The genius that is Donald Fagen turns 66 years of age today. Donald is an accomplished soloist but best known as the composer, vocalist & keyboardist for Steely Dan. Steely Dan is stylish, classy, smooth and did I say classy? Fagen is mostly responsible for that and that is reflected in his solo work. His 4 solo albums are no real departure from Steely Dan, just smooth jazz pop/rock, music of superior production detail and elaborate structure. Can I pick a favourite Steely Dan rekid..that’s hard. They all have so many great songs and subtle differences record to record. I guess you could say that Fagen really shines on his solo album, The Nightfly. What wonderful recording, the album is upbeat, suave, dreamy and a flawless blend of jazz/rock. This album shows how Fagen is able to come up with new textures, tempos and feels song to song. The harmony structures are truly sublime and varied instrumentation gives nothing but pleasure, listen after listen. Fagen excels with “songsmanship” here, his tunes like the forward-looking I.G.Y., the pensive Maxine, the optimistic New Frontier must rate among his best. You can also get lounge clubby with a tropical feel from both The Goodbye Look and Walk Between the Raindrops. BRILLIANT 10/10 https://youtube/watch?v=Y8zrKnkd6ss
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 19:01:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015