By Greg Haymes Albany Times Union LENOX, Mass. – One of the most distinctive bands on the ’70s pop scene, Steely Dan has always had a signature sound – a cool, heady, highly polished, deftly arranged brand of jazz-rock with a smooth-funk edge. And that sound didn’t change even when they came back with 2000′s […]
Cool Steely Dan Jazz-Rock on Hot Night
By Jane Stevenson Toronto Sun TORONTO — There ain’t no cure for the summertime blues maybe but Steely Dan’s concert at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre on Friday night (July 22, 2011) went a long way in easing the pain of yet another excruciatingly hot and humid evening in Toronto as the city’s heat […]
Steely Dan Plays Cool Concert on Warm Night at the Bowl
By L. Paul Mann NoozHawk.com July 6 was an unusually crisp and warm evening in Santa Barbara with light Santa Ana winds buffering the hillsides above the city. It was a perfect summer evening for a concert at the Santa Barbara Bowl by veteran jazz rock fusion band Steely Dan. As the sunset faded to […]
Steely Dan Brings ‘Aja’ to Vivid Life
By Robert Kinsler The Orange County Register LOS ANGELES — When it comes to performances of the best-known jazz-rock album in popular music, it’s next to impossible to imagine anything outdistancing the live version of Steely Dan‘s Aja that thrilled a capacity crowd at the Greek Theatre Friday night. For 43 magical minutes, the Dan […]
Rock’s Reluctant Front Man
By MARC MYERS Wall Street Journal Just days before the start of Steely Dan’s “Shuffle Diplomacy” tour last Saturday, Donald Fagen was holed up in a New York rehearsal studio. Mr. Fagen, who co-founded the rock band in 1972, has just completed his fourth solo album — though he won’t have time to mix it until […]
Quintessential Studio Act Becomes a Well-Honed Touring Machine
By Joan K. Smith Huffington Post This weekend, Steely Dan, that indefinable and technically sophisticated bundle of rock, jazz, and whatever else strikes the fancy of principals Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, kicked off the “Shuffle Diplomacy” tour, their seventh U.S. tour since 2000, with a group of band veterans who are as well known […]
Interview with Walter Becker
By Time Out New York Editors No matter how well-balanced an artistic partnership is, someone always gets more of the glory. In the case of Steely Dan, that someone is Donald Fagen, the group’s longtime keyboardist-frontman. But his songwriting partner, guitarist-bassist Walter Becker, has just as much to do with the group’s signature combination of […]
4/13/2011: Roger Nichols Dies at 66
Engineer gave Steely Dan its distinctive sound. Roger Nichols worked with many other artists, but his association with Steely Dan produced six of his seven Grammy awards. By Richard Cromelin Los Angeles Times Roger Nichols, the recording engineer who gave the music of Steely Dan the lustrous sheen that became the popular group’s sonic signature, […]
Fagen On Dukes’ Hot New Tour
By Kevin O’Donnell Rolling Stone In the early ’90s, when Steely Dan were on hiatus, Donald Fagen rounded up some session musician pals (including Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs) to form the New York Rock and Roll Soul Revue. The band gave intimate performances featuring classic R&B tunes (Eddie Floyd’s “Knock on Wood,” Etta James’ […]
Steely Dan at its Very Best
By Jane Stevenson Toronto Sun TORONTO — “That was Aja, what do you want to do now?” joked Steely Dan singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen on Wednesday night at Massey Hall. Fagen and his Steely Dan partner and guitarist Walter Becker had just performed the ’70s New York jazz-rock duo’s most commercially successful album, 1977’s Aja, in […]
