#jazzrock — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #jazzrock, aggregated by home.social.
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Don't care much for Van Morrison as a person, a notorious egotistical asshole and later an anti-vaxxer, but I'm rocking out to Moondance this morning while watching #f1 on mute and I can't deny it is an incredible record.
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Don't care much for Van Morrison as a person, a notorious egotistical asshole and later an anti-vaxxer, but I'm rocking out to Moondance this morning while watching #f1 on mute and I can't deny it is an incredible record.
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Don't care much for Van Morrison as a person, a notorious egotistical asshole and later an anti-vaxxer, but I'm rocking out to Moondance this morning while watching #f1 on mute and I can't deny it is an incredible record.
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Don't care much for Van Morrison as a person, a notorious egotistical asshole and later an anti-vaxxer, but I'm rocking out to Moondance this morning while watching #f1 on mute and I can't deny it is an incredible record.
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Don't care much for Van Morrison as a person, a notorious egotistical asshole and later an anti-vaxxer, but I'm rocking out to Moondance this morning while watching #f1 on mute and I can't deny it is an incredible record.
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Ihre Lieder rufen mir auch ohne Ohrwurmcharakter immer wieder unerwartet, aber sehr willkommen ein „hör doch mal wieder rei(g)n“ zu: The Reign of Kindo - Battling the Years
fediserve.de/preview.php?v=zum…
#Musik #music #MusikZurNacht #TheReignOfKindo #JazzPop #JazzRock
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Ihre Lieder rufen mir auch ohne Ohrwurmcharakter immer wieder unerwartet, aber sehr willkommen ein „hör doch mal wieder rei(g)n“ zu: The Reign of Kindo - Battling the Years
fediserve.de/preview.php?v=zum…
#Musik #music #MusikZurNacht #TheReignOfKindo #JazzPop #JazzRock
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Ihre Lieder rufen mir auch ohne Ohrwurmcharakter immer wieder unerwartet, aber sehr willkommen ein „hör doch mal wieder rei(g)n“ zu: The Reign of Kindo - Battling the Years
fediserve.de/preview.php?v=zum…
#Musik #music #MusikZurNacht #TheReignOfKindo #JazzPop #JazzRock
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Ihre Lieder rufen mir auch ohne Ohrwurmcharakter immer wieder unerwartet, aber sehr willkommen ein „hör doch mal wieder rei(g)n“ zu: The Reign of Kindo - Battling the Years
fediserve.de/preview.php?v=zum…
#Musik #music #MusikZurNacht #TheReignOfKindo #JazzPop #JazzRock
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Ihre Lieder rufen mir auch ohne Ohrwurmcharakter immer wieder unerwartet, aber sehr willkommen ein „hör doch mal wieder rei(g)n“ zu: The Reign of Kindo - Battling the Years
fediserve.de/preview.php?v=zum…
#Musik #music #MusikZurNacht #TheReignOfKindo #JazzPop #JazzRock
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E' #bandcampfriday, e siccome ho ascoltato poche cose ultimamente ho preso solo due album:
1.Departure by Nostalghia. Permettono di scaricare il loro album anche gratuitamente, ma si meritano assolutamente donazioni. Un album bellissimo che non saprei definire come genere quindi mi affido ad alcuni tag di bandcamp #avantgardemetal #artrock #jazzrock #blackgaze :blobcatheartbongo:
https://nostalghia-ab.bandcamp.com/album/departure
2.Waves by Severoth in uscita oggi. One man project di un ucraino che abita in Islanda, con tematiche riguardanti la natura. Genere #atmosphericblackmetal (nello stile di Panopticon ecc, genere che adoro)
Mi sono innamorata di ''By the way of light'' di recente quindi ho deciso di supportarlo nel suo nuovo album. :catjam:
https://severoth.bandcamp.com/album/waves -
Check out “Mega Galaxy ” by Luiz Santos Get it here-> https://luizsantos.com/track/2887383/mega-galaxy #jazz #funk #fusionjazz #jazzrock
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This is the music I listened to last month. It's all prog or prog-related. How many of these albums have you heard?
#progressiverock
#progrock
#prog
#progressivoitaliano
#rockprogressivo
#electronica
#ambient
#avantprog
#chamberprog
#darkprog
#progmetal
#psyche
#progjazz
#canterbury
#jazzrock
#postrock
#popprog
#vinyl
#playlist
#music -
New #review today: "I became aware of #EdMacan around 1997, an educator from California’s north coast College of the Redwoods, who’d written a scholarly tome titled Rocking the Classics – English #ProgressiveRock and the Counterculture. Around the same time, his band #HermeticScience released their debut album, a band like no other, featuring Macan on mallet percussion (mostly vibraphone and marimba) and piano, and two students from his music program on bass and drums, forming a trio. At the time there was nothing else quite like them — all of the music was written by Macan, though the influence of his progressive rock interests were always evident." #ExposeOnline JazzFusion #JazzRock #jazz http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/hermetic-science-ed-macans-hermetic-science-30th-anniversary-edition-3.html
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Grace
#jeffbuckley #Grace #90smusic #folkrock #altrock #jazzrock #rock #rockmusic #music #musicsky #musiciansky One album. And then, he was gone. It's produced by Andy Wallace -- known for mixing Nirvana's Nevermind -- and deftly combines alternative rock, folk, blues and even some art-pop. All that and Buckley's four-octave range and you have something special. It had poor sales but over the years its reputation has risen to legend.
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Concert #Perséphone4tet
Mercredi 26 aout 2026 20h
à La Maz (9 rue de Turbigo, Paris)1ère partie : Jeune Radou #soul #rap
#jazzrock #persephone #odyssée #concertparis #parisconcert #parisjazz
Son vidéo: Extrait résumé de "La Douloureuse" (https://persephone4tet.bandcamp.com/album/d-r-gler-les-horloges-full-album)
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Hesse Kassel – Morir Saltando (Record Review)
Punchier, rawer, thirstier, more political, stickier, cataclysmic, better than its debut from last year in more ways than one.https://gutterputter.com/2026/08/15/hesse-kassel-morir-saltando-record-review/
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Ja, Kraan waren wieder extraklasse beim Finkenbach Festival im Odenwald.
#kraan #rock #jazzrock #krautrock #hattler #wolbrandt #fride #finkenbachfestival #finkenbach #rheinneckar #metropolregionrheinneckar #heidelberg #mannheim #ludwigshafen #neckarweb #metropolkultur #fotografie #photography #musicphotography #schindelbeckfotografie #musik #konzert #live #festival #music #germany #german
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New #review today: "#RicardoFormoso is a Spanish composer and trumpeter (I guess for this release he’s exclusively a flugelhornist) who capably leads his four-piece band through a labyrinth of #jazz, #funk, and #JazzRock #fusion." #ExposeOnline http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/ricardo-formoso-electric-rebound-3.html
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'Return To Forever' Live 1973 - Captain Señor Mouse/Game Maker (pt. 2/2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhnf0maAGio&list=PLvzgIRc5GZr4gw0XQaVZr-NjQOpRcq5LY&index=221&pp=gAQBiAQB8AUB #art #jazz #jazzlegends #jazzrock #funk -
Purchased another album today. Been listening to #takuyakuroda 's work this last week. Just pulled the trigger on a first album.
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Schon das zweite starke Album von #Willow dieses Jahr! #nujazz #jazzfusion #jazzrock #indie #progressivepop #indiemusic #rnb #80smusic: http://www.popmonitor.de/willow-the-thread/
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New upload:
Back Door - Blakey Jones (Peel Session)
Blakey Jones by Back Door, taken from the Peel Session recorded on 5 September 1974.
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Free download codes:
Senogul - Senogul
"A melodic and atmospheric progressive rock journey, rich in detail, emotion and musical depth."
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Listening to the album The Royal Scam by Steely Dan, released April 1976
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/steely-dan/the-royal-scam.p/
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John Barleycorn Must Die
#traffic #johnbarleycornmustdie #70srock #rock #rockmusic #music #musicsky #musicansky #stevewinwood #chriswood #jimcapaldi #progrock #progressiverock #jazzrock Traffic release their 4th on July 15, 1970. Steve Winwood was ready to make a solo album after the demise of Blind Faith in 1970 and actually cut a couple tracks. But he missed the musical companionship in the studio and invited Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi to sit in.
https://robinbannks.com/2026/07/15/john-barleycorn-must-die/
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Blood, Sweat & Tears měli dechy, jazzové hráče a složitá aranžmá. David Clayton-Thomas jim přinesl něco, co se do partitury zapisuje hůř: torontskou ulici, bluesovou drsnost a schopnost ovládnout sál. Napsal „Spinning Wheel“, prošel školou Ronnieho Hawkinse a změnil dobře vychovanou kapelu v jazzrockový stroj, který se pod elegantním oblekem pořád potil.
#Music #davidclaytonthomas #JazzRock #Rock #DoporučenoPanemPudinkem
https://www.cernejpudink.cz/2026/07/15/david-clayton-thomas-blood-sweat-tears/ -
#musica #rockmusic #jazz #jazzfusion #jazzrock
It's only Jazz Fussion.
Oh yeeeeaaah 💀🎸🤘🎸💀
Weather Report - Birdland
https://youtube.com/watch?v=pqashW66D7o&si=NI0PP-jOEEg17aAd -
At The Fillmore East
#AllmanBrothersBand #atthefillmoreeast #70srock #70smusic #bluesrock #jazzrock #southernrock #greggallman #dickeybetts #rock #rockmusic #music #musicsky #musiciansky #duaneallman #skydog July 6, 1971 ~ The Allman Brothers Band release what many call it one of the best live albums ever. In 2004, the album was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress, deemed to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" by the National…
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Countdown to Ecstasy
#steelydan #countdowntoecstasy #70srock #70smusic #bluesrock #classicrock #donaldfagen #jazzrock #walterbecker #rickderringer #rock #rockmusic #music #musicsky #musiciansky Steely Dan release their second album on July 6, 1973. This is when Walter and Donald forged the band's true identity -- trading some of the rock of Can't Buy A Thrill for a tighter, jazzier fusion sound. The album's sort of unique in that it's the only Steely Dan album where…
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Now playing this jazz rock collab project from Donny McCaslin and Canadian multi-instrumentalist Ryan Dahle. Apparently McCaslin's other Blackstar bandmates Tim Lefebvre, Jason Lindner, and Mark Guiliana are all on here somewhere, but I can't find any credits to see where exactly.
McCaslin Dahle - MXD (2026)
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https://youtu.be/est3fq_vO1I?si=C0LpC5k1RsKakda4
La meva #CançóDelDia per al diumenge 19 d'abril és aquesta del #Flea #Melbourne #Baix #Piano #Veu #Trompeta #FunkRock #JazzRock ❤️🔥!
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Countdown To Ecstasy
I detect the El Supremo ... Steely Dan release their second album on July 6, 1973. BTW, that's Rick Derringer's slide guitar on "Show Biz Kids." Listen to Countdown To Ecstasy by Steely Dan on Amazon Music ... #steelydan #countdowntoecstasy #70srock #70smusic #bluesrock #classicrock #donaldfagen #jazzrock #walterbecker #rickderringer #rock #rockmusic #music #musicsky #musiciansky
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Ian Carr's Nucleus / Roots (1973); „Roots“ ist ein Schlüsselwerk des britischen Jazz-Rock. Das Album verbindet komplexe Fusion-Arrangements mit einer warmen, organischen Klangästhetik. Groovende Basslinien, verspielte Bläser und psychedelisch angehauchte Keyboard-Passagen treffen auf improvisatorische Freiheit. Carrs Trompetenspiel ist zugleich lyrisch und kantig – stets mit klarem Ausdruck. #IanCarr #Jazz #Groove #FusionJazz #Blues #Fusion #JazzRock #Jazz #Funk #PsychedelicJazz
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Y'know, if that Dan Fogelberg song counts as a Christmas song, surely this song by my preferred Dan does too. Specifically for that poignant second verse. RIP Walter Becker.
#SteelyDan #WalterBecker #JazzRock #1990s #ChristmasMusic
#MentalSoundtrack #NowPlaying -
Header image: Steely Dan circa 1972-73, clockwise from left: Denny Dias, Donald Fagen, Jim Hodder, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Walter Becker (Image source: David Erickson, Flickr CC license)Starting as a pair of jazz snobs at Bard College in New York State, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen began an initial career as songwriters for other artists while keeping the material too idiosyncratic for anyone else for themselves. They formed Steely Dan by 1971 as a vehicle for that music that represented an amalgam of their influences; blues-rock, Sixties post-bop jazz, Latin music, and even some radio-friendly pop. But the standard band format couldn’t contain them for long.
At a certain point, touring took too much time away from what they wanted to do; focus on intricate arrangements and meticulously-rendered production. In all of its incarnations around the two principles, Steely Dan now represents a unique body of work that endures today, remaining to be the subject of polarized discussions between music fans who cite their sound in terms of both lauded praise and disdainful derision. Here are 20 examples of their finest work in all of its sardonic and jaded glory.
Fire in the Hole
In retrospect, one can hear Steely Dan finding themselves on 1972’s Can’t Buy a Thrill, sounding like nothing else at the time while producing a brace of hits in “Do it Again” and “Reelin’ in the Years”. Best capturing where they were at the time, “Fire in the Hole” is the sound of a band with an unconventional but firm direction in mind in a song about being young while feeling old, out of sorts, and out of place and time.
Donald Fagen’s barrel-rolling piano intro demands immediate attention, then accompanied by his distinctive sandpapery sneer of a lead voice. Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s pedal steel accents and solo give this tune yet another layer of the unconventional while Fagen’s Blue Note jazz piano solo conveys sophistication matched with a brand of hip melancholy, those two ingredients being surprisingly compatible here.
Listen: Fire in the Hole
Only a Fool Would Say That
Steely Dan integrated Latin textures to jazz and rock music to seamless effect, not to mention injecting brightness and shadow in the same song. “Only a Fool Would Say That” is the best example, locking into a tasty groove as if beamed directly from the sun-washed streets of Spanish Harlem. The breezy arrangement is full of popping congas, Denny Dias’ and “Skunk” Baxter’s effervescent guitars, and Walter Becker’s subtle bass signature.
The song examines American countercultural idealism through a jaded lens. Its sublime textures belie the theme of optimism that comes to nothing, particularly applicable during the post-1960s hangover. The reality of the boy with the plan, the natural man of the beatific hippy dream, abrades against the image of the man in his brown shoes with his nine-to-five, showing that things hadn’t changed much for the person in the street as Nixon’s second term loomed.
Listen: Only a Fool Would Say That
Dirty Work
A vivid story-song, and with lead vocals from David Palmer, “Dirty Work” concerns a man entangled by a disaffected married woman, called upon to see to her while her man is out of town. Both narrator and his married lover lack the courage to face what they both know will inevitably come to no good as one clings to his infatuation while the other clings to a lifestyle she doesn’t want to sacrifice.
Accompanied by soulful organ, mellow electric piano, and a breathy horn arrangement, “Dirty Work” is a cinematically-scaled melodrama. Palmer’s pure tenor voice suggests a wide-eyed loss of innocence in the exploitative world of the wealthy, giving this song a touch of class – consciousness, that is. Palmer’s delivery makes him the obvious choice over Fagen’s musical persona who has no innocence to lose in a story like this one.
Listen: Dirty Work
Bodhisattva
A highlight of 1973’s Countdown to Ecstasy, this cut’s sparse lyrics are packed with meaning in conveying the careless whims of the rich similarly outlined in “Dirty Work”. Here, Eastern centeredness meets Western materialism as an entire spiritual tradition is reduced to an affectation by a narrator uniquely positioned, economically speaking, to cast off shallow materialism for higher spiritual ideals.
The band lay down a tight and tumbling groove inside a three-line blues structure, and then careen down a corridor of jazz chords bolstered by exploratory piano and deft guitar lines. By this time, Steely Dan were still a conventional band with this song being a stalwart part of their live set. The 1974 live version recorded during a show in Santa Monica is notable for its frenzied pace, Michael McDonald’s backing vocals, and the inebriated and rambling introduction by Jerome Aniton.
Listen: Bodhisattva | Bodhisattva (live)
My Old School
Making sure that the world knew their position on nostalgia, “My Old School” is Becker and Fagen’s jaundiced and autobiographical view based on true events. It tells a tale of a drug bust at a suburban college and the resulting disappointments as one finds out who one’s real friends are during heady school days. As usual, the lyrics tell one story while the music tells another to compelling effect.
“My Old School” is Steely Dan at their most musically effusive, with celebratory soul revue-style horns as they meet with stinging rock guitar. Obliquely, “My Old School” is about the kind of heartbreak felt when people we thought we knew take up unexpected and unreconcilable positions against us. A story of betrayal never sounded so full of the lifeforce in one of the many Dan tunes that cast aspersions on provincial attitudes.
Listen: My Old School
King of the World
Steely Dan explores the end of civilization on “King of the World”, positing that the biggest hurdle beyond the basics for the last person on earth are disconnection and loneliness. With an intro that makes three notes seem portentous, “King of the World” is the sound of a man pleading for company he knows is unlikely to arrive, with any inherited kingdom in his possession being an empty prize.
Starting with Jim Hodder’s Isaac Hayes-like high-hats, later joined by Becker’s humming bassline, this cut is built on an epic scale with layered, texturally varied guitars. The airy synth solo provides a futurist vibe, the ghostly voices in the middle-eight section sounding like remnants of a world long gone. Like so many science fiction tales, this is a warning about present-day human struggles, both spiritual and political, beamed out like a one-sided message on an old Ham radio.
Listen: King of the World
Night by Night
The second track on 1974’s Pretzel Logic is a triumph of punchy horns and slinky, winding rhythms. This is the story of a down-and-out denizen of the urban underbelly hoping in vain for a way out of a world of jealousy and mayhem that’s lit up in Vegas neon. It’s a soundtrack to decadent and dangerous after-hours streets when shadowy figures come out to play.
The guitar breaks are fiery and precise, shadowed by dexterous bass guitar, and with the intricately arranged brass playing in and out of the mix. The croaking wah-wah clavinet is the engine to what sounds like the theme song to the best TV show never made. This tune captures Steely Dan at a point when the touring was about to end as they began to shed core members in favour of studio sessioners to evolve their sound.
Listen: Night by Night
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Serving as the B-side to their “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” hit single, “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” is notable on its own for a few reasons. One of those is how lyrically upfront it is – a rarity in Steely Dan’s catalogue – even if Fagen is still singing a character. This tune finds a hipster noting the despondency in one of his compadres, then reaching out with a brand of encouragement that’s wearing shades, however genuine the advice.
The smooth sound by which they would be most identified starts here, supplemented by Chuck Rainey’s bass while official band member Denny Dias takes the guitar solo. By this time, the one-time New York-based songwriting duo who lampooned the absurdity of West Coast lifestyles had made inroads to building on what would become known as The California Sound. Irony abounds in Dan land!
Listen: Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Doctor Wu
The Katy Lied album in 1975 represented a full studio-bound focus, working with musicians who possessed the chops to contribute to whatever Becker and Fagen had in mind for each track. A highlight on that record is “Doctor Wu”, which turns down the dial on harder-edged rock in favour of a smoother, jazz-oriented arrangement. This brings a contrasting gentleness to grim themes in this character-driven song purportedly based on true events.
On a song about addiction and the hope of recovery, Fagen’s voice is as earnest as it’s possible for it to be, lit up by a pristine backdrop of bright piano, Jeff Porcaro’s melodically-supportive drums, and even a touch of wind chimes. The alto saxophone solo from sessioner Phil Woods is vibrant and optimistic with only a touch of desperation in a harrowing story about struggle, uncertainty, dependence, and disappointment.
Listen: Doctor Wu
Chain Lightning
“Chain Lightning” demonstrates Steely Dan’s love of a basic groove in an established form. This is supplemented by guitarist Rick Derringer who lays down an electrifying solo true to the song’s title. But because this is Steely Dan, this song carries the whiff of intrigue dressed up as a free and easy blues excursion in this story about infiltration and intrusion for the sheer thrill of it.
The lyrics suggest a furtive conversation between members of the criminal, cult, or celebrity-seeking variety. Any distinctions between those are notably unimportant as they devise a plan to go beyond the barricades unnoticed and into privileged territory. Feeling so good rooted in a light and breezy blues shuffle, it’s easy to miss that there is a source of menace in this tune somewhere that seems to hint at darker intentions and nefarious motives.
Listen: Chain Lightning
Any World (That I’m Welcome To)
Since “Fire in the Hole”, Steely Dan sang of outsiders, misfits, and freaks as their lyrical homebase. This is the story of someone who is not an outsider but who perhaps wishes to be, wanting to get out of their life in favour of a world just out of their imagination’s reach. In this, “Any World (That I’m Welcome To)” is less about the freedom of an imagined new life and more about being trapped in an old one that’s all too real.
Michael McDonald distinguishes himself as a backing vocalist on this, his first appearance on a Steely Dan record. The song’s shifting rhythm between 4/4 and 2/4 lends it a sense of restlessness true to its themes. It’s chord structure and melodic sense plays between rock and jazz while upcoming musicians like Joe Jackson listened with keen ears.
Listen: Any World (That I’m Welcome To)
The Royal Scam
Where they’re famous for their character-driven stories of the seedy and corrupt underbelly of American life, the title track to their 1976 record edges on involved and even outraged social commentary. The song paints a portrait of Puerto Rican immigrants seeking new lives in New York City. Instead, they find that American dreams are just as illusory as any, and without the heart to tell their families back home the sobering truth.
This is another song of danger, punctuated by growling and bestial guitar licks of an urban jungle, with a chatty and panicked muted trumpet that gives voice to the immigrants’ desperation. Donald Fagen’s delivery is without its usual detachment, joined by stalwart backing singers Sherlie Matthews, Venetta Fields, and Clydie King who make this track soar as a sympathetic chorus to enhance the drama.
Listen: The Royal Scam
Kid Charlemagne
Anti-heroes are Steely Dan’s bread and butter, with the one in this song perhaps their greatest creation. “Kid Charlemagne” is a little movie about a meteoric rise and an Icarian fall inside of five minutes. Once again, the music is ebullient and celebratory throughout the soaring highs and the inevitable lows in a story about an innovative hero celebrated in one era and then reviled as a villain in another, seemingly overnight; a beloved outlaw story, taking on mythical proportions.
True to the spirit of that, guitarist Larry Carlton lays down a part that’s now known as his greatest and most recognized instrumental contribution. The solo was a hard-won result, recorded in sections to the satisfaction of Becker and Fagen’s famous ears for precision, and characteristic of their reputations for taking persnickety, painstaking measures in the studio to serve their material.
Listen: Kid Charlemagne
Aja
By 1977’s Aja, Steely Dan reached the pinnacle of the sound for which they’d searched since the beginning. They even managed to score a few radio hits in the process. On the title track, they go beyond the hit single format and expansively stretch out, delving into fusion-inspired instrumental interplay between musicians who were at the top of their instrumental trees by 1977.
Nimble guitar lines are supplemented by mallet percussion that evokes the Chinese music heard in the banyan trees sung about in the verses. The legendary Wayne Shorter’s tenor saxophone solo provides a connection to the Sixties jazz that inspired Becker and Fagen from the start. On a song about brief contentment in a life that’s otherwise fraught, this tune is the most sophisticated on an album that proved the effectiveness of Steely Dan’s meticulous approach as record-makers.
Listen: Aja
Josie
With its labyrinthian and vaguely menacing jazz intro, “Josie” is Steely Dan’s version of a best girl in the world-style song so common in pop. In this incarnation, she’s the local girl who makes good; formidable, but also easy to love. From where is Josie returning? The fight circuit? A world tour? Prison? It doesn’t matter. She’s the pride of the neighbourhood; untouchable and unimpeachable.
Chuck Rainey’s bass shines like a beacon here, locked in with Jim Keltner’s drums for a satisfying and earthy R&B groove. True to form, the song slyly ventures into jazz in places, only to return to the slick rock beat that keeps everything grounded. This is one of Steely Dan’s most popular and most danceable hits, issued during the height of disco and capturing its Saturday night spirit without becoming just another stylistic interpretation of it.
Listen: Josie
Peg
This jubilant 1977 Steely Dan hit single hides the seediness behind the camera’s flash, its glare outstripped by the darkness between shutter falls. Fagen voices the fawning narrator, stroking his subject’s ego as he exploits her image for his own self-serving purposes. This is a thoroughly L.A. song about wide-eyed stardom-seekers and the opportunists that gravitate toward them to take what bounty they can.
Saxophonist Tom Scott’s now-iconic riff is actually played on a lyricon, the equivalent of a woodwind synthesizer that provides an essential layer of artifice. Chuck Rainy and Michael McDonald stand out again, contributing buoyant basslines and multilayered backing harmonies respectively. They’re only outdone by Jay Graydon’s slippery and fluid guitar solo, a part he earned after a six-hour session at the pleasure of Becker and Fagen, beating out seven (!) other top flight sessioners while doing so.
Listen: Peg
Babylon Sisters
A recurring theme on 1980’s Gaucho, “Babylon Sisters” is a tale of a man who goes for a cotton candy affair with a younger woman and a life of excess well past his prime against the advice of his friends. This leads to a point of no return that will cost him more than he can afford. Another chapter in the story started in hit single “Hey Nineteen”, this track is in turn a study of a generation slipping into a world no longer made for them.
The interplay between Donald Fagen’s lead and the dulcet backing vocals which include rising star Patty Austin is an irresistible highlight. The “you got to shake it, baby” section on the fade voices the struggle of the narrator as he fights against the inevitable. Incorporating a reggae pulse as it meets with Ellingtonian jazz, this is Steely Dan at their most refined and intricate.
Listen: Babylon Sisters
Cousin Dupree
After taking over a decade off, Steely Dan returned by 1993 as a live act. Toward the end of that decade, they were ready for the studio again, producing the Grammy-winning Two Against Nature in 2000. “Cousin Dupree” found that they could still write a well-crafted sleazy dude story, this one concerning a couch-riding wastrel with (very!) unwholesome designs on his attractive cousin.
For such an unsavoury story, the music is effusive and downright fun, with Walter Becker taking the bluesy and loose lead guitar parts himself. Fagen embodies the central character with a command of R&B and jazz singing that makes one forget about the song’s implications if one isn’t careful. This was their comeback single, a concentrated dose that comes complete with a truly dubious narrator that listeners would do well not to side with.
Listen: Cousin Dupree
Things I Miss the Most
On 2003’s Everything Must Go, “Things I Miss the Most” is the perfect coda to the Steely Dan catalogue. It finds a man reviewing his once privileged and indulgent life as time’s weight bears down on him. Were this any other band, it might be a straightforward song about loneliness and even regret. But with Steely Dan, one can’t help but think there’s an element of just desserts in there somewhere.
Walter Becker takes up bass duties as he’d done on their early albums, with guitars laying down melodic soul-jazz lines as horns breeze in an out. Teaming up with engineer Roger Nichols one last time, there’s a retrospective wistfulness here on this highlight from the last Steely Dan record, finding them in a looser mood while still presenting highly suspect characters as they’d done since their debut over thirty years before as they carved out their own niche.
Listen: Things I Miss the Most
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Runners up and bubbling under:
- Do it Again
- Reelin’ in the Years
- The Boston Rag
- Show Biz Kids
- Razor Boy
- Rikki Don’t Lose That Number
- Pretzel Logic
- Parker’s Band
- Black Cow
- Bad Sneakers
- Green Earrings
- Haitian Divorce
- Home at Last
- Deacon Blues
- FM
- Hey Nineteen
- Gaucho
- Here at the Western World
- Janie Runaway
- Godwhacker
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Steely Dan’s catalogue is celebrated and denigrated for all the same reasons – its sonic precision, its sardonic detachment, and its obnoxiously/impressively high levels of musicianship. That’s the thing about this band. These very same elements are the things that people love and people hate about them, depending on which side of the room one is standing. It’s extraordinary how that seems to play out.
Yet it’s this room-splitting quality that proved the validity of their path seemingly envisioned from the start to mix their influences into something unmistakable. Over a long career, it reveals that Becker and Fagen were singular musical visionaries with compelling authorial voices in both capturing and outlasting their era, going beyond the labels attached to them, and defying imitation.
Learn more about them at steelydan.com.
Enjoy!
https://thedeletebin.com/2024/10/02/20-great-steely-dan-songs/
#20GreatSongs #70sMusic #DonaldFagen #JazzRock #softRock #SteelyDan #WalterBecker
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You can help the 3rd #MoonjuneRecords Festival take place in Guadamur, Spain, featuring outstanding music. Free music as a perk. #ProgressiveRock #JazzRock https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=7WMGX297CS2DC #DavidCross #NikBärtsch #NguyenLe #GaryHusband #LucaCalabrese #MarkusReuter #WrongObject #Beledo #QuartetDiminished #BorisSavoldelli #SusanClynes #BillBruford #DewaBudjana
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#NowPlaying: #SteveGrossman - Terra Firma (1977) In a 70s #JazzRock kinda mood this morning, and this is great example. #JanHammer #DonAlias #GenePerla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVRKOk2ChOs
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I’m currently working my way through all the albums I can find on Tidal by Ian Carr and Nucleus from the 1970s. I bought two of them in the 70s - ‘Roots’ and ‘Snakehips Etcetera’ - and they have been favourites since I got them about 45 years ago.
They all hold up exceptionally well and sound almost contemporary, despite being recognisably 1970s jazz fusion. Excellent playing throughout. #jazz #JazzRock #IanCarr #BrianSmith #ChrisSpedding #RogerSellers #DaveMacrae #AllanHoldsworth
