"It's a fresh wind that blows against the empire."

In many ways, these nine words encapsulate the ethos of Donny McCaslin, whose escapades on the tenor saxophone have both embraced and sometimes repudiated contemporary notions of jazz - often simultaneously and with a deep understanding of what has come before and what lies ahead. Although he garnered widespread acclaim for his stint as bandleader for David Bowie's swansong LP Blackstar, McCaslin's journey to that point encompassed numerous yard markers of the up-and-coming jazzer with boundary-busting on his mind.

McCaslin began playing the sax at 12 in Santa Cruz, CA, and during his teenage years he performed in his vibraphonist father's band. His background and acumen inevitably led to a full scholarship at the Berklee College of Music, a four-year stint with Gary Burton's quintet, and a subsequent three-year stretch with Steps Ahead. Additional collaborations with Maria Schneider, Danilo Pérez, The Gil Evans Orchestra, and Elvis Costello also dot his resumé.

The Bowie gig, obtained through the recommendation of Schneider, ultimately lit the fuse and super-charged McCaslin's aspirations to take his music in exhilarating new directions and carve new pathways in what used to be called jazz fusion. For McCaslin, this meant leaning into a hybrid of jazz and art rock, which is clearly evident in his two most recent albums.

First came Blow (2018), which introduced searing electric guitars, programming of all sorts, studio effects galore, and provocative lyrics sung over the top, followed by I Want More (2023), a return to instrumental music but produced and mixed by Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, MGMT, Tame Impala, Mercury Rev, Sleater-Kinney) to bring a distinctly non-jazz consciousness to the act of creation. The striking result prompted the jazz journal Jazzwise to declare the album "...a uniquely hard-hitting, direct, studio-driven recording that organically joins together elements from electronica, post-rock, jazz and improv more persuasively than perhaps anything before it."

Strike another blow for the revolution in McCaslin's head.

New music is always right around the corner that underscores the insurgency in the music to come.

"Jason Lindner (born February 1, 1973) is an American pianist, keyboardist, synthesist, sound designer, composer, arranger and producer.

Lindner was brought up in Brooklyn, New York City. His father played the piano and sang, and Jason began playing the piano at the age of 2. As a child, he liked heavy metal, then bebop and blues as a teenager. He attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Lindner "made his mark during the 1990s", in part as leader of a big band that played at Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. He was also the club's house pianist around the time it opened in 1994. This band recorded the album Premonition in 1998 and it was released in 2000, by which time Lindner had changed to leading a quintet. He performed and arranged for vocalist Claudia Acuña's first album, Wind from the South.

By 2004, Lindner was leading an electric group that consisted of Jacques Schwarz-Bart (sax), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Reggie Washington (bass), and Gene Jackson (drums). His Now Vs. Now band began in 2006 as a quintet, with Cohen, Baba (beatbox, rap), Panagiotis Andreou (bass), and Mark Guiliana (drums). Lindner commented that "I wasn't playing jazz quartet gigs anymore. I was playing in a place where we could really experiment sonically, using electric bass, the drummer playing more groove-oriented beats and less straight ahead swing. [...] I wanted to appeal to ordinary people and not just a jazz audience." In the first three months of 2015 he participated in recordings sessions for David Bowie's Blackstar. For this recording, he used nine keyboards and a grand piano. Lindner reported that his subsequent production work was influenced by the presence of Tony Visconti for the Bowie sessions."

"A musician in the New York City area for over 30 years, Ben Monder has performed with a wide variety of artists, including Jack McDuff, Marc Johnson, Lee Konitz, Billy Childs, Andrew Cyrille, George Garzone, Paul Motian, Maria Schneider, Louis Cole, Marshall Crenshaw and Jandek. He also contributed guitar parts to the last David Bowie album, "Blackstar". Ben conducts clinics and workshops around the world, and has served on the faculties of the New England Conservatory and the New School. He was the recipient of a Doris Duke Impact Award in 2014, and a Shifting Foundation grant in 2013. Ben continues to perform original music internationally in solo and trio settings, and in a long standing duo project with vocalist Theo Bleckmann. He has appeared on over 200 CDs as a sideman, and has released 7 as a leader: Day After Day (Sunnyside, 2019) Amorphae (ECM, 2015), Hydra (Sunnyside, 2013), Oceana (Sunnyside, 2005), Excavation (Arabesque, 2000), Dust (Arabesque, 1997), and Flux (Songlines,1995)."

A prolific American bassist heard across rock, jazz, and film/TV, Lefebvre has worked with David Bowie (Blackstar), Tedeschi Trucks Band, Donny McCaslin, Michael Wollny, and many more; he's currently based in Los Angeles and leads/co-leads multiple projects while remaining an in-demand session player.

New York-born drummer celebrated for merging acoustic chops with electronics, Danziger came up in the fusion scene (Michel Camilo, Wayne Krantz, Leni Stern), branched into drum'n'bass and soundtrack sessions, and is often cited as a forward-looking "new-millennium" kit innovator.

A Grammy-nominated drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and engineer, Wood is a founding member of Kneebody and has performed with Wayne Krantz, Tigran Hamasyan, Donny McCaslin, and Louis Cole, among others; he also releases solo work and is active as a mastering engineer.

Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer best known for Age of Electric and Limblifter (also Mounties), Dahle balances band work with production/engineering and solo releases; his official site lists ongoing projects and archives.

Co-founder of New York's Groove Collective, Maron helped shape the band's Afro-Cuban/jazz/funk/house blend across eight albums (including a Grammy-nominated release), and has recorded/toured widely as a first-call groove player and educator.