“A few weeks back, I posted that a friend of a friend -- who happens to be a jazz guitarist -- was invited to participate in the sessions for the new Donald Fagen album. As promised, here are the sordid details:
My friend Steve (who among other things, works for WFMU / 91.1FM here in the tri-state area) was in NYC visiting his friends, Kenny Wessel and his wife Diana. Wessel is a jazz guitar player who played with Ornette Coleman's Prime Time band. He's the guitarist on 'Prime Time' -- the only studio recording Ornette did in those years. While playing with Ornette, he befriended tabla player Badal Roy. Kenny and Badal -- and Stomu Takeishi, jazz bassist -- had a trio for a while and apparently recorded an album; they also played on WFMU once or twice.
While being visited by my friend Steve, Wessel apparently said “Guess who I just recorded with...?" It seems that another friend/colleague/bass player of Wessel was working with Fagen, recording in NYC. When Fagen mentioned he was looking for a guitar player to do some specific parts, the bass player mentioned Kenny Wessel. Fagen allegedly listened to Wessel's work on CD and called him. They hit it off, Kenny went down to the studio, read the parts, played with Fagen a bit, and then (later, Steve assumes) returned to record. He said Fagen liked what he did and they talked about it going on the record, but, said Wessel (astutely), he'll believe it when he sees it. While it's not much in terms of specifics, should Wessel's work make it onto the master tape(s), you'll know how Fagen came to use his talents."
“Local boys / will spend a quarter / just to shine the silver bowl..." - Steely Dan, 'Glamour Profession'
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