds on Blackstar.
McCaslin is the artistic director of Blackstar Symphony: The Music of David Bowie, a show that explores the music of David Bowie’s Blackstar with a symphony orchestra and an ensemble of other musicians and vocalists, many of whom also played on the Blackstar album, or with David Bowie elsewhere in his career.
As McCaslin and company prepare to bring the show to St. Louis this Friday with a special one-timer performance with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, we sat down with Donny himself to talk about what went into making the show a reality, and about what audiences can expect.
The Arts STL: Hi Donny. When I saw this press release come across, I was thrilled because I’m a longtime David Bowie fan, and Blackstar is one of my favorite records of his. To see it getting this treatment is really exciting. You’re the artistic director and the co-music director of the show. You also played on the original Blackstar album. Does giving the album’s songs the symphonic treatment allow you to find additional nuance in the songs that you already know?
Donny McCaslin: It does. I would say that the idea for us was that the Blackstar record would be like a blueprint, a point of departure. We wanted to retain the DNA of what felt essential about the record, but then also take it into new territory, having this incredible option of 65 or 75 orchestra members. The vision was to reimagine this music with the orchestra and with these elements of orchestra, band, and singers, and to make it one cohesive ensemble so that when all the elements are blended together, the music really comes alive in the arrangements. We worked really hard with that vision so that the orchestra would be really included in the writing. Sometimes there’s a thing where there’s a rock band or whatever, and the orchestra is just playing like whole notes behind them, and they’re getting drowned out because of the volume on the stage. That’s not our intention here at all. The intention was that the orchestra writing would be really enveloped in what we’re doing and that there’s just so many essential parts of this music that are in the orchestra and woven around what we’re doing.
So, yeah, it was a way to re-imagine the record and to take it to some different places and create a new piece of art based on the DNA of Blackstar.
Speaking in those terms, it’s an evolution.
Yeah, that’s a great word. I think it was rather than doing the greatest hits, “play everything just like their album” thing, it’s a way for us to evolve with the music and go somewhere different. And ultimately, I think about what David’s vision was as an artist and how he was constantly changing, he was constantly courageous and constantly pushing the envelope. And so that was part of what factored into this as well. It’s like, if we’re going to do this, we want to do it in a way that he would feel good about and he would want to hear. That was part of the modus operandi at the beginning.
That’s great. That actually plays into one of the other questions that I had for you that I’ll get to a little bit later.
In addition to the Blackstar material, the show contains other Bowie songs. How did you decide which songs would not just complement the main focus of Blackstar, but be adaptable to an orchestra?
I think there was a discernment process, as you could imagine. [Bowie] was obviously somebody who had such a huge catalog of music. There was a lot of time spent listening and contemplating what would be an appropriate addition to Blackstar. For me, a lot of it came down to what felt connected to that. I probably don’t have a strict definition for you of what I mean by connected, but something about the spirit of it that I just felt it all worked together.
It was a long process of considering things and considering the format. Do we do “Young Americans”? Ultimately, the call was like, I love that tune so much. I know [vocalist] Gail [Ann Dorsey] loves to sing it. It’s one of her favorite Bowie tunes, but at the end, it was like, no, with the instrumentation we have and with the orchestra, not the greatest fit. But we chose, for example, “Life on Mars?,” which is just unbelievable.
I cannot wait to hear that.
It’s unbelievable. And that one, it’s just Gail, the orchestra, and myself playing a little bit on saxophone, but it’s really an incredible journey, that song.
We have a similar treatment of “Where Are We Now,” the ballad from The Next Day album.
Yeah, where it just breaks down again to orchestra, saxophone, and voice.
I think part of it also was balancing Blackstar, as you know, with its heavy themes of mortality, with the other choices. All of those were factors.
That’s a great answer, because I was curious if there were songs that you wanted to work into the show but weren’t unable to, or felt didn’t fit the format or whatever. But it sounds like you really reached deep to find songs that fit not just thematically, but also sonically.
Again, it was a long process. But what’s nice about this, too, is if the audience is interested, we have the ability to do an encore presentation. We’ve done that so far in these shows. At a certain point, with the union rules being what they are, there’s a certain amount of time allotted to be with the orchestra on stage. But we’ve also been doing these encores where we’re able to break down the small group of singers and rock out on a few tunes that wouldn’t probably be great with an orchestra. But when we break down the small group, it works. We’re able to give a little taste of that, too, which is really fun.
It’s great to have that flexibility.
Oh, yeah, absolutely. We can let go a little and dance around the stage and whatnot. It’s been really fun. That’s evolved as we’ve done this show.
You talked about the band and you talked about Gail Ann Dorsey. [A member of Bowie’s band from 1995-2004] This show features some really impressive players, including yourself, obviously, Gail, and drummer Nate Wood. You’ve got John Cameron Mitchell coming in to sing. That’s an inspired choice of guest star, especially because he’s Headwig, right? [Mitchell wrote, directed, and starred in the titular role in 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a film, and later musical, with strong glam-era Bowie influences.] He seemed like he would really know how to inhabit that Bowie space to begin with.
Well, he does. He could tell you more clearly, but my understanding is that Bowie was a big influence on him and a big influence on the character of Hedwig. He has a wonderful role in this show, and he inhabits the character that he comes on stage with. He’s so charismatic. There’s such a vibe with what John brings. So it’s a lot of fun having him there. He’s been great. He’s been a part of this from the first show, and we’re grateful to have him. And you mentioned Gail has that long history playing in David’s band. And so for her, she’s just an integral part of this whole thing, and she’s an incredible musician. She’s played with so many people over the years: in Olivia Newton-John’s Band, Tears for Fears, Lenny Kravitz, The National. She’s a musician’s musician. Just wonderful
I was going over her Wikipedia page the other day and noticed all of her credits. She’s been on so many things that I love that I didn’t realize that she played on.
I should also mention David Poe, our other singer. He was in New York for a long time, and now he’s been out in Los Angeles for a while. He’s a great songwriter, singer, and he brings a really soulful presence to the stage. It’s interesting, he has the hardest songs to sing in the show, but he does a wonderful job. The balance of the three of them, it’s a great combination because they each have their unique approach and their unique energy, and they complement each other really well.
I can’t wait to hear that, too. My final question is a little open-ended, but is there anything that you’d like the show’s audience, or people considering getting tickets to come see it, to know about it?
Well, I would say a couple of things. One is, through the long history of David’s career, there have been a lot of tribute things and this and that. His estate or his management never signed off on any of them. But for this show, they are. They’re partners in this. His estate, his management, they’re all part of the background of the team, and that the people that have done this, Gail, myself, the band, half of the band from Blackastar will be in St. Louis. So we’re all people who were there in the room with David when it happened, so to speak, and that we’re approaching this from a place of trying to make this the highest artistic experience it can be for the audience. And we bring a lot of reverence for David, love for this music, deep love for this music. And we’re excited about presenting it in this new light, as you and I talked about earlier, with orchestra, with a combination of these elements. There’s also a beautiful light show that was designed that folks will see when they see this.
It’s a beautiful piece of art with all these elements together. So I want people to know that it’s not just a tribute show. We’re trying to get in touch with the spirit of the music and who [Bowie] was as an artist and move that forward. It’s been an emotional journey. The last shows we had were at the Kennedy Center. We had two nights there, and it was really packed. There were a lot of tears in the audience, a lot of people who loved David so much, for whom his artistry meant so much to their lives. I think for people to see this record, which was obviously never performed live, and is a record that a lot of people, I think, got, but I think it’s still hard for people who are hardcore fans of his to hear this because it just brings up all these feelings around his passing and what he meant to them.
We’re able to present this live on this scale with the magnitude of these orchestrators that we work with: Vince Mendoza, Maria Schneider, Tim Davies, Jules Buckley, Tony Visconti, who produced many of David’s records. They’re all involved in this. All of those people did orchestration work for this. It feels like it’s a special thing for everybody involved. Us on the stage, too, we always approach this with humility and reverence and with a lot of deep love.
Anyone reading this who’s a fan of Bowie, I think will be highly intrigued by that. I personally can’t wait. You were talking about the emotional connection to his music and Blackstar and how it relates to his passing away. I put the album on the turntable last night, and it was almost difficult to listen to in places just because I equate it so much with when it came out, and then mere days later he was gone. It’s so hard to, especially with the themes of mortality and death and departure in the record, separate those no matter how long you live with the album. But I digress. This should be a phenomenal show, and it sounds like you put an immense amount of care and time into it.
Thank you.
We look forward to it. Thank you for taking time to talk to me today.
Thanks. It’s a real pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for the thoughtful questions. You’re very welcome. I look forward to seeing you [in St. Louis] in February. | Mike Rengel
Catch Blackstar Symphony: The Music of David Bowie, one night only, at Stifel Theatre on Friday, February 7th at 7:30pm. Tickets start at $45. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
