Jazz Articles about Donny McCaslin

Donny McCaslin: The Way Through

by AAJ Staff
February 8, 2004

It's not because he lacks talent or he hasn't been playing in the right circles, but somehow Donny McCaslin has never made a real breakthrough until The Way Through. This is his third record as a leader, though he's been active on the road and in the studio since his days at Berklee. Some may remember Steps Ahead (check out Vibe, 1994) or Lan Zang (eg. Hidden Gardens, 2000), but quite honestly this is the place to start if you're ...

Donny McCaslin: The Way Through

by Florence Wetzel
January 21, 2004

The Way Through explores the many colors of jazz while at the same time respectfully stretching the music’s boundaries. Donny McCaslin, a tenor saxophonist with a rich, warm sound, is also an extremely skilled arranger with an interesting use of space. The basic instrumentation here is sax, bass, and drums, but there’s also sax duet improvisations, solo work by McCaslin, and judicious use of voice, steel pan, and sampler. McCaslin has many paints on his palette, and his selections are ...

Donny McCaslin: The Way Through

by Mark Corroto
December 4, 2003

Why should you listen to new jazz recordings? There will never be another Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, or Charles Mingus. Nor will there be another Jaco Pastorius, Thomas Chapin, or Tom Cora.

We listen because each new generation produces a voice that resonates somewhere deep within our souls. And discovery of that voice is one of the most cherished experiences of listening.

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin has one of those resonating voices. He has become, as ...

Donny McCaslin: Feeling the Spirit

by Bruce Crowther
October 16, 2003

When I play, I try to remember what this music means to me as a listener. When I hear something that really speaks to me on an emotional level -- like, say, a solo by Lester Young -- that is when I know what this is all about.

The speaker is Donny McCaslin, who was born on August 11, 1966, in Santa Clara, California. Although his parents, Don and Jeanina, were divorced when he was a small child, ...

Donny McCaslin: Seen From Above

by Glenn Astarita
October 1, 2000

When tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin hits his stride, he can hold his own with the best of them. On his first recording for the “Arabesque Recordings” label, titled Seen From Above, and second as a leader, the saxophonist incorporates some of the hard nosed voicings and complex time signatures also exhibited in the fine band, “Lan Xang”. - An outfit, that features the blazing dual sax attack of McCaslin and saxophonist David Binney.

Along with drummer Jim Black, bassist Scott ...

David Binney: Free To Dream

by John W. Patterson
August 1, 1999

Binney is known to many as the sax genius of Lost Tribe and his skill is no less evident herein — in Binney's chosen dreamworld, a musical vibe, a flow, where he is free. Running his own record label, going the freshly popular independent route, affords total control and thus creativity and style unbounded by the prickly hedges of commercialism's maze.Believe me, this spirit works well to my ears. Binney's eleven compositions echo a fuller, matured Lost Tribe ...

Donny McCaslin: Exile and Discovery

by Glenn Astarita
March 1, 1999

1998 was a busy yet productive year for this young and gifted tenor saxophonist who hails from California. Donny McCaslin collaborated with sax dynamo David Binney on several projects for Binney’s Mythology record label which included Binney’s and Edward Simon’s fine solo recordings and the McCaslin-Binney turbo charged outing “Lan Xang”. McCaslin attended Boston’s Berklee School of Music and has performed with Gary Burton, The Mingus Big Band, Steps Ahead and other notables of the jazz world. On “Exile and ...