Year on, Bowie remembered as engaging until end

Blackstar, which went to No 1 on charts around the Western world, topped numerous critics' lists for the best albums of 2016. But it did not earn a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year, whose contenders include balladeer Adele's blockbuster 25 and pop celebrity Justin Bieber's Purpose.

"I like Adele－nothing against her－but look at the content of Blackstar, the artistic content. There is no comparison," says McCaslin, a three-time Grammy nominee.

"It was pretty disappointing because it is such a work of art, Blackstar. But anyway, it's out of my hands."

McCaslin politely declines to say if he knew about Bowie's cancer, but says Bowie was "always super present" and warm.

Bowie would generally compose songs at his New York penthouse, he says, making demos with drum machines, synthesized bass, guitar and vocals and occasionally playing saxophone himself.

The rock star would walk to The Magic Shop studio, where McCaslin would interact musically with him, improvising sax and adding harmony.

Bowie would make suggestions at night as he fine-tuned the lyrics. After his death, listeners have pored over the lyrics on Blackstar for meanings.

On Lazarus and the title track, Bowie reflects on death and appears to reference alter ego characters from his past. On Dollar Days－whose music, McCaslin says, emerged spontaneously in the studio－Bowie wistfully bids farewell to the evergreen trees of his native England, while he concludes on a note of mystery and hope on I Can't Give Everything Away.

McCaslin says he does not focus on the lyrics and instead responds to the emotion of Bowie's voice as an instrument.

McCaslin downplays suggestions that Bowie designed Blackstar as a definitive final statement.

"I have read so much about that," he says. "But my experience was that he was moving forward, in that he was talking about recording more music."

While not intending to become a Bowie cover act, McCaslin says he will forever be influenced by him.

"At 68, he could have been doing anything, but instead he had us," he says.

"He was not afraid to do that. You see someone at his level and this point of his career and that's really inspiring."