The eleven songs on this thoroughly enjoyable Steely Dan homage – full title Walter. Donald: A Becker-Fagen Songbook Volume 1 – cover a period of about 35 years, from debut album Can’t Buy a Thrill (1972) to post- breakup Becker and Fagen solo outings. Pianist and singer Chris Ingham is clearly a major fan (and a major dude in his own right, jazz wise) as evidenced in the selections from his interview of Becker and Fagen, the only time he met them, reproduced in the liner notes here. As he explains elsewhere in the article, “They set lofty standards. For those who got it, there was Steely Dan and then the rest” (“Joined at the hip” Mojo, Jan 2000).
I had assumed, wrongly, that this would be an album of instrumental arrangements of Steely Dan songs, so it was a very pleasant surprise to hear Ingham’s entirely fitting and nicely judged vocals, English rather than New York-inflected, softer somehow, less acerbic. The quintet here features Ingham’s regular conspirators in East Anglia and beyond – Harry Greene (sax and guitar), Paul Higgs (trumpet, flugelhorn), George Double (drums, harmony vocals) and Geoff Gascoyne (double bass) .
“Any Major Dude” from the 1974 classic “Pretzel Logic” album makes for a very spirited opener, succinct and taut at exactly four minutes, with beautiful solos and interplay between trumpet and tenor sax. Nothing is overstated; everything is replete with feeling. “I Got the News” by contrast, from 1977’s “Aja” album, is highly syncopated, energetic, funky and exhilarating, again with brisk, bubbly solo exchanges between Higgs and Greene. Also from the 1970’s, “Razor Boy” lends itself beautifully to this jazz reworking. Short and sweet at only 3 minutes, but also somewhat sinister in spite of the infectious latin rhythm and sinuous melody. Who is this enigmatic razor boy? A nemesis of some kind never spelt out.
“Only a fool would say that” from the band’s 1972 debut album, and widely considered to be a swipe at John Lennon’s “Imagine”, is given an irresistible and sumptuous Latin treatment here, with congas, percussion and harmony vocals. The questioning, disputatious lyrics are, once again, intriguingly at odds with the sensuality of the music, but it doesn’t seem to matter one bit. Trumpet and sax weave together to beautiful, sensuous effect, evoking “a world where all is free”. A real high point.
There are two tracks from Becker and Fagens’ solo and group projects of the 2000s – “The Last Mall” and “Paging Audrey” – the latter a slow burning, infectious and atmospheric Becker ballad, the longest track on the album. Much of the most compelling music here however, and arguably in the Steely Dan oeuvre generally, is from their six 1970s albums, and this band does it great justice. Bring on Volume 2.
TOUR DATES
Sat 23 Aug SOUTHEND Jazz CentreWed
17 Sep LONDON Pizza Express, Dean Street Walter/Donald album launch
Thurs 18 Sep DISS Corn Hall
Sat 20 Sep SOUTHWOLD Arts Centre
Wed 24 Sep EASTLEIGH Concorde Club
Thurs 25 Sep CAMBRIDGE Jazz Club
Sat 27 Sep BURY ST EDMUNDS Hunter Club
Sat 18 Oct HADLEIGH Town Hall
Sun 30 Nov WIVENHOE Music Mix
