By Ricardo Baca Denver Post DENVER — Steely Dan co-frontman Donald Fagen was supposed to play the Paramount Theatre on Tuesday night, but his trucks got stuck on snowy Nebraska highways. Fagen was forced to postpone until Wednesday, when the sold-out crowd warmed him and his band from the cold outside with a display of […]
Tag Archives | 2006 Morph the Cat tour
Fagen relaxes his grip
By Thomas Conner Chicago Sun-Times The fastidiousness of Donald Fagen is well-documented among his band’s considerable contributions to rock ‘n’ roll. In the studio for Steely Dan records, six-hour sessions were common just to polish 12 bars of rhythm guitar. Noted session musicians would be brought in at great expense to play jazzlike guitar and […]
Donald Fagen Band at the Chicago Theatre
By Paul Olson AllAboutJazz.com CHICAGO — Steely Dan founder/vocalist Donald Fagen’s concert at the storied Chicago Theatre wasn’t exactly the sound of surprise — this isn’t a jamband he’s fronting and anyone who came expecting loose, improvisational flights of fancy was destined to be disappointed. But the full house knew pretty much exactly what to […]
Storyteller Finds Comfort Onstage
By Doug Pullen Flint Journal DETROIT – Funny thing about Donald Fagen. Used to be he never wanted to tour with Steely Dan, which was more of a songwriting and studio partnership than a living, breathing, touring band. They made some of the greatest records of the pop era, but didn’t hit the road for […]
Fans Welcome ‘Steely Don’
By Vit Wagner Toronto Star TORONTO — You can take Walter Becker out of Steely Dan. But you can never take Steely Dan out of Donald Fagen. While Fagen, the 58-year-old singer-keyboard player for the 1970s jazz-pop pioneers, performed a nearly sold-out set last night minus his other half, guitarist Becker, the effect was more […]
Donald Fagen Stows Away the Time Nicely
By Jane Stevenson Toronto Sun TORONTO — “How ya feelin’ Donald?” a male fan shouted out to Steely Dan singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen on Monday night at Massey Hall. “I’m feeling groovy, baby,” smiled the 58-year-old, who’s taking part in the first solo tour of his three-decade-plus career. And groovy Fagen, who postponed his Boston show […]
Mixing Songs, Fagen Finds the Groove
By Siddhartha Mitter Globe Correspondent BOSTON — No one has taken the place of Steely Dan. A generation ago, guitarist Walter Becker and singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen built an unmatched creative hub connecting rock, jazz, blues, and soul. Their taut sound, technical yet warm, and their lyrics, crucial vignettes of ’70s dystopia and Reagan-era dyspepsia, sped […]
Sad Experiences Still a Theme in Fagen’s Music
By Bradley Bambarger Newhouse News Service NEW YORK — Recording engineer Elliot Scheiner recalls that Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen was once rather obsessed with making records. While recording “The Royal Scam” in 1975, Scheiner expressed dismay that Fagen and Steely Dan partner Walter Becker wanted to work on Christmas Day, engineer in tow. Fagen replied, […]
Still Reelin’ in the Years
On his first solo tour, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen brings something for both jazz snobs and pop fans By LYNN SAXBERG The Ottawa Citizen Donald Fagen makes music for discerning people. In Steely Dan, he and musical partner Walter Becker created some of the most sophisticated rock of the 1970s, music so finely crafted that […]
Steely Dan’s Voice, Wry as Ever, if Less Sure
By Laura Sinagra New York Times NEW YORK — Those meticulous jazz-rockers Steely Dan built a career on seeming coolly unfazed. But the solo efforts of its principals, Donald Fagen and his snarkier counterpart, Walter Becker, prove what we all knew: that insouciant affect is usually the result of peer pressure. We can only be […]
