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Donald Fagen. Nightfly


bubinga5
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[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1503183232' post='3356347']
Back on topic: fans of Donald Fagan might also be fans of Rosie Vela, whose 1986 album 'Zazu' sounds like 'The Nightfly' but with a female singer.
[/quote]

Ooh, now you've gotten me all curious.

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[quote name='PaulGibsonBass' timestamp='1503183232' post='3356347']
Back on topic: fans of Donald Fagan might also be fans of Rosie Vela, whose 1986 album 'Zazu' sounds like 'The Nightfly' but with a female singer.
[/quote]

Are you the bloke behind all of those [s]helpful[/s] website suggestions along the lines of "[i]If you are looking at this you may also like [/i]..."?



Heeheehee

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[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1503204285' post='3356374']


Are you the bloke behind all of those [s]helpful[/s] website suggestions along the lines of "[i]If you are looking at this you may also like [/i]..."?



Heeheehee
[/quote]

Damn. Rumbled.

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[quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1503295956' post='3356909']
I bought Rosie Vela's Zazu, I think it was produced by Walter Becker IIRC.
Haven't played it for years, better dig it out...
[/quote]

I'm having a bit of a Finbarr Saunders' moment with this statement.
http://viz.co.uk/category/cartoons/strip-cartoons/finbarr-saunders/

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I love the Nighfly album. I'm also enjoying the album Sunken Condos by Donald Fagin as well.
As well as great tunes, inspirationional brass affangements, grooves and exceptional playing there is some fabulous guitar playing. Check out Kurt Rosenwinkle on the final track Planet D'Rhonda. As for brass arrangements, check out the outgo of track 2, I'm not the same without you, a line in this song kills me " I don't need sleep any more, but if I closed my eyes, I'd sleep the sleep of the gods.
It was released by Reprise records in 2012.
I expect a lot of you have heard it along with the more recent Steely Dan studio albums Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go.
I'm looking forward to reading your responses.


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[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1503392077' post='3357755']
I guess its different (New York Rock band formed 1998) for different folks....
[/quote]

Absolutely! Amongst all my muso mates, I'm the only naysayer so it must be me, right?

Obviously amazing playing, but I'm afraid that isn't enough to win me over. Also the vocals don't really
make that connection for me, not having that indefinable something which reaches out and demands your attention.

I do like the really early Steely Dan stuff, but lost it before 'Aja' when it all went a bit too jazzy for me.
No big surprise I suppose as I generally prefer more live / real / spontaneous sounding music, and this is just too
damned clever / overproduced / slick / perfect for my taste. And please, turn it in with those 9th / 11th chords...... :D

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I was trying to put my finger on what it was I liked about Fagen way back in the eighties.

Steely Dan's Ricky' was playing on late night radio once and I woke up to it. It was one of those tunes that would not quit doing the rounds in my head, so to speak. It was released in '74 but I was 12 then. When I heard it in the eighties I was just old enough to vote. I didn't know who the band was or anything. It was one of those blasts from the past and I wasn't to hear it for months after.

The next time it was played on the radio, I immediately turned the volume up and sat by the set to make sure I got the details this time. Then I put Steely Dan on my shortlist for LPs to buy when I had a bit of cash. As it happened I found a couple of LPs in a second-hand shop that were well loved and cared for.

Thinking back on all of that it was the sort of music that suits late night listening best. I mean those evenings when you haven't anyone around to chat with and you can indulge in a good long listening session. Nightfly was instantly bought when it came out because the radio had been promoting it with the single IGY (International Geophysical Year). Somehow that lyric floating between semi-sarcasm and optimism got me.

I don't like all of Fagen's stuff but it's all done well. I like the high production values. If I listened at any other time of day I might not notice them but when I'm alone and totally relaxed of a quiet evening, they work.

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[quote name='casapete' timestamp='1503124746' post='3355817']
Never got this album at all - too perfect and clinical for me, lacking in soul -
runs for cover........
[/quote]

Listen to Michael Brecker's incredible sax solo and that gorgeous descending arpeggio that Marcus plays and tell me about that lack of soul again...
https://youtu.be/Nomb3-hIWjA

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[quote name='SisterAbdullahX' timestamp='1503507552' post='3358823']


Listen to Michael Brecker's incredible sax solo and that gorgeous descending arpeggio that Marcus plays and tell me about that lack of soul again...
https://youtu.be/Nomb3-hIWjA
[/quote]

Terrific feel on this. I love the chord changes and that top vocal harmony.
This was Brecker at his best. Top, top player. The whole track is so well arranged and oozes class.
It really is musicians at the top of their game.
:)

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[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1503183180' post='3356346']
Good tunes and performances, strangled at birth by lifeless, plastic production.
[/quote]
I can see where your coming from, but have to say i love raw talent demo sounding music, when i collected LPs ( remember them?)
i liked live albums just for that rawness, one of my faves was "10 years after recorded live" this was raw energy greatness as its best, stunning even.
But at the other end, i love the art in perfect sounding studio albums, another art in its self, we all in our quest want to create, and some of us want to create that raw and some of us want to create hifi" i love the production of it, i think becker and fagan created well deserved benchmarks in this hifi area.
Iv got all dans stuff on LP and cd even all members solo lps, and can see the rub off on them members, larry carltons room 335 had that same sort of studio clarity but also had a rawness to it, which i think is attributable to his playing.
Another fantastic sounding LP/CD that has killer production but has managed to keep that spark is gary willis "Bent" check that out, so good i sampled that dennis chambers snare,

Nightfly..... yea, i also got alot from that, clarity of notes was something i mainly got from it.
fave dan LP was ,,,gaucho, , (glamour profession i wish i had wrote that)
funny enough ..... Gaucho sounds amazin on Lp, but i dont get the same vibe on cd., "plastic and lifeless" compared to the LP...i sort of get that.

Edited by funkgod
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