Justin's Subtle Influence on Bowie's Blackstar Album

[point_departure]

This kinda silly to bring up, but whatever, I get a kick out of this kinda stuff.

I was listening to Bowie's Blackstar album a few weeks ago and I'm hearing all kinds of cool influences (particularly newer Scott Walker-type stuff) and at one point I specifically thought, "That sounds like something JMJ would play." Then I found this article with Tim Lefebvre (who is an absolutely great player), where he states of the track "Blackstar":

"The middle part, where it sort of swings into the major key, that was more improvised. I got pretty loose on that. Mark was playing a pretty simple beat, so I tried to fill it out with some ’60s, Serge Gainsbourg-inspired stuff and some Justin Meldal-Johnsen kinda busy pick-bass stuff."

Me personally, I thought more of Macca when hearing the middle section of "Blackstar"; while the track "Lazarus" has more of a JMJ/Gainsbourg feel to me. But either way, whatever, JMJ had a small little voice on Bowie's last record. That's kinda cool.

Invalid Link Removed is the full article.

 

[Jared Lash]

Very cool. I was listening to the album the day before I heard of Bowie's passing and the two things I kept thinking were (1) how many artists would be willing to make such an adventurous album this far into their careers and (2) I need to remember to find out who the bass player is on this album because I dig their lines.

By the time Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) rolled around I knew it was either Tim Lefebvre or somebody doing a Tim impression. But I definitely love that one of my favorite bassists is taking cues from another of my favorite bassists.

 

[Laurent]

Interesting point, Jared. I've been thinking along the same lines as you have. The Next Day (Bowie's previous album) sounded more like he was summarizing his musical history up to this point while still injecting some modern touches. Black Star sounds like another of his innovative break through CD where Bowie tries to create new things not heard up to this point. To my ears, it sounds like he tried to merge jazz, rock and programmed music. It's a pretty ambitious goal. It seems to be that he deliberately wanted to leave an ambitious, innovative and adventurous album knowing it would be heard (listened too really) because of his passing. A legacy recording.