Originally published in March, 2006.
By Mike Chadwick
Jazzfm
“Eagerly anticipated,” bellows the press release about this the new album from Donald Fagen. OK, as a long suffering Steely Dan/Donald Fagen fan I must be grateful for this recent bout of creativity. I mean, two Steely Dan albums and a Donald Fagen solo album in six years, it’s not so much a case of eagerly anticipated as eternally grateful, especially as the usual gap between solo albums is over ten years! All I need is for Donald Fagen to announce some UK dates and I may have a coronary.
The US tour runs from the 1st until the 31st March with a band that includes Freddie Washington on bass, both Wayne Krantz and Jon Herington on guitars, Keith Carlock on drums, Michael Leonhart on trumpet and Walt Weiskopf on saxophones.
My goodness I can hardly sit still with anticipation that I may get to see a Donald Fagen solo show and see the music from his now three amazing albums, live.
So Morph the Cat is the title and apparently it is the third part in a highly personal trilogy. The Nightfly about youth, Kamakiriad about midlife and Morph the Cat about endings or as Fagen himself puts it, “I’m starting to get older and began to think about mortality a little more. My mother died in 2003 and that was a big shock. When your parents start to die off, that’s going to be a revelation. So for me, this album, although it might sound quite cheery, is really talking a lot about death.” There are plans to release the trilogy as a separate box set, no doubt with extra tracks so we have to buy the albums again.
The first single from the album is “H Gang” and it’s just perfect. I am sure it will be and probably already is a radio smash and is just indicative of the album — it really is just perfect. I want to take you through my own personal mindset when I get a new album from the Steely Dan boys. Initially I really want it to be the best thing I’ve ever heard.
It starts with the CD arriving, then the anticipation about the first hearing, then strangely, disappointment as it can never live up to my non-realistic expectations. First listen over, phew, pressures off, now I can relax and really start to get into it. Every time this has happened and with repeated listens the albums just get better and better!
Well, it’s here and in my life, a new solo album from Donald Fagen and I can’t stop playing it, over and over. Those “right in the pocket” grooves, heavenly harmonies, strange lyrics and subject matters, fantastic musicianship, Fagen’s strained but powerful vocals, it’s everything you could want and more. It’s not jazz, not soul, and not rock but is infused with the spirit of all these genres. It is unique and in possession of that x factor so missing in today’s money, fame and power obsessed music industry, much like Mr Fagen himself. A true original musician who has lived his life and reacted to it through his music, including long periods of writers block and inactivity, times that must have been incredibly frustrating.
I haven’t got any sleeve notes to help me try and dismember the subject matter on hand but despite its upbeat sound the album is dark and serious and I can only hazard an educated guess about some of the songs. “Mary Shut the Garden Door” seems to be about fighting or hiding from aliens and has probably got some political agenda. “Security Joan” is another great character created for the purpose of one of life’s patience building experiences, the airport security routine, especially since 9/11.
“It’s What I Do” is a song he has had for a while, as Fagen says to explain this piece, “I think I didn’t accept myself as a performer until recently. I always thought I had this sort of fake job. Like a lot of people of my generation, I didn’t quite sink into my actual profession, so it was difficult to take myself seriously in any given role. So I had this song that concerned itself with that concept. Then when Ray Charles died, I realized it would be much better if I addressed it to Ray Charles rather than just have it about me because he was such a great role model. So that one’s really a younger version of myself addressing the ghost of Ray Charles.”
Here we have the essence of Donald Fagen, an ability to blend jazz, soul and other musical influences with extended grooves and changing musical landscapes, in fact not unlike Ray Charles! He has no problem if this album echoes our troubled times, it is the reason for his own longevity, the instinct to reflect what’s going on both in his own life and the world at large. As to the real nitty gritty I’ll leave the last word to the great man himself: “I like it when songs develop in some way and four minutes usually isn’t enough time for something to develop. I’m still kind of plugged into that Duke Ellington model – something akin to classical music – where you start something, you develop it a little bit and stick with it and when you get a groove going, time flies.”
I found out two interesting pieces of information when writing this review, firstly both Donald Fagen and Walter Becker attended Bard College along with actor/comedian Chevy Chase and the three of them played together in a band known as Leather Canary! If you have ever wondered about the meaning of some of the crazy and exotic words used in Steely Dan/Becker & Fagen songs then you will be very pleased to discover www.steelydandictionary.com where you will find out things you probably didn’t even want to know but are so glad you did. Enjoy this new album from one of music’s great original craftsman and let’s hope he tours the UK very soon.
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