David Bowie's Blackstar band to launch tribute album

Donny McCaslin Group perform at Newport Jazz Festival 2016
Donny McCaslin Group perform at Newport Jazz Festival 2016 (Image credit: Getty)

The band who appeared on David Bowie’s last work Blackstar will pay tribute to the late music icon with their upcoming album, Beyond Now.

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his jazz group will release the record on October 14. The album includes covers of Bowie tracks Warszawa and A Small Plot Of Land, among renditions of songs from other acts including Mutemath, Deadmau5 and the Chainsmokers.

McCaslin tells Entertainment Weekly: “Looking at him when I was playing in the studio and the conviction and the passion that he sang with, that’s the same way that I play as a saxophone player.

He adds: “The title track Beyond Now is directly inspired by a song of David’s that we recorded during the Blackstar sessions, but that didn’t make the final record. All the originals were written last summer – before he passed away, but while the Blackstar recordings were still really fresh.

“Songs of his were just kind of running through my unconscious. That was part of it.”

Beyond Now is available to pre-order.

Last month it was revealed that upcoming David Bowie box set Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), will include his unreleased album The Gouster, which he completed before reshaping it into 1975 record Young Americans.

Donny McCaslin Beyond Now tracklist

  1. Shake Loose
  2. A Small Plot of Land
  3. Beyond Now
  4. Coelacanth 1
  5. Bright Abyss
  6. Faceplant
  7. Warszawa
  8. Glory
  9. Remain

David Bowie: 1977, back from the abyss and changing music forever...

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.

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