Maria Schneider and Ensemble Denada + Donny McCaslin Quintet

Maria Schneider comes to the Heineken Jazzaldia for the first time to display her suggestive project with Ensemble Denada. Schneider is a prizewinning orchestra conductor and composer, winner of 5 Grammys, hailed by critics and audiences as one of the most decisive figures of today’s jazz. Only someone with her talent could lead a band like Norway’s Ensemble Denada, considered one of the most innovative in Europe. The group’s repertoire varies widely in both rhythm and melody, and its members have been carefully selected from among Norway’s best instrumentalists.

Donny McCaslin surprised a good part of the public with his fabulous performance at the Heineken Jazzaldia in 2017. Those who already knew him (he had been here in 2016 as part of the Steps Ahead Reunion Tour, and he participated in Blackstar, David Bowie’s last eternal album) were ready and waiting, but for those who discovered him at that time he was all of a revelation. McCaslin has notched up important experience in the jazz world thanks to his collaborations with Steps Ahead, Gil Evans, Danilo Pérez and Dave Douglas; he also landed a nomination for best jazz instrumental solo at the Grammys in 2004.

Donny McCaslin and Maria Schneider have formerly worked together and will coincide at the same Festival session. The first part will be brought to us by McCaslin as a quintet and the second will see Maria Schneider perform with Ensemble Denada on Sue (Or in a Season of Crime), the song she composed for Bowie in 2014, which earned her a Grammy and planted the seed of Blackstar. It is precisely Schneider who recommended Donny McCaslin to Bowie for recording Blackstar.