artist than with Al B". Black Tie also features trumpet playing by Lester Bowie, whom David Bowie had wanted to work with throughout the 1980s. Lester, who played to tracks before he heard them, appears on six tracks; Pegg considers his contributions the album's "essential musical identity". A foil to Lester's trumpet was David's saxophone, which appears more prominently on Black Tie than any other David Bowie album. Rodgers found his saxophone playing challenging, telling Rolling Stone: "I think David would be the first to admit that he's not a saxophonist in the traditional sense. [...] He uses his playing as an artistic tool. He's a painter. He hears an idea, and he goes with it. But he absolutely knows where he's going." The album's horn arrangements were composed by Afro-Cuban jazz player Chico O'Farrill. Black Tie also features several backing vocalists from Let's Dance and Labyrinth (1986), while pianist Philippe Saisse and producer David Richards returned from Never Let Me Down. Music and lyrics Black Tie White Noise features a wide variety of musical influences and styles, including soul, hip-hop, disco, pop, avant-garde jazz and gospel. Author James E. Perone also found references to Bowie's plastic soul work of the 1970s. Rolling Stones Jason Newman described the music as "a blend of Euro-disco, techno-rock, freestyle jazz, Middle Eastern riffs and hip-hop", while AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered Black Tie an "urban soul record" that balances styles of the "commercial dance rock" of Let's Dance with the art rock of the late 1970s Berlin Trilogy. A writer for The Economist later categorised the record as art rock and electronic. In 1993, Bowie told Rolling Stone that his intent for Black Tie White Noise was making a new type of house record that brought back the "strong melodic content" of the 1960s, finding "the new R&B [of today]" a mixture of "hip-hop and house". He commented: "I think this album comes from a very different emotional place. That's the passing of time, which has brought maturity and a willingness to relinquish full control over my emotions." Lyrically, Black Tie White Noise is primarily separated into two major themes: racial harmony and Bowie's marriage to Iman. Perone finds the "Black Tie" signifies "a wedding" while "White Noise" epitomises the "instrumentally focused, slightly experimental jazz pieces". For his wedding ceremony, he had composed an instrumental intended to fuse him and Iman's English and