Aja Live (Donald Fagen with Steve Gadd)

“AJA” at Love Rocks NYC. As musical director, you sometimes get a chance to really geek out let your wildest dreams come true. In this case, Donald Fagen was scheduled to be one of our special artists. Besides being blessed with an amazing house band and singers who can do anything(!), one of the two drummers is the musician’s musician, Steve Gadd. Steve was a huge part of the “Aja” album by Steely Dan, especially the title track. When we heard Donald was coming on board, the first thing I did was call him let him know Steve was in the band and to ask, “what if......?”. He was wide open! The “if” was whether Steve would be willing to do the extra homework to get the song up to the audience’s expectations. (When Steve did the original session, he walked out the door afterwards to the next recording date and, unlike the rest of us, he didn’t obsess over it for the next several decades!) So great sport that he is, he put in the days to learn all those great licks we know by heart. Shawn Pelton, also on drums, is such great musician that he sets up the song with us and then finds a sweet spot to dismount and give Steve the spotlight (the mark of musical mastery!). The band and singers also put in the love, sweat and tears. Here’s the final result.

Musicians:
Donal Fagen (Rhodes & lead vocal)
Steve Gadd (drums)
Shawn Pelton (drums)
Paul Shaffer (keys)
Jeff Young (piano)
Larry Campbell (guitar)
Eric Krasno (guitar)
Marc Rivers (vocal)
Dennis Collins (vocal)
Alecia Chakour (vocal)
Elaine Caswell (vocal)
Chrissi Poland (vocal)
Nicki Richards (vocal)
Aaron Heick (sax)
Andy Snitzer (sax)
Jim Hynes (trumpet)
Evan Barker (trumpet)
Joe Fiedler (trombone)
Ron Blake (Sax)