By David Linton Attleboro Sun Chronicle MASHANTUCKET, Conn. – After touring over a half-dozen times since 2000, jazz-rock ambassadors Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have this concert tour thing down pat. The band leaders of Steely Dan, which helped define the soundtrack of the much musically-maligned 1970s, looked and sounded comfortable on the stage of […]
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Steely Dan at Tanglewood
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Hit Repeat with Steely Dan and ‘Aja’
By Jon Bream Minneapolis Star Tribune Bruce Springsteen is doing it. So are Van Morrison, the Pixies and Steely Dan. Playing a classic album in its entirety in concert — along with random favorites, of course. On tour this year, Steely Dan is rotating the three biggest albums from its 1970s warped jazz-rock heyday: “Royal […]
Once-Reclusive Pair Now Road Warriors
By Greg Kot Chicago Tribune CHICAGO — Steely Dan famously quit touring to concentrate on recording meticulously crafted studio albums in the ’70s. But in the last decade, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have spent more time on the road than behind a mixing board. And now, with a dozen musicians, they’re performing some of […]
Heaven by Way of ‘Aja’
By Margaret Wappler Los Angeles Times A few minutes before Steely Dan took the stage to play the entirety of its 1977 album, Aja, a man wandered the Gibson Amphitheatre dressed as Jesus. He was wearing shapeless sackcloth, with wavy, honey-colored hair that slipped past his shoulders, and he offered a benevolent gaze to every […]
