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My fave is Denny Dias on "Aja". Some people think it was Larry Carlton on that solo, but according to the credits it was DD.
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08-27-2014 07:49 PM
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My favorite album is Gaucho and on that album there are some amazing guitar work. The solo by Steve Khan (?) on Glamour Profession is a bliss. The Carlton solo on third world man with the magical ending, the caracteristic noodles by Knophler on Time out of mind, and Khans (or hugh mccrackens?) Juicy stuff on My Rival ...All Greatness.
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Ahh...for sure that one was Carlton. Wikipedia in fact credits this to Carlton. This takes nothing away from Jay Graydon, who was and is a hell of a guitar player.
Originally Posted by rayme330
I vote for the Kid Charlemagne solo, although as a kid I was originally knocked out by Elliott Easton's "Reelin'" solo.
FWIW, Steely Dan put out what amounts to nearly perfect pop music, nearly all the time. Does anyone come close, these days?
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I interviewed Elliott Randall about his solo on "Reelin' in the Years" for the Fretboard Journal. For whatever reason, they never ran it wso I included it in my new book, Guitar Dreams. He's a very interesting, multi-talented guy.
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Elliot Randall and I think Dominic Troiano also did work with Steely Dan. I was around Steely Dan's sessions a lot during the 70's because that was when I as working at a studio and my buddy worked at the Village where Dan did a lot of there work in L.A. so I spent my nights hanging out at the Village. Dan was typically of producers then and recorded with multiple guitars doing solos and even multiple rhythm sections. Walter would take tapes home and do more bass and guitar overdubs, so they had a lot to choose from.
Their mixing sessions were insane they would fill every track and every inch of tape with something. The tape legends insane with percussion right up to the guitar solo then end of guitar solo and some other instrument. This was all before computerized consoles, in fact computer controlled tape deck were new at time. So a with all that insanity on every track it would take a lot of hands making EQ and level changes as the mix was running. They would have over and over practice making all the changes in time in order to get the mix right and to the half track master.
Then I remember when they lost an entire album because of a couple bad channels of DBX that they didn't discover till mastering. As much as DBX tried they couldn't fix the problem and Dan had to remix the whole album.
Fun time to be in music.
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Those lame solos influenced a whole generation of rock guitarists, for better or worse. Finally broke the grip that Clapton and Hendrix had on everyone. Originally Posted by Richb
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+1 Gadd
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The first SD album I heard was Aja.
I realised 2 things.
1 I knew nothing about music……it's mechanics nor it's history.
2 That the country I lived in was bereft of culture.
I'm still trying to remedy #1
#2 still firmly holds true.
I never thought of SD guitar solos as separate things. They were part of the song and they provided the excitement for their allotted time.
I love the roughness and nastiness of the early ones. Pre Kid C. They balanced the smooth changes.
I never tried to work out an SD guitar solo but I did spend time on the Phil Woods solo in Katy Lied. What a freaking great song.
Then there's Fire In The Hole. I'll stop now……except to say…...
Gaucho, that's a masterpiece as is Aja.
Best band ever.
IMO.
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i liked the guitar work on Don't Take Me Alive.
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That's one of my favorites too. I also loved the "My Old School" solos from the second album. Originally Posted by fumblefingers
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Check out Jon Herington when you have a chance. He has been Dan's guitarist and music director for 13+ years, on tour with them now. Outstanding musician who I got to meet personally in NYC when my nephew had a lesson with him. Jazz guitarist by training. And a super nice guy too. We talked a lot about his interpretations of all those great songs and guitar solos.
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Glad that was finally mentioned. Loved the harmonics. Was that Baxter? Originally Posted by MarkRhodes
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+2 on Gadd!! The outro on Aja was f*****g outrageous. I had all kinds of scratch marks from dropping the needle at the beginning of that outro to try to see if I could hear over dubbing. I was hearing kick, hi hat, tom, snare, ride. I was thinking Gadd had three arms and hands. Originally Posted by Greentone
Kid Charlemagne was the tops for me. Next was the solo in Peg. But, I agree that it would be pretty hard to find a bad one in the bunch. I'm not a big fan of Becker's playing . . but, he's done some pretty good stuff.
Jon Herington is also a real monster. He has taken all of those classic solos and made them his own without losing the essence of any of them. Jon, IMO is one of the very best to have worked with them . . . ever!
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Great post. I really agree that the solos were more of a part of the whole than they were stand alone works. Originally Posted by Philco
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My favorite Steely Dan solo is not a guitar solo at all and is likely from an album that came out years after most of you stopped listening to Steely Dan. Here is West of Hollywood from Two Against Nature and i don' t know who is playing sax on the solo at the end but they are pretty great. It is below.
I should say that I was a huge Dan fan back in the 1970's. I remember when Aja came out (must have been 1977 or so) and I was spending most of my dorm time listening to it and Jimi Hendrix. So I have been investigating for a long, long time....
I, like most of you, entered jazz through Steely Dan. Here was my path. I did some research (on the internet around 2001) and found out that Phil Upchurch did a Steely Dan tune on one of his albums. Upchurch, I found out, did Jack of Speed (so I borrowed it from the library) this was my first foray into jazz. See below for Jack of Speed by Upchurch.
Continuing my search for musicians doing Becker/Faggan covers I found that Louciana Souza did You Were Blind That Day on her album New Bossa Nova. It is below. This Louciana Souza album started my fascination with Bossa Nova. I started listening to a lot of Louciana Souza and then Michael Franks and I learned to play bossa nova listening to these albums. I later found out that it was the same guitar player, Romero Lubamba, playing on all these albums. These days I take lessons with him. He is offering them on Skype too The Lubambo Method - Global Guitar Lessons
I almost forgot Walter Becker's solo album from 1994 11 Tracks of Wack. Once I found this CD (maybe in 2005 or so) it had a large influence on me. Here is Lucky Henry from that album. Hear the solo starting at 1:53 by Adam Rogers (I think).
Last edited by richb2; 08-30-2014 at 11:10 AM.
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I'm surprised it took so long to get around to "My Old School"! Yes, Jeff Baxter soloed on that. (Denny D was also on that track.) Originally Posted by rsclosson
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Carlton's solo on "Aja" is pretty good, too. It's just overshadowed by the ridiculous clinic that Steve Gadd put on. If Gadd had still been attached to planet earth on that number, we would remember that song for Carlton's jazzy solo. As it is, it is one of the most priceless pieces of pop drumming of all time.
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Hey Steely Dan fans
All Jazz guitarists should amdire Denny Dias' soloing on Gold Teeth II from the Katy Lied Album
It's pure Be Bop--
Tony
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I remember vividly being in my 20s in the 70s, being a budding jazzer. I got lots of flak from my peer (age) group for all of my Coltrane, Parker, Burrell, Kessel, Pollwinners, etc., albums.
The one thing we all could get together on was dissecting each new Dan album that came out, right up through Gaucho. The Dan provided something for everyone in my set--college and graduate school. As a guitarist, I was over the moon listening to all of the great fill work and solos. Also, the work by Chuck Rainey on bass and the incredible contributions of all of the drummers was just powerful.
During the same period, I was listening to bands like Average White Band, and of course Tower of Power. Goodness, the rhythm section of Dave Garibaldi, Rocco Prestia, Chester Thompson, and Jeff Tamelier seemed that they could wipe the floor with anyone who dared to threaten them. I saw TOP several times--scary. But I digress.
The Dan showed that jazz, rock, and pop could be successfully fused. What a studio machine.
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Check it out - isolated guitar track. Originally Posted by rayme330
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I think Denny Dias is brilliant
a- he's so unassuming & quiet as a guitarist original for Steely Dan
b- you can't find anything written or said by him - save a couple of bits in 1973 guitar player magazine
when he mentions Wes Montgomery & the tele he had given to him by Jeff Baxter
c- it has to be the sweetest be bop lines against fagens jazzy piano lines & Pocarro's chico hamilton esq drum spots
I wonder whether he Fagen & Becker ever reunite ? I think he moved over to LA & is now a major player in computer systems
Tony
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Another great noodle is Carlton on Fagens 'Maxine'
Tasty Blues fills dancing around complexe harmony
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Kid Charlemagne, My Old School, Gold Teeth 2 and Third World Man in that order.
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Not a solo but a lesson in rythme guitar
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