Jazzkaar Interviews: Donny McCaslin

Tallinn's nine-day Jazzkaar festival is one of Europe's finest, always strengthening its line-up via visiting Statesiders, native Estonians and a spread of acts from around the continent. One of its climaxes in 2026 will be the appearance of tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, striking out with his powerful and stable quartet lineup, and concentrating on 2025's Lullaby For The Lost album, released by the mighty British label Edition Records. With records by Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Ben Wendel and Kurt Elling in their catalogue, the label has increasingly become the home for US signings, whilst still maintaining its European commitments.

McCaslin doesn't think that he has appeared at Jazzkaar before, but recalls being in Tallinn at the end of the 1990s. He was already established as one of the globe's most acclaimed saxophonists, but McCaslin drew in another audience, following his pivotal 2015 work on David Bowie's final album Blackstar. A pronounced Ziggy influence has flooded the tenor man's subsequent output, but it must be remembered that the Thin White Duke actually selected McCaslin (and his surrounding posse) as collaborators because they had already been creating innovative electronically-infused jazz grooves on the New York City scene for many years. So Bowie was also influenced by McCaslin, keyboardist Jason Lindner, guitarist Ben Monder and drummer Zach Danziger, all of whom appeared on Lullaby For The Lost. Bowie knew what he was getting. McCaslin had already produced consistently fine work with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, as well as leading his own innovative, electronics-spangled quartet.

Lullaby For The Lost was produced by bassist Tim Lefebvre , another crucial figure on that same scene. McCaslin has sculpted a cinematic landscape that's blanketed in soft (and hard) distortions, but his own horn is frequently coated in a contrastingly warm character. There is a brooding, urban overwhelm at play throughout. LeFebvre co-wrote some of the tunes on the album, and remains active in the quartet, although he wasn't able to come out on this European tour.

Your scribe caught up with him a few days before McCaslin embarked on this impressive eight-date tour, set to take in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and a pair of dates for Jazzkaar, the first being in the southern town of Põlva, followed by Tallinn itself. He'll be bringing out Lindner, Danziger and the UK bassist Rob Mullarkey. "We're excited to have him [Mullarkey] on the tour, it'll be a new dynamic, and he's going to fit right in, it'll be great to have him," McCaslin enthuses.

It has been a few years since this scrawler reeled to a McCaslin set, but there were a pair of stunning sets at A-Trane (Berlin, 2017) and Storyville (Molde, 2018). The latter featured extensive freak-outs from Lindner's corner of extreme electro-blanketed keyboards. This band was operating at peak power, as McCaslin stalked the stage, striking stick insect poses as he blew directly in each player's direction as a form of conduction. The band climaxed with a Bowie chestnut, ending with Lodger's lesser- heard "Look Back In Anger," in a singalong and soloing extravaganza, this outfit now operating on a gigantic, authoritative scale.

"It'll be primarily music from that album," said McCaslin of Lullaby. "but I will also be going back in time, and I also have a new piece that I'm going to unfurl on this tour. We'll likely play something from Blackstar, as that's a meaningful thing to do... " Especially as it is now a decade since Bowie's departure. "It'll be a combination of all those things."

The album smoulders with a scorching live sound, capturing the tension between these well-versed players. "That was how we recorded it all," said McCaslin. "All together, and there were overdubs, with Tim and Dave [Stapleton] producing, adding guitars and synths. It was really important to capture the spirit of how we play together live. The sound's had a chance to evolve, and for this record, the things that I was listening to, to stimulate my creative imagination, were Neil Young , a particular recording that was meaningful for me, as a source of material, Le Noise, produced by Daniel Lanois, as well as Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine . There's also a particular record that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross produced for the pop singer Halsey. It's a great production job!"

McCaslin is very enthusiastic regarding his Edition platform. "I love Edition Records, they do a great job, and I'm so happy to be working with them. I've been working on new music during the last couple of months, but not sure what the direction was, and also with the climate that we're living in, it's so chaotic, and from my personal point of view I was searching for what to listen to next. I think that I was, part of me was wanting to hear something more soothing, not angry music, something more dreamy, so it led to an intense period during the last two months, listening to Beach House. Ben Monder is a big fan of them, we talk about them a lot. I've just written four or five new pieces, that's in process."

McCaslin has also been continuing his big band work, in a new setting. "I was fortunate to get commissioned by the Danish Radio Big Band, to write a program of music, and we debuted that last Fall, so we're going to record it this year. Then, I also have a collaboration album coming out in June, with a singer-guitarist, Ryan Dahle."

Now, casting back a decade, let's look at that first experience with David Bowie, turning up at the streetwise 55 Bar in Greenwich Village, to check out McCaslin's combo. "I knew he was coming, through Maria Schneider," McCaslin recalled. "She had basically introduced my music to him, and suggested that he do something with me, so at a certain point she called and said, 'we're going to come to the 55 Bar.' I told Mark [Giuliana] about it, but I didn't tell the other guys, because we were playing our tune-up gig for the recording which becameFast Future [Greenleaf Music, 2015], but we didn't want to distract from the preparation, so basically I didn't look for him when we were playing, but I do recall at one point actually seeing him, but just looked away..! I tried not to think about it. I think that he was mostly unnoticed, but afterwards, I think that one of the bartenders said 'Hey, I think that David Bowie was here.' He was noticed, but it didn't cause a commotion."

This was just before McCaslin and Schneider began working on the "Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)" song. "They had met multiple times to work on the song, so about four or five days after that night we had the first rehearsal for that piece, and it was myself, Mark, Jonathan Maron on bass, Ryan Keberle on trombone, Maria, David and Tony Visconti."