As the 10th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s final album and his death approaches, his official YouTube account has shared an interview with the album’s producer, Tony Visconti.
In the 11-minute video, Visconti--a longtime Bowie collaborator who worked with the legendary musician on 12 of his studio albums—reflects on the artist’s goals and the sound he was pursuing on Blackstar, which was released on Jan. 8, 2016. Bowie died just two days later at the age of 69 following an 18-month fight with liver cancer, which he kept secret until after his death.
In the video, which was shared on the Facebook account of Bowie’s widow, iconic fashion model Iman, Visconti described his involvement in Blackstar, dating back to a phone call from Bowie.
“David phoned me up for another album, he said, ‘Let’s get together and have a little chinwag,’” which is the first time I’ve ever heard that word, ‘chinwag,’” Visconti explained.
Initially, Visconti was surprised that Bowie wanted to make another album, but the “Changes” singer told the producer he’d “already written a few good songs.”
Jazz Dreams
One of those songs, “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” co-written with Maria Schneider, set the tone for the album. “She’s also a great arranger who studied with Stan Kenton. She was big time and both Bowie and I were Stan Kenton fans, who was an avant-garde jazz arranger from the 1950s,” Visconti explained.
Although initially fans were confused by this direction, Visconti said that Bowie had long desired to explore this musical approach. “He always loved big band music and wanted to make a big band record. So this was a brand-new world opening for David and myself.”
Exploring the jazz genre presented a dilemma for Bowie, Visconti said, because Bowie’s band was comprised of rock musicians. Although they were good musicians and could play jazz, “we realized they would only be rock musicians attempting to play like jazz, real jazz.”
To rectify that problem, Bowie and Visconti called in Donny McCasslin and his band. “We knew that we have real jazz musicians that who could actually imitate rock musicians better than rock musician could imitate jazz musicians,” he added.
The jazz musicians, used to improvising, record much quicker than rock musicians, Visconti explained, and that seemed to please Bowie, who had dreams of working as a jazz player. “We all know that David played baritone sax over the years,” the producer added. “He always in his heart of hearts, wished he could be a better jazz musician.”
'One of His Greatest'
Though the mixing sessions for the album were arduous, in the end both Bowie and Visconti were pleased with the collection.
“I’m so happy his last album was among one of his greatest,” Visconti said. “He didn’t go out like a has-been. He went out like a legend, like a God. And I want people to think of it like that.”
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