Donny McCaslin

Donny McCaslin is best known as the saxophonist/bandleader & musical director on David Bowie’s last album, Blackstar. The noted composer and bandleader has released a dozen albums over his genre-defying, Grammy-nominated career. After attending Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, McCaslin became a sought-after player in New York City primarily in the Jazz world. David Bowie saw McCaslin perform as soloist for the Maria Schneider Orchestra and brought in McCaslin’s progressive jazz quartet that came to define Blackstar’s visionary stylistic fusion. As David Hadju wrote in The Nation, “Donny McCaslin was David Bowie’s David Bowie.” In turn, Bowie influenced McCaslin, who fused alt-rock and jazz on his first album with lyrics, 2018’s BLOW., to global acclaim.