By Jay Lustig
Newark Star-Ledger Staff
Early in his Wednesday night concert at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Donald Fagen said it was his first time there. Then he clarified the statement, saying it was his first time anywhere.
What he meant was, Wednesday’s show, which kicked off a month-long tour (with more shows, possibly, to follow), was the first time that his name was on a marquee. The 58-year-old singer-songwriter-keyboardist, who grew up in Passaic and attended high school in South Brunswick, has devoted most of his career to the group Steely Dan, and never before toured as a solo artist.
The tour — which includes shows at New York’s Beacon Theatre on Tuesday and the Borgata in Atlantic City on March 10 — coincides with the release of Fagen’s third solo album, “Morph the Cat,” in stores March 14.
Fagen is playing at theaters, rather than the relatively large amphitheaters Steely Dan tends to visit. But in no other way does the tour represent a radical departure from Steely Dan. Five Steely Dan songs made it into the setlist, and Fagen’s nine-piece band included six musicians who toured with Steely Dan in 2003: drummer Keith Carlock, guitarist Jon Herington, saxophonist Walt Weiskopf, trumpeter Michael Leonhart and backing vocalists Carolyn Leonhart (Michael’s sister) and Cindy Mizelle.
More important, all the music stayed true to the Steely Dan vision (co-conceived by Fagen and his Steely Dan partner, guitarist-bassist-songwriter Walter Becker). These were intricate, hook-filled songs, with adventurous, jazzy solos. The lyrics were frequently mysterious or sardonic, and sung, by Fagen, with the same touch of raspy soul that helps define the Steely Dan sound. The band was sharp, with Carlock in particular playing with an astounding energy.
Fagen performed only two songs from “Morph the Cat.” In all likelihood, he will add more as the tour proceeds, but he held back, since the album is not available yet. “H Gang” didn’t make much of an impression, but “What I Do,” which Fagen described as a dialogue between him and the late Ray Charles, was one of evening’s best numbers.
“I said, ‘Ray, why do girls treat you nice that way?’/He said, ‘It’s not what I know, what I think or say/It’s what I do … It’s deep beneath the skin, it’s what I major in, it’s what I do,'” sang Fagen.
Of the Steely Dan songs, only one — a speeded-up “Here at the Western World,” which opened the show — sounded notably different from its studio version. The band nailed the rich, almost orchestral arrangement of “Home At Last,” as well as the funky rhythm of “Black Cow,” and rocked hard on “Black Friday.”
One of the great things about a Fagen solo tour is that it gives him the opportunity to revisit his first solo album, 1982’s “The Nightfly.” The album, tinged with a touch of nostalgic sweetness, was one of the high points of Fagen’s career, and he performed five of its songs Wednesday, including the galloping “New Frontier” and the Latin jazz-tinged “The Goodbye Look.”
The show ended a bit abruptly, with one of the least substantial “Nightfly” songs, “I.G.Y.,” and then — the evening’s only encore — a rushed-sounding run through Chuck Berry’s “Viva Viva Rock’n’ Roll.” Three songs written on the pre-show setlist (“FM,” “Mis’ry and the Blues” and the “Morph the Cat” tune “Mary Shut the Garden Door”) did not make it into the show itself.
Fagen, who seemed to be straining, vocally, toward the end of the evening, presumably cut them to spare his vocal cords. Still, at an hour and 45 minutes, the show was a respectable length. Especially for a guy’s first solo show, ever.
March 3, 2006
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