Album review: Donny McCaslin - I Want More

Donny McCaslin (tenor sax); Josh Lindner (synthesiser, Wurlitzer); Tim Lefebvre (bass); Mark Guiliana (drums).

I think the greatest compliment I can pay this album is that it sounds like it was recorded by a British group. The level of invention and incorporation of other music sets it apart from those other (too many) American artists running through bop and post-bop tropes, unwilling to engage with a wider musical palette.

This, on the other hand, is full of energy and volume enough to scare the neighbours, who are all out on a Sunday morning (I checked). It’s an album of electronics and effects that serve to push McCaslin’s sax even further forward into the mix, though at times it sounds like the producer has followed the instruction to make everything louder than everything else. It’s re-invigorating stuff to these old ears. It’s got reggae, it’s got dance music, it’s got dub and heavy chugging beats and even, on Big Screen, a string quartet.  It is still unmistakably jazz, though. Big Screen’s elegant, balletic romance comes as a respite then it’s ‘tea break over, back on your heads’ as we plunge into Turbo which is more in keeping with the sheer weight of the rest of the album.

I Want More is not an album for everyone. It does feel like a natural progression from his last two Beyond Now and Blow, and it may be that these three become seen as McCaslin’s post Bowie trilogy, though that depends on where he goes next (McCaslin played on David Bowie’s last album, Blackstar, which came out 2 days before he died in January 2016).

 I Want More is out now and available through all the usual outlets. Dave Sayer