Aja (album)

Aja
Studio album by Steely Dan
Released September 23, 1977 (1977-09-23)[1]
Recorded January–July 1977
Studio ABC & A&R, New York City
Genre Jazz rock
Length 39:58
Label ABC
Producer Gary Katz
Steely Dan chronology
The Royal Scam
(1976)		 Aja
(1977)		 Gaucho
(1980)
Singles from Aja
  1. "Peg"
    Released: November 1977
  2. "Deacon Blues"
    Released: March 1978
  3. "Josie"
    Released: August 1978

Aja (/ˈeɪʒə/, pronounced Asia) is the sixth album by the jazz rock band Steely Dan. Originally released in 1977 on ABC Records, it became the group's best-selling album. The credits for Aja list nearly 40 musicians, as band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker pushed Steely Dan further into experimenting with different combinations of session players.

Peaking at number three on the U.S. charts and number five in the U.K., Aja was the band's first platinum album, eventually selling over 5 million copies.[2] The record spawned a number of hit singles, including "Peg", "Deacon Blues", and "Josie". In July 1978, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording.

In 2003, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and ranked number 145 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.[3] The album is often cited as one of the best test recordings for audiophiles, due to its high production standards.[4][5][6]

Background

Donald Fagen has said the album was named for a Korean woman who married the brother of one of his high-school friends.[7] The cover photo by Hideki Fujii features Japanese model and actress Sayoko Yamaguchi[8][9] and was designed by Patricia Mitsui and Geoff Westen; inside photos were taken by Walter Becker and Dorothy A. White.[10]

The album features several leading session musicians. The eight-minute-long title track features jazz-based changes and a solo by saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

When DTS attempted to make a 5.1 version, it was discovered that the multitrack masters for both "Black Cow" and the title track were missing. For this same reason, a multichannel SACD version was cancelled by Universal Music. Donald Fagen has offered a $600 reward for the missing masters or any information that leads to their recovery.[11]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[13]
Q[14]
Rolling Stone[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[16]
The Village VoiceB+[17]

Summarizing the style of the band at the time Aja was released, music critic Andy Gill said in retrospect: "Jazz-rock was a fundamental part of the 70s musical landscape.. [Steely Dan] wasn't rock or pop music with ideas above its station, and it wasn't jazzers slumming... it was a very well-forged alloy of the two – you couldn't separate the pop music from the jazz in their music."[7] In a contemporary review of the album, Rolling Stone critic Michael Duffy felt that "the conceptual framework of their music has shifted from the pretext of rock & roll toward a smoother, awesomely clean and calculated mutation of various rock, pop and jazz idioms", while their lyrics "remain as pleasantly obtuse and cynical as ever".[18] Duffy added that while the duo's "extreme intellectual self-consciousness" was beginning to show its limitations, the latter "may be precisely the quality that makes Walter Becker and Donald Fagen the perfect musical antiheroes for the Seventies."[18] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice initially "hated" the record before he "realized that, unlike The Royal Scam, it was stretching me some", while noting that he was "grateful to find Fagen and Becker's collegiate cynicism in decline".[17]

Describing the album in 1999, British musician Ian Dury said: "Well, Aja's got a sound that lifts your heart up.. and it's the most consistent up-full, heart-warming.. even though, it is a classic LA kinda sound. You wouldn't think it was recorded anywhere else in the world. It's got California through its blood, even though they are boys from New York... It's a record that sends my spirits up, and really when I listen to music, really that's what I want."[7]

Analyzing the band's songwriting style, Dury said: "They've got a skill that can make images that aren't puerile and don't make you think you've heard it before... very 'Hollywood filmic' in a way, the imagery is very imaginable, in a visual sense." Dury said of their musical style: "Parker, Mingus, Blakey, I can hear in there... Jazz Messengers I can hear in there, Bobby Timmons... the subject matter doesn't matter, it's the sound they're making."[7]

In 2014, internet music site Something Else, reviewing the track "Home at Last", said: "The song and performance that best exemplifies the half-time, funky, laid (way) back in the beat shuffle within the jazz-pop environment of the mid- to late- 70s can be found on "Home at Last." Bernard “Pretty” Purdie feeds off Chuck Rainey’s bass with righteous grooves and masterful off-beat fills with alacrity in this tight band favorite."[19]

Legacy

In 2010 the Library of Congress selected Aja for inclusion in the United States National Recording Registry based on its cultural, artistic or historical significance.[20][21] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[22]

Aja is the subject of one of the Classic Albums, a series of documentaries about the making of famous albums. The documentary includes a song-by-song study of the album (the only omission being "I Got the News", which is played during the closing credits), interviews with Steely Dan co-founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen (among others) plus new, live-in-studio versions of songs from the album. Becker and Fagen also play back several of the rejected guitar solos for "Peg", which were recorded before Jay Graydon produced the satisfactory take.

Track listing

All songs written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Black Cow"5:10
2."Aja"7:57
3."Deacon Blues"7:33
Side two
No.TitleLength
4."Peg"3:58
5."Home at Last"5:34
6."I Got the News"5:06
7."Josie"4:33

Personnel

Steely Dan

Additional musicians

[23][24][25]

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: Vartan Reissue
  • Design: Geoff Westen
  • Photography: Hideki Fujii (cover photo), Walter Becker
  • Liner notes: Walter Becker, Donald Fagen
  • Reissue coordination: Beth Stempel


Outtakes

The sessions for Aja produced several outtakes, including "The Bear". The song was never officially released, but would later be played live on their 2011 Shuffle Diplomacy tour.[26]

Awards

Grammy Awards

Year Winner Category
1977 Aja Best Engineered Recording, Non Classical

References

  1. ↑ Crowe, Cameron (December 29, 1977). "Steely Dan Springs Back: The Second Coming". Rolling Stone. New York City: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. (#255): 11. Retrieved October 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Steely Dan Biography". billboard.com. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  3. ↑ "GRAMMY Hall Of Fame". grammy.org. Retrieved 2017-05-24.
  4. ↑ "The 30 best hi-fi audiophile albums ever | Tech Features | Stuff". www.stuff.tv. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  5. ↑ "What Are the Top 10 Digital Tracks for Testing Speakers? – A Journal of Musical Things". A Journal of Musical Things. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Vinyl Me, Please | 52 Essential Albums to Own on Vinyl (Add Your Own) «". vinylmeplease.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Classic Albums: Steely Dan – Aja (Video 1999), Directed by Alan Lewins, Eagle Rock Entertainment, ASIN: 6305772649
  8. ↑ "Aja". Retrieved September 9, 2008.
  9. ↑ Steely Dan: Reelin in the Years by Brian Sweet – page 130
  10. ↑ Scan of the inner sleeve
  11. ↑ "Aja notes". Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
  12. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Aja – Steely Dan". AllMusic. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Steely Dan". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  14. ↑ "Steely Dan: Aja". Q. London (165): 131. June 2000.
  15. ↑ Walters, Barry (August 30, 2001). "Steely Dan: Aja". Rolling Stone. New York. Archived from the original on May 9, 2006. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
  16. ↑ Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Steely Dan". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. pp. 778–79. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  17. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (October 31, 1977). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  18. 1 2 Duffy, Michael (December 1, 1977). "Steely Dan: Aja". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  19. ↑ "Best Steely Dan drumming performances: Steely Dan Sunday". somethingelsereviews.com. November 20, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Complete National Recording Registry Listing – National Recording Preservation Board | Programs | Library of Congress". Loc.gov. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  21. ↑ "About This Program – National Recording Preservation Board". Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  22. ↑ Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (7 February 2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5.
  23. ↑ "Steely Dan – Aja (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  24. ↑ Liner notes to the digitally remastered edition
  25. ↑ "Aja Album". Broberg.pp.se. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  26. ↑ Baltin, Steve (July 9, 2011). "Steely Dan at the Greek Theater: Concert Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
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