Walter Becker, Donald Fagen blend old with new in civilized evening at Blossom
By Malcolm X Abram
Akron Beacon Journal
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — In 2000, when jazz-pop duo Steely Dan released “Two Against Nature,” their first new CD in 20 years, it was met with much fanfare. It yielded a Grammy for Album of the Year (beating out Eminem) and went on to platinum status and a wildly successful tour.
The band’s latest, “Everything Must Go,” hasn’t received nearly as much ink, but Steely Dan long ago passed into classic rock legends, no longer requiring an excuse to hit the road.
Tuesday night at Blossom Music Center, masterminds Walter Becker and Donald Fagen and a crack 11-piece band gave fans a healthy dose of old and a few new songs blended into a very civilized evening of music.
The duo’s music is top-heavy with fancy chord progression, complex arrangements, jazzy modulations and harmonies, so when seeing them live, superlative musicianship is expected.
Throughout the two-hour-plus show, the band was given ample soloing room, beginning with an opening instrumental tune where each member (minus the three backup singers) got a few choruses to show off their chops. The snappily dressed Becker and grizzled Fagen entered last and were greeted with a standing ovation before mellowing everyone out with the title track from their 1977 album, “Aja.”
Steely Dan detractors offer the band as an example of 1970s studio excess, citing the band’s exacting tunes and inability or unwillingness to cut loose and simply rock as prime reasons for ridicule. But working folks into a visceral rock ‘n’ roll frenzy is not Steely Dan’s focus.
Fagen, the reluctant frontman, never encouraged the crowd with rock show cliches, and vocal ad-libs were few. He spent most of the night either behind his Fender Rhodes or holding a seldom-used keytar (a keyboard built like a guitar) and kept the banter casual.
In song after song, the groove was paramount. Drummer Keith Carlock and bassist Tom Barney locked in on the beat on funkier-than-the-recorded versions of “Josie” and “Kid Charlemagne.”
The few new tunes, including the Becker-sung “Slang of Ages” and “Things I Miss The Most,” which Fagen dedicated to his father and sister, who both are from Cleveland and were in the audience, were met with polite interest. But the bulk of the show looked “back deep into the ’70s” with added solo space.
Becker, whose carefully chosen notes laced nearly every song, took a smooth, low-key solo on “Home At Last” while second guitarist Jon Herington actually worked the crowd into a frenzy on the show closing, “My Old School” and also showed his nimble fingers on the reggae-flavored “Haitian Divorce.”
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