The News: Walter Becker who, along with Donald Fagen, was half of the core duo of Steely Dan, died last week.  

It was only last October when The Dan played a glorious ten night stand at The Beacon.  Footage from the video that reported on those shows was gathered from the two times when I was lucky enough to shoot the group.  Once at The Capitol Theater in 2014 and again at The Beacon in 2015.

Michael McDonald wrote a beautiful remembrance and Walter Becker’s daughter Sayan shared this loving tribute.

Musically, they were of course perfectionists whose albums were populated by artists with jazz chops.  Street smart and cynical in a way only New Yorkers could be, lyrics dismissed out of hand anything smacking of naiveness: 

heard it was you
Talkin’ ’bout a world
Where all is free
It just couldn’t be
And only a fool would say that

The colorful, vaguely degenerate characters created by Becker and Fagen will forever live in our minds.  There is Mr Lapage who we (the kids) were promised was our man if we wanted some fun in Everyone’s Gone To The Movies.  There is the unnamed agent of Sign In Stranger who can make black spots on your past disappear.   There is the daddy of Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More who didn’t need a lock and key for the piece he stowed out on Avenue D!  It was an honor to host an hour long celebration of Walter and Steely Dan this week on WFUV.  The playlist was culled from dozens of requests that I got from people who had been touched by the inimitable outfit.  Here’s the playlist…

Green Earrings 

Doctor Wu 

Kid Charlemagne 

Show Biz Kids Rickie Lee Jones

Here At The Western World 

Any World 

Any Major Dude 

Chain Lightning 

My Old School

Haitian Divorce 

Black Friday 

Home at Last 

Go to #2 Public Enemy

Steely Dan Fall ’16 Beacon Residency Underway – October 18th, 2016

The boys are back in town! Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have led Steely Dan through extended runs at The Beacon Theatre in five of the last seven years but they’ve topped out this year with ten shows. The band is made up of familiar faces if you’ve turned up for a concert in the last decade or so. They are rooted by the rhythm section of Keith Carlock on drums and Freddie Washington on bass. Jon Herington continues to distinguish himself in his role of lead guitarist that he has had now for sixteen years. The horn section playing those exquisite Dan lines consists of Walt Weiskopf on tenor and alto saxes as well as Roger Rosenberg on baritone sax and Jim Pugh along with Michael Leonhart on trumpets. Jim Beard is the man on piano/keyboards and the indispensable and super fabulous backing vocal trio is made up of La Tanya Hall, Carolyn Leonhart, and Cindy Mizelle.

It was a great bonus to catch Rickie Lee Jones’s set on Friday. She performed accompanied only by one percussionist and played acoustic guitar for most of her songs with the last couple on piano. Rickie mentioned on stage she was lucky enough to meet Steely Dan early in her career and that Walter Becker produced her 1989 album Flying Cowboys. After a couple of nights off, they are back in action tonight with the mean jazz guitarist Julian Lage in the opening slot. Here’s how the rest of the residency shapes up…

October 18 AJA WITH JULIAN LAGE
October 19 BY POPULAR DEMAND WITH JULIAN LAGE
October 22 GAUCHO WITH ADAM ROGER’S DICE
October 25 WITH RICKIE LEE JONES
October 26 AJA WITH RICKIE LEE JONES
October 28 COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY WITH MADELEINE PEYROUX
October 29 GREATEST HITS WITH MADELEINE PEYROUX

The Steely Dan Rockabye Gollie Angel Tour 2015 is ending on a NYC note with no less than 8 shows at The Beacon Theatre.  The musicianship, the humor, the dubious characters inhabiting the songs; all alive and well as Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s immortal outfit is again playing whole albums, greatest hits, and still to come the ‘by popular demand’ and ‘most unforgettable night of whatever’ sets.  Dan, reign o’er me!

Careful what you carry ’cause the man is wise!  Steely Dan did it again at The Capitol Theatre not far from where Walter Becker grew up.  The 3 shows at The Capital Theatre cap the jazz rock band‘s Jamalot Ever After Tour.

Gaucho is not the most highly regarded of Steely Dan albums but the songs came alive last night to begin a killer evening.