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About Steely Dan
Instrument: Band / ensemble / orchestra
The Music Supervisor: Gary Calamar
by B.D. Lenz
For most musicians, the idea of hearing their music in a film or television show feels like hitting the lottery. One day, you're writing and recording in your basement studio, and the next, your song is underscoring a pivotal scene on a major television program. Behind those moments, though, is someone whose job it is to find exactly the right music for the right moment: the music supervisor. Music supervisors sit at the crossroads of art and logistics. ...
Continue ReadingThe Long Shadow of Steely Dan
by Patrick Burnette
It's been a hot minute since the boys did a “pop" episode, but given this very special installment is devoted to jazz-rock gods of the seventies Steely Dan, maybe this doesn't count. The Dan's somewhat controversial 1980's sign-off gets a good look in and then various tributes are dissected, with Pat arguing that jazz musicians need to take the kid gloves off when confronting this most seminal of cross-over hit-makers. Also, Keith Jarrett called and he wants his royalties.
Continue ReadingWhy Steely Dan Can Never Really Be Yacht Rock
by Eric Pettine
This article was first published on All About Jazz on April 20, 2019. The website Really Smooth Music provides the definition of the term Yacht Rock as being “a variation of popular Soft Rock that peaked between the years of 1976 and 1984 (as featuring a) highly polished brand of soft rock that emanated from Southern California during the late '70s and early '80s. The term is meant to suggest the kind of smooth, mellow music that early ...
Continue ReadingNightfly: The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen by Peter Jones
by Doug Collette
Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen by Peter Jones Peter Jones 368 pages ISBN: #978-1641606875 Chicago Review Press 2022 In his introduction to Nightfly: The Life of Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, author Peter Jones could hardly have drawn a more clear outline for his biography of Steely Dan's co-founder. As a result, it only stands to reason that Fagen's late creative partner and friend Walter Becker makes his first appearance around ...
Continue ReadingSisters from Another Jazz Mother? Part 2
by Ludovico Granvassu
You know how scientists say that, statistically, every person has roughly six look-alikes around the world? Well the same seems to be true in the music world, where one can find quite a few songs that appear to be sound-alikes of other compositions we're familiar with... This does not have to be necessarily the result of plagiarism but can often be the outcome of the fact that certain melodies can enter a musician's brain and come back out later in ...
Continue ReadingDiscovering Jazz through Pretzel Logic
by Alan Bryson
It's a good bet that most of us have heard people say they don't like jazz, or even worse, drop the H-bomb, “I hate jazz." If you choose to engage, the key is to tread lightly and tailor an approach that considers the tastes and sensibilities of the other person. The “So You Don't Like Jazz" column explores ways to do just that. Steely Dan If you dig down in the music collection of many people who claim ...
Continue ReadingCold Fusion: The Search for the Jazz/Rock Unicorn, Part 2
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Part 2: Steely Dan's AjaI ended the first part of this series with the question that prompted these articles: “Why is there so little music that genuinely fuses two styles together and does so in a way that maintains the integrity of the stylistic contributors?" I could have phrased in differently by asking a closely related question: “Why is there so little fusion music that is accepted as authentic by ...
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