Although Blackstar was recorded and released as David Bowie was fighting the cancer that would ultimately claim his life, he was nonetheless thinking about a new project when he died. In a new interview, Donny McCaslin, the jazz saxophonist whose band was used on Blackstar, said that Bowie had plans to keep working.

“It certainly didn’t seem that it would be his last record,” McCaslin told The Times (via NME). “He was going to start writing new music – or maybe he had started; it wasn’t quite clear – but he was in the process of planning a new recording with us. I don’t think Blackstar was this goodbye thing.”

Although Bowie hadn’t performed a full-length concert since 2004 and had last been since on a stage in 2006, McCaslin added that he was considering making a special appearance with McCaslin’s band at one of New York’s most famous jazz clubs.

“Clearly there wasn’t going to be a Blackstar tour, but he was going to sit in with us at the Village Vanguard. It would just have been him turning up unannounced after rehearsing during the day,” he continued.

Although Blackstar stands as Bowie’s last album, some of the songs from those sessions that didn’t make the final cut eventually found a home. Last month, three tracks, “No Plan,” “Killing a Little Time” and “When I Met You,” were released on the original cast recording of Lazarus, a musical based on the music of David Bowie that ran off-Broadway and is currently playing in London.

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