Donny McCaslin
I Want More
EDITION
Long before his renown as part of Maria Schneider’s oblong Data Lords, leading the jazz-not-jazz reverie of David Bowie’s Blackstar, and touring with Elvis Costello, there was a punk-/art-rock edginess to saxophonist Donny McCaslin’s work, a stately, sinister tone to his compositions and his emotional improvising technique that signaled a mix of the fussy, the frank, and the downright weird. With all that, McCaslin is Charlie Rouse for electro-heads, dub-steppers, and space cadets. Joining forces, then, with new producer Dave Fridmann (most famous for his amniotically fluid collaborations with The Flaming Lips) and old friends Jason Lindner, Tim Lefebvre, and Mark Guiliana for I Want More doesn’t so much surprise as it does add another notch to McCaslin’s own Orion’s belt.
Starting with “Stria” and the saxophonist’s blown-hard horn in the foreground of Fridmann’s mix, McCaslin defies easy classification by moving from quiet Philip Glass–like repetition to a raucous group finale with slips of dub and prog-rock-worthy drumming in between its poles. Bathed in echoing FX, sci-fi squiggles, and blip-hop noises, “Fly My Spaceship” is a portrait of flightiness grounded by McCaslin’s dry, underproduced sax. Imagine mid-’70s era Gene Ammons blowing amidst the twinkles of a Fender Rhodes and stardust percussion—that’s the spaceship McCaslin’s on.
While the saxophonist’s ever-so-slightly detuned melody line on “Hold Me Tight” and the more symmetrical “Big Screen” are reminiscent of Bowie’s sainted “Lazarus” balladry, the faster-paced “Body Blow” is crisp and curt with a nearly bluesy McCaslin triggering sequencers with every screech and honk. “Body Blow” actually manages to sound dangerous and discomforting—how often does that happen?
Commenced as a toil-troubling, synthetically bubbling bounce, “Turbo” finds its tender humanity in a gorgeously ascendant bridge and McCaslin’s equally uplifted and swirling solos. Handsomely, but with more gloss than necessary, McCaslin tried a similar tech-groove on his last album, 2018’s Blow. This time, however, Fridmann’s blend of airiness and grit helps McCaslin to truly find his ghostly romantic heart in the center of the machine with tremulously melodic tracks such as “Turbo” and the warmly strung out and orchestral “Landsdown.”
With each album in his leader career starting with 1998’s Exile and Discovery, the saxophonist and composer has longed to remake trad jazz as a spacey, genre-jumbling, synth-and-sequence-filled mysterioso. With the help of Fridmann and his trio of familiars on I Want More, McCaslin has nailed the moon landing.
