WEEK 1- AJA by Steely Dan

[kve777 6,657]

For out first week of 2021, I picked one of my fav's. Aja is a go to for testing systems. Give it a listen, but think about it technically, the mixing, engineering, how does information on the left and right channels differ? Things like that. One of my favorite things about this album is the use of negative space. Those little delays where there are no notes, but has big impact on the track. Post your impressions! Let us know how you are listening, too. Vinyl? CD? SACD? Streaming? 8-Track?

 

 

Side one

 

1."Black Cow"5:10

2."Aja"7:57

3."Deacon Blues"7:33

 

Side two

4."Peg"3:58

5."Home at Last"5:34

6."I Got the News"5:06

7."Josie"

 

 

Steely Dan

Donald Fagen – lead vocals (all tracks), synthesizer (all tracks but 4), police whistle (2), backing vocals (2, 5, 7)

Walter Becker – bass guitar (3), guitar (2), guitar solo (5, 6, 7)

 

Additional musicians

Victor Feldman – Fender Rhodes (1, 3, 7), vibraphone (5, 6), piano (5, 6), percussion (2, 4)

Joe Sample – Fender Rhodes (2), clavinet (1)

Paul Griffin – Fender Rhodes (4), backing vocals (4)

Michael Omartian – piano (2)

Don Grolnick – clavinet (4)

Larry Carlton – guitar (1, 2, 3, 5, 7), guitar solo (6)

Lee Ritenour – guitar (3)

Dean Parks – guitar (3, 6, 7)

Steve Khan – guitar (4)

Denny Dias – guitar (2)

Paul Humphrey – drums (1)

Rick Marotta – drums (4)

Ed Greene – drums (6)

Steve Gadd – drums (2)

Bernard Purdie – drums (3, 5)

Jay Graydon – guitar solo (4)

Chuck Rainey – bass guitar (all but track 3)

Jim Keltner – drums, percussion (7)

Gary Coleman – percussion (4)

Tom Scott – tenor saxophone (1), Lyricon (4), horn arrangements

Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone (2)

Pete Christlieb – tenor saxophone (3)

Jim Horn, Bill Perkins, Plas Johnson, Jackie Kelso – saxophone, flute

Chuck Findley, Lou McCreary, Dick Hyde – brass

Michael McDonald (4, 6), Timothy B. Schmit (2, 5, 7), Clydie King (1, 3, 6), Sherlie Matthews (1, 3, 6), Venetta Fields (1, 3, 6), Rebecca Louis (1, 6) – backing vocals

 

Production

Executive producer: Stephen Diener [ABC Records]

Producer: Gary Katz

Engineers: Roger Nichols, Elliot Scheiner, Al Schmitt, Bill Schnee

Assistant engineers: Joe Bellamy, Lenise Bent, Ken Klinger, Ron Pangaliman, Ed Rack, Linda Tyler

Mastering: Bernie Grundman

Production coordination: Barbara Miller

Sound consultant: Dinky Dawson

Consultant: Daniel Levitin

Horn arrangements: Tom Scott

Art direction: Oz Studios,[9] Vartan Reissue

Design: Patricia Mitsui, Geoff Westen

Photography: Hideki Fujii (cover photo), Walter Becker, Dorothy A. White

Liner notes: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen

Reissue coordination: Beth Stempel

[niccolosito 327]

Aja is one of my all-time favorite album and have been listening to its seven-odd tracks at least once week since '78 when I first heard it on my brod-in-law's system. 

Still have my vinyl, regular cd, and a remastered cd. I can't imagine how the sound could be improved any further given its already excellent sound but if prices of ultra-hi def versions become more affordable, I won't hesitate to go for one. It has become to me like The Beatles' Rubber Soul where I already could hear in my mind the first notes of the next track. You folks know what I mean. 

 

Steve Gadd's short pause on the drums highlight of "Aja" track is one good example of what Kev calls negative space where all players stop playing for a sec and then continue playing. Shows who's in control of the tempo and adds a little drama to that section of the song. Same with Jim Keltner's pauses on "Josie".

 

I love all the songs but I seem to listen closer every time with " I Got The News". I don't know the proper description for them but I just love Victor Feldman's occasional piano embellishments. Kind of out of tune but not exactly.

The sound quality is up there with the best of them as is the playing by numerous studio players most of whom have continued or proceeded to make high quality music on their own. Personally, Two Against Nature, a follow-up album after like twenty years is not on par with Aja's easy to hum-along melodies of the songs and hardly see action on my systems.

I often wonder how the album would sound if it were recorded with today's technology but with everything else exactly the same.

 

There goes my non-technical appreciation of Aja, Kev and don't start me with Rush's Moving Pictures.

[Nahash5150 9,952]

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