Donny McCaslin

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apprenticeship but are trained to play in all styles with equal conviction and with perfect technique. But such universal competence has its drawbacks in the countless well-trained anonymous players who seem to have everything except individuality. The masters whose solos they emulate recorded some of their best work in their late teens and early twenties, but now it takes longer than that to find one's own musical personality.

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin serves as a good example of how talented young players can rise above the crowd. He began his studies in his native Santa Cruz, California, where he found early success and then obtained a fellowship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston — perhaps the most distinguished jazz finishing school in the world. He obviously stood out among his classmates, because upon leaving school he joined the group led by one of his best-known teachers, vibraphonist Gary Burton. After a few years on the road he moved to New York and eventually joined Steps Ahead, a popular fusion group that provided him with quite a bit of public exposure, if with little musical challenge. He played and recorded with various kinds of musicians, from jazz to pop and Latin, but he first gained critical attention for his solos on Purple, a 1998 recording by the Ken Schaphorst Big Band. Six years later he would also shine on a magnificent release by Maria Schneider's orchestra, Concert in the Garden.