Donny McCaslin

Donny McCaslin has been a professional musician since age 12. He has integrated the entire range of tenor sax sounds, from mainstream and modern to funky fusion to laid-back balmy ballads, indie rock, space age funk, and post-bop. While recognized by the larger music-loving public for his contribution to 2016's Blackstar, David Bowie's final studio album, McCaslin's interrogatory approach to jazz as American pop music is myriad and long-lived. He delivered modernist, post-bop versions of standards on 2003's The Way Through, as well as a dramatic emotional approach to jazz fusion on 2009's Declaration. 2012's Casting for Gravity perfected McCaslin's genre-melding style, bringing together angular avant-jazz with splintered funk, ambient soundscapes, and exotica. The approach blossomed on 2016's Beyond Now. 2018's Blow revealed the band's experience with Bowie, altering their mode of expression. 2023's I Want More offered a bracing, futurist approach. 2025's rock-influenced Lullaby for the Lost was guitar-driven.