BLACKSTAR Symphony
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
June 26, 2025
For fans of David Bowie, his final album Blackstar was the most bittersweet parting gift that they could receive. It would have been one thing if the album was an alright collection of songs, but the seven songs on the record are seven of his strongest, the album finding Bowie back in the kind of experimental territory that he hadn’t been in in nearly twenty years. Instead of past collaborator Brian Eno being responsible for his turn into less accessible sonic territory, this time at the heart of it all was saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his jazz quartet. Now, McCaslin has brought his quartet on the road and teamed up with various symphonies around the world to present the BLACKSTAR Symphony, a tribute and reinterpretation of the album that he worked on with David. Finally reaching the Bay Area, McCaslin and his band were joined by the San Francisco Symphony for two nights.
Opening the show was the first song, the title track. I had seen the San Francisco Symphony once before, but to see them playing with a live jazz band was an entirely new experience that I don’t think I was quite ready for. McCaslin’s band consisted of Zach Danzinger on percussion, Jonathan Maron on bass, and Jason Lindner on keyboards, and the interplay between all of the musicians onstage was an amazing sight, the ten minute-long song “Blackstar” being the perfect showcase for how the rest of the performance was going to be. Joining the musicians on stage where guest vocalists David Poe and Gail Ann Dorsey. Fans of Bowie should be familiar with Gail: she was his bassist and backing vocalist for nearly twenty years, stretching from 1995 all the way to his penultimate album The Next Day in 2013. She and Poe sang beautifully on the song, and McCaslin and the other musicians stretched out parts of the already gargantuan number to their limits, making the entire song feel closer to twenty minutes than ten minutes. It was the perfect start to the show.
A song that I wasn’t sure how it would be played live was the next song, “‘Tis A Pity She Was A Whore.” And while it did lose a little bit of the edge and grit from the original recording, the live performance of it that I saw gave it a beauty that I don’t think the original had. David Poe did a spectacular job on the vocals, and then Gail took his spot for the next song. For many, if there is a single song on Blackstar that most blatantly deals with mortality and losing one’s life, it is “Lazarus.” So to see Gail Ann Dorsey, someone who stops next to David Bowie onstage for years, deliver lines such as, “Look up here, I’m in heaven,” or “Just like that bluebird, you know I’ll be free,” ensured that there wasn’t a single dry eye in the house. If I had to rank the most emotional moments that I’ve witnessed live onstage, this would be right near the top. Unlike other songs like the previous two and others that would come later in the evening where McCaslin’s band and the symphony would take certain songs into new sonic territory, the performance of “Lazarus” was the one that most closely resembled the version that was on the album.
The arrangement of “Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)” was closer to the original version released on the 2014compilation album Nothing Has Changed than the more raucous version found on Blackstar. Again featuring David Poe on lead vocals, the song, whose lyrics are about mistrust and betrayal, was the perfect last breath of intensity before the last stretch of songs from the album. Once the song was over, Donny told the audience about how the original version of the song, which features bandleader Maria Schneider and her orchestra, was recorded over a period of hours and labored over intensely. When it was finally time for Bowie to record his vocals he went into the vocal booth, recorded a scratch vocal over fifteen minutes, and that was it.
The final three songs on the album saw the final guest vocalists of the evening take the stage: John Cameron Mitchell. Best known as the creator and star of the play and film Hedwig And The Angry Inch, Mitchell brought a sense of the flamboyant and overdramatic, which were perfect for “Girl Loves Me.” In all of Bowie’s recorded work, one of the songs that brings me to tears every time I hear it is “Dollar Days,” particularly when Donny McCaslin’s first saxophone solo kicks in. A song about fearing that you won’t be able to achieve certain things before it’s your time to go, it’s another song on Blackstar that touches on Bowie’s looming demise, and Mitchell’s vocal delivery captured those feelings perfectly. For as great as David Poe and Gail Ann Dorsey are, I couldn’t have imagined either of them tackling this song. Finally, when McCaslin launched into the first saxophone solo, the emotional release had come, and so did the tears. It was a revelatory moment that reminded me of the power of live music.
I wasn’t sure how the musicians would transition into the final song on Blackstar, “I Can’t Give Everything Away.” On the album “Dollar Days” transitions directly into it, and in staying faithful to the album, that’s exactly what happened onstage. David Poe and Gail Ann Dorsey joined John Cameron Mitchell onstage, and the three shared lead vocals duties, each one singing a different verse on the song. Once it came to its spectacular conclusion, there was a roaring applause paired with a standing ovation that felt like it would never end. Donny McCaslin thanked the audience and all of the band onstage before saying that they were going to play a few more songs.
What followed were a handful of some of the most beloved songs in David Bowie’s back catalog. Starting out with just the orchestra, the audience was treated to stripped back arrangements of “Space Oddity,” “Where Are We Now?,” and “Life On Mars?,” and “‘Heroes'” before the orchestra left the stage. Joined by local guitarist Dave Shul, the band launched into “Let’s Dance,” the first David Bowie song that McCaslin said he remembered hearing, before the show culminated in a rowdy performance of “Rebel Rebel” that saw John Cameron Mitchell running down the aisles of the venue and singing with audience members. It was a triumphant finale to a show that managed to maintain its emotional intensity without ever feeling stagnant.
I remember the first couple of days that Blackstar was released, before David Bowie passed away. It must have been on the second day after listening to it for maybe the tenth or eleventh time that I thought to myself that there was no need for David Bowie to hit the road and tour for the album, as it would be nearly impossible to outdo the versions of the songs that make up the album. But BLACKSTAR Symphony did exactly that.
