Jazz Articles about Steely Dan

like 808

Steely Dan: Aja

by Craig M. Cortello
August 6, 2006

Steely Dan Aja MCA 1977

In the movie Mr. Holland's Opus, Richard Dreyfuss, playing a high school music director, recounts his childhood memory of first hearing a John Coltrane album. He recalls how he hated the music, but couldn't stop listening to it. He played the album over and over again until he appreciated every note--until he knew it would be an inspirational force in his life.Steely Dan's Aja was like Dreyfuss' ...

like 358

Steely Dan: Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

by John Kelman
April 10, 2005

Purists may balk at the idea of piano legend Marian McPartland tarnishing the unadulterated nature of her NPR series, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz--which has seen her interview and play with artists including Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, and many others--by inviting pianist/vocalist Donald Fagen and guitarist Walter Becker, more commonly known as the pop group Steely Dan, to the studio for conversation and performance.

But anyone who knows Steely Dan knows that, while it's unabashedly a pop group, it ...

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That Grand Dan Sound: Why Everyone Knows Steely Dan When They Hear Them

by Eric Pettine
October 8, 2004

Ok, so Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Dave Brubeck used them throughout the 1950s. In the 1960s and most of the 1970s, adventurous and ambitious horn-adorned groups like Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears also experimented successfully with them too. But we're talking cool chords (and their various permutations) here folks, not drugs. It's pretty much accepted by the general populace how great the writing/performing talents of, say, Billy Joel, Elton John and Paul McCartney are. ...

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Steely Dan: Everything Must Go

by C. Andrew Hovan
November 1, 2003

As sophisticated icons of contemporary pop music, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have secured a space within the landscape of modern mainstream culture. Beginning with 1974’s Pretzel Logic, the pair would lead Steely Dan through a number of quintessential albums that featured a slick blending of pop and jazz sensibilities and even today songs like “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Black Friday,” and “Hey Nineteen” ring true for fans from multiple generations. And while at times they have been criticized ...

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Steely Dan at Jones Beach

by Mike Perciaccante
October 29, 2003

Jones Beach Wantagh, New York August 22, 2003

Jones Beach was definitely abuzz for the first Steely Dan show in New York in quite some time. It was a decidedly older crowd filling the parking lot, tailgating and milling about while anxiously scanning the stage for a glimpse of Donald Fagen and/or Walter Becker. When Steely Dan took the stage the crowd seemed transported back in time to their youth. The applause was deafening and the ...

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Steely Dan: Everything Must Go

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 25, 2003

Donald Fagen (lead vocals, synthesizers, Rhodes, organ and other keyboards) and Walter Becker (bass, guitar and vocals) seem to more solidly hit stride on this second album in their comeback. This follow-up to Two Against Nature (2000), the Dan's first new studio recording in twenty years, seems more naturally and tightly woven than their previous effort and makes Nature sound more like the necessary knocking off of rust (Yeah, some rust: Since the release of Nature, Steely Dan was inducted ...

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Steely Dan: Two Against Nature

by David Adler
April 1, 2000

It’s hard to know what to expect from a band after an absence of nearly two decades, but safe to say that this new batch of Steely Dan songs takes a little while to grow on the listener. Some just don’t work: “What a Shame About Me" tells a compelling tale but gets bogged down in the chorus; “Janie Runaway" and “Cousin Dupree" are plain annoying. But Becker & Fagen’s signature airtight funk is all over the record, and some ...