LPR WJF Marathon Schedule

Friday, January 6th
6:20pm – Daymé Arocena
7:40pm – Dave Douglas & High Risk with Shigeto
9:00pm – Donny McCaslin Group

Saturday, January 7th
6:20pm – Michael Leonhart Orchestra
7:40pm – Shabaka & The Ancestors
9:00pm – Quantic Live

Visit www.winterjazzfest.com for the full NYC Winter Jazzfest Marathon lineup and schedule.

Donny McCaslin official site | Donny McCaslin on Facebook | Donny McCaslin on Twitter | Donny McCaslin on YouTube

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his band, featured on David Bowie’s Blackstar, will make their Motéma Music debut with the October 14, 2016 release of Beyond Now, a highly anticipated album dedicated to Bowie. Recorded nearly three months after Bowie’s passing, the project is deeply influenced by their extraordinary experience collaborating with one of the greatest artists of all-time on his final album.

“It was like a dream except it was something I never could have dreamed of,” reflects McCaslin on working hand-in-hand with Bowie on Blackstar. “David Bowie was a visionary artist whose generosity, creative spirit, and fearlessness will stay with me the rest of my days. Beyond Now is dedicated to him and to all who loved him.”

Comprised of core Blackstar personnel, bassist Tim Lefebvre (Tedeschi Trucks Band, Saturday Night Live), drummer Mark Guiliana (Meshell Ndegeocello, Brad Mehldau), and Jason Lindner(Now Vs Now) along with guitarist Nate Wood and producer David Binney, Beyond Now’s repertoire is expansive, comprised of two Bowie songs, covers of Deadmau5, MUTEMATH, and the Chainsmokers, as well as compelling McCaslin originals including the title composition, inspired by a track inspired by a song McCaslin recorded for Blackstar that didn’t make the album.

With three GRAMMY® nominations and 11 albums to his name, McCaslin’s path to Bowie and Beyond Now can be traced back to 2011 with the release of his album Perpetual Motion, taking on an electric direction for the first time in contrast to his previous acoustic projects. Two subsequent albums Casting for Gravity (2012) and Fast Future (2015) released with his working band were directly influenced by electronica artists (covering groups such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and Baths), which netted McCaslin a 2013 GRAMMY® nomination for “Best Improvised Jazz Solo.”

The once in a lifetime opportunity to work with David Bowie came after composer Maria Schneider, a longtime collaborator, recommended McCaslin and his group to Bowie. Schneider and Bowie were collaborating on the track “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” which featured McCaslin as a soloist. In June 2014, Bowie heeded Schneider’s advice and made a visit to hear McCaslin and company at the 55 Bar in Greenwich Village. Soon after, Bowie began corresponding with McCaslin over email and sending music, forming a new collaboration and friendship that transpired through the recording of Blackstar until Bowie’s passing. The result is Beyond Now, which documents “David Bowie’s Last Band” as they were processing both their grief and Bowie’s distinctive impact.

“This new album is an expression of that journey for all of us,” says McCaslin. “David allowed Blackstar to be what it was going to be regardless of how people might have categorized it. More than anything, it was his fearlessness in crossing musical boundaries and genres in his music and life that inspired the approach I’m taking in Beyond Now. I am indebted to Bowie for showing me the risks and rewards of going for your uncompromising musical vision.”

Dave Douglas official site | Dave Douglas on Facebook | Dave Douglas on Twitter | Dave Douglas on Instagram

Dave Douglas is a prolific trumpeter, composer, educator and entrepreneur from New York City known for the stylistic breadth of his work and for keeping a diverse set of ensembles and projects active simultaneously.

His unique contributions to improvised music have garnered distinguished recognition, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland award, and two GRAMMY® nominations. While his career spans more than 40 recordings as a leader, his active projects include his Quintet; Sound Prints, a quintet co-led with saxophonist Joe Lovano; Riverside, a quartet co-led with Chet Doxas; a duo with pianist Uri Caine; and, debuting in 2015, High Risk, an electronic music-influenced quartet with Mark Guiliana, Jonathan Maron and Shigeto.

Two 2015 projects demonstrate his virtuosity as well as his penchant for wide ranging explorations of new genres and creatively enriching partnerships with other musicians. High Risk, released June 2015, is a collaboration with electronic music artist Shigeto, backed by Jonathan Maron on bass and Mark Guiliana on drums. According to Seth Colter Walls in Pitchfork: “Simultaneously chill and surprising, it’s the sound of a group discovering a valid language, and then proceeding to push the limits of that new aesthetic.” Sound Prints: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival captures the Wayne Shorter-inspired collaboration between Douglas and Lovano. Martin Johnson of the Wall Street Journal calls the music “diverse, abstract and yet highly accessible” while Fred Kaplan wrote in Stereophile: “They’re among the most vibrant, dizzying jazz bands around. Douglas and Lovano bounce off each other with an energy and virtuosity I’ve rarely seen either sustain in other settings (and that’s saying a lot).”

Douglas introduced his new quintet with a debut recording, Be Still, in September 2012. Featuring singer Aoife O’Donovan, Be Still marked the first time Douglas featured a vocalist on a recording. The album received critical praise, with the New York Times heralding it as “gorgeous and contemplative” and Fred Kaplan in Stereophile proclaiming it “one of the best-sounding new recordings that I’ve heard by anybody in quite a while.” The follow-up recording, Time Travel, was released in April 2013. In it, Troy Collins for AllAboutJazz.com wrote: “the quintet soars…Unconstrained by thematic concerns, Douglas demonstrates his all-encompassing aesthetic, revealing a broad capacity for expressionism.” Together with a sextet album called Pathways, Be Still and Time Travel were packaged with a DVD of studio performances and music videos as well as unreleased tracks and outtakes and released as part of a commemorative 50th Birthday Recordings box set in September 2013.

Since 2005, Douglas has operated his own record label, Greenleaf Music, releasing his own recordings as well as albums by other artists in the jazz idiom. Through his artist-friendly approach and innovative practices, he continues to prove himself a pioneer among artist-run labels.

Douglas has held several posts as an educator and continues to be very active as a director and programmer. He has been named the Artistic Director for the 2016 season of the Bergamo Jazz Festival, which occurs every year in March. Starting in 2012, Douglas was engaged for two years as International Jazz Artist in Residence at the Royal Academy of Music in London and launched his own Jazz Workshop, dedicated to enriching the musical experiences of younger players. From 2002 to 2012, he served as artistic director of the Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at The Banff Centre in Canada. He is a co-founder and director of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which was founded in 2002 to support new music by a diverse community of trumpet and brass players. He also co-hosts, with Michael Bates, a podcast called Noise From the Deep which was named the top jazz podcast by the JazzTimes critics poll in 2014.

Daymé Arocena Official Website | Daymé Arocena on Facebook | Daymé Arocena on Twitter | Daymé Arocena on Instagram |  Daymé Arocena on Bandcamp

With her captivating charisma and radiant spirit, Daymé Arocena effortlessly blends traditional Santerian chant, jazz stylings, contemporary R&B influences, and Afro-Cuban rhythmic complexity for audiences worldwide. Her passion for the musical traditions of her homeland is boundless – ‘reigniting the Cuban soundtrack wherever she plays’ (NPR). At every performance, Daymé coaxes her audiences into lively call-and-response chants with an irrepressible smile on her face, enamoring the whole audience in her charm. ‘Scat-singing over her trio’s swaying rhumbas and cha-cha-chas,’ (DownBeat), Daymé’s impact upon the history of Cuban music is undeniable.

Daymé was introduced to the world stage through Gilles Peterson’s Havana Cultura Mix project, which brought producers from around the world to Cuba to record with local musicians. Daymé enchanted a packed audience at the London launch of that album, and since then has released four breathtaking albums as a bandleader, including 2017’s Cubafonía – named one of The Arts Desk’s best albums of 2017. NPR claims there’s ‘never a dull moment’ on the recording, and Billboard sums it up perfectly: Cubafonia is a ‘must-have on any playlist.’ Daymé looks forward to the release of a new album in 2019.