‘Blackstar’ Guitarist Recalls Bowie’s Last Days in the Studio

(photo: “Ben Monder 2011” by Topfive - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons)

When jazz guitarist and composer Ben Monder entered the studio to record wispy guitar textures and abrupt chord bursts for David Bowie’s 25th studio album Blackstar, he had no idea that Bowie was suffering from terminal cancer. And there were no indications that the project would be Bowie’s farewell gift to planet Earth.

“When we were in there, I thought he looked great,” Monder tells Yahoo Music. “He looked really healthy. He was full of energy. He was singing great. He was in good spirits.”

Despite his illness, Bowie showed up at around 11 a.m. every day and left the studio at 4 p.m. This was a few hours earlier than the rest of the musicians, but hardly evidence that Bowie was ailing. And he was an active participant in the creative process to the very end. “He was really involved and enjoyed working on the record,” Monder says. “There was nothing to indicate he was sick. I’m glad not to have known, but it just made it much more of a shock when I found out later.”

The roots to Bowie’s collaboration with Monder and the Donny McCaslin Quartet – saxophonist Donny McCaslin, drummer Mark Guiliana, keyboardist Jason Linder, and bassist Tim Lefebvre – were planted in early 2014, when Bowie contacted award-winning jazz composer and bandleader Maria Schneider to collaborate on the song “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime),” which was the opening track of Bowie’s 2014 triple-disc retrospective Nothing Has Changed. Monder, who had played in Schneider’s band since 1992, was invited to contribute to the session.

“I had not played with Maria for a while prior to this project,” Monder says. “But she said she could hear my sound for that particular track, so David met with me and Donny.”

At the time, Monder couldn’t imagine that his performance would lead to a role as primary guitarist for Bowie’s next and final record, Blackstar. But his brief experience reinforced his belief that Bowie was a class act.

“He was such a regular guy,” Monder says. “We just had one rehearsal for the Maria Schneider session and he was very down-to-earth, very nice. He seemed to make an effort to make you feel like you weren’t in the presence of a rock deity.”

In the September 2014, Bowie contacted McCaslin and said he might want the saxophonist to help arrange some of the songs for his next record. So McCaslin called Monder and asked if he would be available, should they need a guitarist.

“There was a time when it didn’t seem like it was going to happen,” Monder says. “Then there were a couple of periods when they asked if I was available at a particular time and I wasn’t. So there were a few fits and starts before it actually happened.”

McCaslin’s quartet entered New York’s Magic Shop studio with Bowie in January 2015, and Monder joined them for six days two months later. He played on four of the seven songs on the record, including the epic, 10-minute title track. (Bowie played all the echoing guitars on “Lazarus.”) Three days after Bowie’s death, Monder recalls Bowie’s haunting, final musical adventure.

YAHOO MUSIC: Were David Bowie and producer Tony Visconti open to your creative ideas, or did they tell you what to play?

BEN MONDER: Both David and Tony were very accommodating, as far as being open to people’s suggestions. I had some demos of the songs that David had done at his house, so I had some idea of what kinds of parts I was going to play, but we all came up with our own parts. I had lots of ideas. Some of them worked, some of them didn’t. But when they didn’t, nobody was watching the clock or vibing you about it. They were OK with anything when it came to experimentation.

Were there any obstacles along the way?

The only thing I can think of is Tony Visconti wanted an acoustic part for “Dollar Days,” and I got an acoustic guitar but I was just not hearing an acoustic part in my head. I didn’t know what to do. I tried one thing after another and nothing was working. Finally he said, “Just play what a rock guitar player would play.” So I just started strumming, and that ended up being the perfect idea.”

Was David animated or complimentary when he liked something you played?

Oh yeah, there was a lot of that. On “Sue,” he wanted a bunch of really atmospheric stuff so I did one pass with a lot of reverbed out guitar. When I was done he said, “Can you just come over and do that every day for me?” That was nice to hear.

Blackstar is an experimental record that holds together extremely well. Was there much improvisation in the studio?

We would improvise a part and if it worked we would use it, but when we came up with a part we liked we would stick with it. A lot of the rhythm parts for the songs were first or maybe second takes.

Was Bowie there when you were playing?

Yes, and he was singing in full voice with us right there in the room. This was probably just for the sake of getting a good performance from us. I don’t think those were the vocal tracks he ended up using. But it was definitely great to have him there. It was very inspiring.

Was he funny and light-hearted, or did he seem serious and determined?

He was determined, but he was really funny. He was a hilarious guy and really smart. At one point he did a funny X-rated spoof of his own “Peter and the Wolf,” which had us in stitches.

When was the last time you saw or heard from Bowie?

The last day I was there. March 24.

How did you find out he had passed away?

I was in Switzerland the morning of Jan. 11. At about 8 a.m. their time, a friend of mine texted me: “David Bowie RIP.” At first I thought maybe he got the record and he thought David Bowie was ripping on it – that he liked it. And then I Googled his name immediately, and there were all the headlines. It was the absolute last thing I expected.