Posted on 05/17/2024 3:10:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Produced by longtime collaborator Gary Katz, the album went on to be the band’s most successful, and their first platinum disc.
The recordings of Steely Dan are so superbly crafted that it’s no surprise they have won honors for their studio engineering as well as their superior musicianship.
The band’s magnificent Aja album, released on September 23, 1977, went on to win a Grammy Award the following February 23. It was for Best Engineered Recording, Non Classical, for Al Schmitt, Bill Schnee, Elliot Scheiner, and Roger Nichols.
This masterwork, which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003, came as Steely Dan were making their transition from their original hit style of the “Reeling In The Years” period to an ever more sophisticated and quite jazzy sound. At the same time, they not only retained great commercial appeal, but heightened it. Aja, produced by their longtime collaborator Gary Katz, went on to be the band’s most successful album and their first platinum disc.
The sixth Steely Dan LP, Aja made the US charts in October 1977, and within a few weeks, they had a hit on their hands from it. The catchy “Peg,” with distinctive harmony vocals by another friend of long-standing, Michael McDonald, began climbing the Hot 100 on its way to No.11. Early in the new year, a second hit was forthcoming in the shape of “Deacon Blues.”
En route to double platinum
No wonder, then, that the album became their highest-charting record in America, spending no fewer than seven weeks at No.3, en route to double platinum status. Rolling Stone placed at as high as No.145 in the magazine’s 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
As writer Chris Morris opined in Variety, when the album hit its 40th anniversary in September 2017: “To be sure, Fagen and Becker were being true to their studio-obsessive, perfectionist natures as they sculpted their bestselling and most widely admired record. In a 2000 video about the making of the album, the pair can be seen offering tart commentary as they audition the rejected guitar solos cut for ‘Peg,’ finally performed with angular precision by Jay Graydon. They knew what they wanted, and they laboured hard to find the sweet spot.”
The urbane, airy sound of the signature hits, the title track, the spirited “Josie” and others made Aja a must-have for any album-buying record buff of the time. The presence of A-list musicians such as Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter, Larry Carlton, Jim Keltner, and Tom Scott only added to the elegant sound of an album that will never go out of date.
Almost forgot. Larry Carlton is also known as Mr. 335. He loves those Gibsons! Me too.
Thanks, my mistake and to make it worse l own the album…on vinyl
Me too. I still have my beloved 1967 es-345
No problem, I have the same vinyl, in fact I have so many, I can’t remember half of them, But Carlton is one of my favorites. “Fire wire” is hot.
Same here brother
Never cared for the jazzy turn Aja was
I was listening to an album a few weeks back, Tom Scott’s cover of old Cannonball Aderly tunes. After hearing an amazing drum solo I looked to see who it was that could play like that. Yep, it was Steve Gadd. An amazing drummer.
1967? Sweet. I’m not strictly a Gibson fan, love those Fender Telecasters also, and Gretsch makes some beautiful looking and sounding ones. Friend of mine has an early Telecaster, in great shape and with his early Fender tube amp, sounds kick ass.
As a drummer wannabe, I can’t tell you how many albums I have with him on drums. Just amazing. I put him up there with Cobham, Narada Michael Walden, Bruford, Michael Schrieve, the best of the best.
McDonald is classified as a baritone. So you’re just talking shit.
Well now, I’m going to have to dust off and hook up my turntable, and listen to the vinyl with the amp volume on about 7.....make that 8. Oh, yeah.
When you need a strat you need a strat same with a tele. For Rockabilly it’s got to be a Gretsch. I had a patent pending tweed Fender Bandmaster amp which made it a mid 1950’s model. Hands the best sounding l have ever heard. I got sloppy and someone stole it. After 20 years l still grieve.
Damn shame. Nothing like those early tube amps. Well there was Dumble, who personally made each amp, died in 2022. R.I.P.
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