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Jazz Articles about Donny McCaslin
Donny McCaslin: Lullaby for the Lost
by Neil Duggan
Saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his band's collaboration on David Bowie's final album Blackstar (ISO Records, 2016) marked a pivotal moment in McCaslin's career. Following Bowie's death just two days after the album's release, McCaslin transitioned from being a well-respected jazz musician to achieving international recognition. His band's innovative contributions helped make Bowie's final album a critically acclaimed late-career highlight. Since then, McCaslin's brand of innovative, contemporary jazz fusion has continued breaking through barriers to define a distinctive sound ...
Continue ReadingDonny McCaslin and the Macedonian National Jazz Orchestra at the National Theatre in Macedonia
by Nenad Georgievski
Donny McCaslin and the Macedonian National Jazz Orchestra Macedonian National Theatre Skopje, Macedonia July 14, 2025 It's not every day that Skopje's National Theatre transforms into a playground for jazz on this scale, but when it does, the walls remember. On this particular evening, the Macedonian National Jazz Orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Nikolov, shared the stage with Donny McCaslin, a saxophonist whose career has oscillated between modern jazz, genre-bending fusion, and collaborations with ...
Continue ReadingRyan Truesdell: Shades of Sound
by Angelo Leonardi
Shades of Sound costituisce il secondo volume del Gil Evans Project di Ryan Truesdell, inciso dal vivo al Jazz Standard di New York. Data d'incisione e organico sono gli stessi di Lines of Color, il primo volume registrato dal 13 al 18 maggio 2014 con una formazione di 23 musicisti più il leader, scelti tra i solisti più brillanti di New York: i sassofonisti Donny McCaslin, Dave Pietro, Steve Wilson, i trombettisti Mat Jodrell e Greg Gisbert, i trombonisti Ryan ...
Continue ReadingRyan Truesdell / Gil Evans Project: Shades Of Sound
by Jack Kenny
Shades of Sound is not about Ryan Truesdell recreating the past. There are excellent reasons to listen to recreations of the music of Gil Evans. As critic Bill Mathieu wrote of Evans, “The mind reels at the intricacy of his orchestral and developmental techniques. His scores are so careful, so formally well-constructed, so mindful of tradition that you feel the originals should be preserved under glass in a Florentine museum" (Mathieu in Max Harrison, Jazz Profiles, 2011). Evans ...
Continue ReadingRyan Truesdell: Shades Of Sound
by Pierre Giroux
Ryan Truesdell's Shades of Sounds: Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 2 is a triumphant continuation of his lovingly curated Gil Evans Project--a musical venture focusing on both preservation and revelation. With this latest volume, Truesdell guides us through Evans' well-known sonic landscape and deeper into the vaults, unearthing four never-before-recorded arrangements that offer a renewed understanding of the composer's nuanced brilliance. Truesdell's decision to record live at Jazz Standard is both philosophical and ...
Continue ReadingRoss McHenry: Waves
by Nenad Georgievski
One of the reasons jazz is so intriguing is its wide range of styles and unpredictability. It has always been tricky to define. It is a genre that is constantly evolving, picking up influences along the way, and adapting in ways that can blur the lines between styles. While the term jazz often suggests something hard to pin down, labels can provide a useful way to describe the key features of a particular release. Packed with unpredictable forms, formats, rhythms ...
Continue ReadingAndy Ezrin: I Was Here
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Andy Ezrin should be heard more often, and by a far wider audience. Like all commanders of the keyboard, he can make his chosen instrument sing, sigh, sway or soar, as he does the Fender Rhodes and Hammond B3 organ whenever he so chooses. On I Was Here, Ezrin doubles as composer, performing thirteen of his charming compositions in groups ranging from trio to quintet before playing the last one, “Cascades," alone. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin sits ...
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