SACD Steely Dan - Aja

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SACD Steely Dan – Aja

SACD
44,00 € incl. VAT

Mastering Engineer
Bernie Grundman
Format
Hybrid Stereo SACD
Genre
Pop/Rock

In stock

✓ Usually ships within 1-2 business days

LabelAnalogue Productions
GenrePop/Rock
SKU: CAPP 139 SA Categories: , Tag: Brand:

Steely Dan’s Aja compresses an extraordinary amount of musical information into seven exact, memorable songs. “Black Cow” opens with a patient groove and a lyric whose cool surface cannot hide its irritation. The title track expands the frame: long melodic lines, shifting sections and Wayne Shorter’s tenor saxophone solo carry the song far beyond a conventional rock structure without breaking its sense of flow.

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen worked with a large circle of musicians, choosing particular combinations to serve each composition. “Deacon Blues” turns the fantasy of romantic failure into a beautifully controlled anthem. “Peg” is brighter and tighter, its vocal layers and rhythmic precision making every transition feel inevitable. Bernard Purdie’s distinctive shuffle gives “Home at Last” a rolling foundation beneath Fagen’s image of a reluctant traveller, while “Josie” closes with dry humour and a deeply settled groove. Guitar solos, backing voices and horn charts function as structural events, never ornament alone. The album’s refinement never removes human complication. Desire, vanity, escape and disappointment live inside arrangements whose detail invites repeated attention.

This Analogue Productions edition is a Hybrid SACD, a digital optical disc rather than an LP. The CD layer plays in a conventional CD player; hearing the SACD layer requires compatible SACD equipment. It is aimed at collectors who want Aja in this practical dual-layer digital format. Michael 45 keeps the goods in Germany and ships from Hilden, so customers in Germany and the EU can avoid arranging a personal US import or waiting for customs processing.

Artist page: All titles by Steely Dan

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Additional information

Weight 0,2 kg

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Aja — Steely Dan’s landmark sixth studio album reissue

Hybrid Stereo SACD release from Analogue Productions

Mastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-Dolby EQ’d quarter-inch 15 ips tape copy

Plays in all CD and SACD players

If you were an audiophile in the late 1970s, you owned Aja. Rolling Stone, which ranks 1977’s Aja at No. 63 on its latest 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, says “this was Walter Becker and Donald Fagen’s no-holds barred stab at becoming a huge mainstream jazz-pop success.

“And sure enough, thanks to sweet, slippery tracks like ‘Deacon Blues,’ and ‘Peg,’ this collegiate band with a name plucked from a William Burroughs novel and a songbook full of smart, cynical lyrics became bona fide superstars, shooting to the Top Five and selling platinum. And yes, Aja even won a Grammy for Best Engineeed Album.”

Fagan and Becker would assemble a revolving cast of almost 40 session musicians to play on the album, consisting of some of the all-time greats, including Joe Sample, Larry Carlton, Wayne Shorter, Steve Gadd, Lee Ritenour, Timothy B. Schmidt — it’s a long list. It’s a Who’s Who of session superstars.

The album name and its title track were inspired by a South Korean woman whom a high school friend’s brother had married after serving in the army in her country. The chord progressions and melodies are so unique and so typically Steely Dan. The drum solo at the end of the title track by Steve Gadd is also astounding.

Founded by core members Walter Becker (bass) and Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards), Steely Dan’s popularity rose throughout the late 1970s on, and their seven albums throughout that period of time blended elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop. Steely Dan created a sophisticated, distinctive sound with accessible melodic hooks, complex harmonies and time signatures, and a devotion to the recording studio. Becker and Fagen, with producer Gary Katz, gradually changed Steely Dan from a performing band to a studio project, hiring session musicians to record their compositions. The duo didn’t perform live between 1974 and 1993. But their popularity nevertheless grew throughout the ’70s as their albums became critical favorites and their singles became staples of Adult Oriented Radio and pop radio stations.

After a brief battle with esophageal cancer, Walter Becker died on September 3, 2017 at the age of 67. Steely Dan has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001. VH1 ranked Steely Dan at No. 82 on their list of the 100 Greatest Musical Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 15 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.