Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Steely Dan
Label: Island Records
Release: 1977
Length: 39:58
Rating: 5/5
“Aja” is one of the most beautifully written fairy tales in the saga of jazz rock fusion. With it, the legendary Steely Dan duo, embodied by jazz rock masters Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, hit the biggest artistic-and-commercial success of their career. Their earlier albums had already pulled in respectable sales and top marks from music gourmets, but “Aja” was the first to go platinum and the one that landed the prestigious Grammy for best engineered non-classical album. Considering that these indestructible songwriting-and-playing partners and production perfectionists used it to reach the final milestone in the artistic evolution of their project (by then strictly a studio affair), the praise and awards were more than deserved.
Fagen and Becker’s compositions were always the very picture of songwriting and production polish, all while steering clear of any of the stock sonic templates you can so easily find in popular music. So it was only a matter of time before the world’s music map rewarded them properly. The odd album title comes from a Korean woman’s name, belonging to the wife of the brother of one of Fagen’s friends, which fits nicely with the record’s deeply romantic atmosphere.
Musically, “Aja” marked the last major evolutionary step in the ongoing jazzy sophistication of the signature Steely Dan sound. Their earlier work, a musically complex yet instantly accessible kind of experimentalism, had drawn mostly on the rainbow of progressive rock, pop, funk, soul and r’n’b on top of its protective jazz rock foundation. Here it finally bowed to refined, melodic jazz arrangements played by some of the most revered jazz musicians of the day. Among them let me name just giants like legendary saxophonist Wayne Shorter, drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardist Joe Sample, and guitarists Steve Khan and Lee Ritenour, because the list of prestigious guest players goes on almost forever. Fagen and Becker never again assembled such a powerhouse crew of session players, which says a lot about their obsession with reaching the most refined jazz dimensions possible.
It’s kind of ironic that “Aja”, certainly their most jazz-flavored record, is also their most accessible one for wider ears, and as such almost perfect for anyone who isn’t into the heavily improvised style of jazz fusion typical of the first half of the 70s. Thanks to polished horn and keyboard arrangements and seductive multi-part harmonies, backed by eclectic bits of guitar artistry in between and tastefully shifting rhythmic patterns, the individual songs are, structurally, seemingly closer to pop than to traditional jazz fusion. Thanks to Fagen’s instantly recognizable, charismatic vocals, often backed by seductive female harmonies perfectly woven in between the intelligent jazz arrangements, the album has a deeply romantic character that conjures up images of late-night clubs and a sea of city lights. Compared to the rather dark, lyrically very sarcastic “The Royal Scam” (1976), “Aja” is practically a teddy bear that doesn’t need long to win over even the hearts of those with a mostly idealistic outlook on life.
The biggest change, though, hit the lyrics, which swapped the old protective sarcasm, social satire and black humor for assorted love adventures as their central subject. The women’s names in some of the song titles, like “Aja”, “Peg” and “Josie”, already gave this shift away. These are all songs full of love confessions but also disappointments, like the message of the opener “Black Cow”, which doesn’t hold back on bitter lines about a woman’s unfaithfulness. This habit of using women’s names clearly found a home later with the melodic rock heroes Toto, who were always huge Steely Dan devotees, mainly thanks to former collaborators Jeff Porcaro and David Paich, and Steve Lukather as well.
The individual tracks, once again greased by phenomenal production from Gary Katz, positively buckle under their sonic ambition and polish, so picking favorites on this album is a seriously tough job. Already in the opening treat “Black Cow” you can marvel at the apparent ease and refined feel with which the legendary masters, helped by their superb studio collaborators, blend rhythmic complexity with an amazing flow between the individual motifs. The witty rhythmic ornaments, built mostly on a fat bass line, make room for solo instrumental spots and polished horn arrangements. But the real wealth of the song hides in the hypnotic vocal harmonies, where Fagen’s vocals get an extra boost from erotic female harmonies.
The title track, a nearly eight-minute adventure built on complex jazz transitions and multi-part instrumental harmonies, will have every jazz fusion gourmet licking their lips. What impresses most here is the incredibly artful and eclectic layering of instrumental textures, plus the deeply romantic chorus built right in. Among the solos, the standouts are Shorter’s phenomenal, instantly recognizable sax solo and Gadd’s fantastic drumming at the close of the track. “Deacon Blues” is an evergreen Steely Dan classic, marked by a magical chorus that would weaken the knees of even the most buttoned-up members of our much-esteemed social “elite”. Most classic rock fans would probably think first of a saddened John Deacon, former bassist of Queen, when they hear the title, but its lyrics, one of the album’s few examples of open lyrical sarcasm, deal with a much more trivial subject: the defeat of the Demon Deacons (Fagen’s team) at the hands of the favored Crimson Tide in college American football. Fagen’s feelings over his favorite team’s loss were key to one of his best vocal performances of his entire career, topped off by the seductive erotica of the backing female harmonies. The romantic chorus is the essence of perfection, containing one of the best lines in the project’s whole saga. It also has to be said that the horn arrangements, tenor sax solo included, are among the best they ever made.
“Peg”, which was also released as a single, is another picture-perfect showcase of jazz rock rhythmic and harmonic wit in classic Steely Dan style. The proof is the wonderfully inventive central keyboard motif and the hypnotic chorus, once again reinforced with multi-part harmonies. No less impressive is the phenomenal guitar solo by Jay Gordon. As a fun fact, no fewer than seven different top-tier guest guitarists tried to contribute the solo for this song before the steely commanders were happy with Gordon’s version. “Home at Last”, supposedly inspired by the Odyssey since the lyrics touch on homesickness, is a charming jazz ballad fed by energetic horn arrangements and Fagen’s poetic vocal performance. There’s also room here for some excellent Becker guitar solos, marked by incredibly clean jazz lines. It has to be said that by this point Becker had grown into a top-notch jazz guitarist and, despite generous help from six different guitarists, played most of the solos himself.
“I Got the News” is a somewhat more scattered, highly complex creation with plenty of playful passages on electric piano, unorthodox horn arrangements and hypnotic multi-part vocals. The layered curtains of keys in the background are finger-licking good, and the witty jazz improvisations and rhythmic transitions impress just as much. You could easily say the closing masterpiece “Josie” is the cherry on top, an almost ideal ending to the album that serves up the best of everything tied to the name Steely Dan. The intro brings a mysterious electric piano motif, pulled along by funky rhythmic patterns and a superb vocal performance. Meanwhile intelligent guitar passages and cheeky horn arrangements keep mischievously wandering in and out, enough to make the heart of any jazz fusion connoisseur skip a beat. The charming yet witty lyrics carry a strongly sexual allusion to the perfect girl from the neighborhood. Mostly thanks to that, “Josie” is among the most passionate compositions in the project’s saga.
“Aja” is the embodiment of the wildest jazz rock dreams the steely duo ever shared, captured at the peak of their creative powers. With such a strong crew of top jazz musicians, they were practically “doomed” to create a timeless classic of popular and experimental music alike, a name still spoken only with the greatest respect in circles of music snobs today. All Steely Dan albums from the 70s are masterpieces, but “Aja” remains the first to bring the untamable duo worldwide success on an epic scale and write them into the books as immortals for good. With this album, Fagen and Becker achieved everything there was to achieve in artistic inspiration and instrumental-compositional perfection, though at the time, sonic overachievers and production nitpickers that they were, they didn’t realize it yet. That’s why “Aja” stands as their last great masterpiece of the 70s, before the troubles started, both in songwriting and in their personal lives, which led to the unexpected and premature farewell of one of the most exciting formations in the saga of popular and experimental music.
Lineup
Donald Fagen – synthesizer, keyboards, vocals, backing vocals, whistling
Walter Becker – bass guitar, guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Chuck Rainey – bass guitar
Timothy B. Schmit – vocals
Paul Griffin – keyboards, electric piano, vocals, backing vocals
Don Grolnick – keyboards, clavinet
Michael Omartian – piano, keyboards
Joe Sample – keyboards, electric piano, clavinet
Larry Carlton – guitar, electric guitar
Denny Dias – guitar
Jay Graydon – guitar, electric guitar
Steve Khan – guitar
Dean Parks – guitar
Lee Ritenour – guitar
Pete Christlieb – flute, tenor saxophone
Chuck Findley – horn, woodwinds
Jim Horn – flute, saxophone
Richard “Slyde” Hyde – trombone
Plas Johnson – flute, saxophone
Jackie Kelso – flute, horn, saxophone
Lou McCreary – woodwinds
Bill Perkins – flute, horn, saxophone
Tom Scott – conductor, flute, tenor saxophone, lyricon
Wayne Shorter – flute, tenor saxophone
Bernard Purdie – drums (“Home at Last”, “Deacon Blues”)
Steve Gadd – drums (“Aja”)
Ed Greene – drums (“I Got the News”)
Paul Humphrey – drums (“Black Cow”)
Jim Keltner – percussion, drums (“Josie”)
Rick Marotta – drums (“Peg”)
Gary Coleman – percussion
Victor Feldman – percussion, piano, keyboards, electric piano, vibraphone
Venetta Fields – vocals, backing vocals
Clydie King – vocals, backing vocals
Rebecca Louis – vocals, backing vocals
Sherlie Matthews – vocals, backing vocals
Michael McDonald – vocals, backing vocals
Production
Gary Katz
Track list
1. Black Cow
2. Aja
3. Deacon Blues
4. Peg
5. Home at Last
6. I Got the News
7. Josie
