“Everybody knows me now”
If you didn’t catch the NPR Music All Songs Considered broadcast earlier today, you can now listen to the podcast online.
Aside from the US premiere of Lazarus, Tony Visconti and Donny McCaslin were also in conversation with Bob Boilen regarding working on the ★ album.
It’s a fascinating insight into Bowie’s recent working methods, albeit far too brief.
Here's a quotation each from both Tony and Donny.
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Tony Visconti: "He had one key jazz player in his band for well over a decade, maybe two decades and that was Mike Garson, who is a very accomplished jazz pianist. And so, he always had a hint of jazz in sort of the earlier things. And David has a remarkable knowledge of jazz chords. I don't think he quite knows what they're called. I mean, I don't even know what they're called, but they have things like 13th in them and flatted 9ths and all that. And you don't hear that in an average rock song. But they were well hidden in the recordings of the past. Or eluded to."
Donny McCaslin: "It progressed pretty steadily from a song or two, to a few songs, to kind of a whole recording project. I was, of course, absolutely interested in doing it. I mean, I love him so much. Love his work and so I got back to him, told him I was into it and just one thing led to another. He sent me, I can't remember how many tunes, maybe six or seven before the first time we got together to record, and every song was really strong and the demos were really strong. And in fact, when we ended up recording, we pretty much were true to the demo forms he had sent. So it was tremendous."
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Listen to the full interview here now.
FOOTNOTE: We should point out that though the picture of Donny in our montage is relatively recent, the image of Tony and David is of them larking around in the studio from the days before Donny was wearing long trousers.
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