San Francisco Symphony presents ‘Blackstar Symphony,' Bowie's final masterpiece reimagined

San Francisco Chronicle​

4 days ago

When David Bowie released 'Blackstar' on Jan. 8, 2016, his 69th birthday, it was instantly hailed as a bold genre-defying achievement for the rock 'n' roll legend. Infused with experimental jazz, poetic lyrics and an emotional bareness, it became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of his career.
Then just two days later, Bowie died of liver cancer, which he had secretly been battling for 18 months. His death suddenly turned 'Blackstar' into a swan song, lending tracks like 'Lazarus' — a reference to the biblical figure resurrected by Jesus — added poignancy.
John Cameron Mitchell, star and creator of the Bowie-referencing hit rock musical 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch,' called the album Bowie's 'mausoleum.'
'There's a gorgeousness, but there's a darkness,' said Mitchell. 'When he gets emotional, you feel like it's raw sentiment. It's kind of shocking when it comes from him because he's so unsentimental.'
While some of the album's songs were incorporated into Bowie's 2015 off-Broadway musical 'Lazarus,' starring Michael C. Hall, Bowie never had a chance to perform the 'Blackstar' material live. But nearly a decade later, the album has found a life onstage.
Coming to the San Francisco Symphony on Thursday-Friday, June 26-27, 'Blackstar Symphony' transforms Bowie's final album into a live performance by a 65-piece orchestra and members of the original 'Blackstar' band.
In addition to the seven tracks on 'Blackstar,' the evening — timed to LGBTQ Pride weekend — will also include songs from the queer cultural icon's catalog like 'Space Oddity,' 'Life on Mars,' 'Heroes' and 'Life on Mars?'
Mitchell, Bowie's longtime bassist and singer Gail Ann Dorsey and singer-songwriter David Poe take Bowie's place on lead vocals.
'I know this project is something that he would have liked,' said Dorsey, who began working with Bowie in 1995 during his Outside Tour. 'When I first heard the orchestrations, I could just see him smiling.'
'Blackstar Symphony,' which premiered at the Charlotte International Arts Festival in 2022, was conceived by Santa Clara-born musician and bandleader Donny McCaslin, who played saxophone on 'Blackstar.' (He noted the band working on the album knew Bowie was in treatment for cancer, 'but that was the extent of it.') After Bowie died, McCaslin said the band had offers to perform over the years, but declined out of respect. It wasn't until a conversation with conductor Jules Buckley that he began to imagine 'Blackstar' with a full orchestra.
'It was really the idea of the record being like the DNA and the blueprint for the orchestra project, but that the orchestra is really intentionally included in the writing,' said McCaslin, who serves as the artistic director of 'Blackstar Symphony,' with the work orchestrated by Buckley, orchestra leader and composer Maria Schneider, and longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti, among others.
'When it's at its zenith, you hear the orchestra, the band and the singers all commingling.'
Nearly everyone McCaslin tapped for 'Blackstar Symphony' has deep connections to Bowie. Dorsey, for instance, performed on his albums 'Earthling' (1997), 'Heathen' (2002), 'Reality' (2003) and 'The Next Day' (2013). She also famously sang Freddie Mercury's part on the duet 'Under Pressure' with Bowie on tour.
Though she's collaborated with Boy George, the Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco and Lenny Kravitz, among other musicians, Dorsey said nothing in her career compares to her two-decade partnership with Bowie. Working with Bowie, she said, was like 'going to school, in the best possible way.'
In her years touring with him, Dorsey also recalled that Bowie had a specific ritual on his days off: 'If there was a historic bookstore — something that wasn't just a Barnes & Noble — we would go.'
'Every time I came to San Francisco with David, we went to City Lights,' Dorsey added, referring to the storied shop in North Beach.
For Mitchell, his first memory of Bowie was seeing him on television in Scotland singing 'Jean Genie' on the BBC show 'Top of the Pops' in the early 1970s
'It was very intense and scary,' Mitchell recalled. 'He was so masculine and feminine and lizard-like and everything all at once without any winks or jokes. Some of the other glam (rock) people were kind of like, 'I'm in makeup, but I'm a straight guy.' And this was like, 'No, I'm an alien.''
Years later, after the 2001 release of the film adaptation of 'Hedwig,' Mitchell said Bowie asked him if he was interested in adapting his 1972 concept album 'Ziggy Stardust' into a stage show.
'But I was just burned out on rock 'n' roll,' Mitchell said. 'I do regret not looking into that now because, obviously, it's too late.'
For some Bowie fans, 'Blackstar' remains a difficult album to revisit as it's so closely tied to the artist's death. McCaslin admits it was true for him for several years. But now that time has passed, he believes audiences are ready to engage with the music again in a new light.
'There's a real attention to honoring the spirit that he led with when we do this, a humility that we approach this with and a deep and abiding love for him,' said McCaslin. But 'I think he would have been into this direction, where we try to create a new piece of art with 'Blackstar.''