Article: The Best Version Of… Steely Dan’s Aja

[astrotoy]

Thanks for the article.  I've had the album, but never have listened to it before.  I'm not much of a non-classical music fan and mistakenly thought Steely Dan was hard rock.  Aja is a very pleasant album to listen to, quite jazz influenced.  My copies (SACD and copy of safety master tape) have the voices less prominent than many rock/pop albums. 

 

Larry

[astrotoy]

15 hours ago, ajyanowitz said:

For what it is worth, when Walter lived in Ward Manner Annex at Bard College, I remember he had a huge set of Klipsch speakers in his relatively small dorm room.  Beyond a vintage tube amp, preamp and TT, he had an oscilliscope.  I do not know which Klipsch he had (it was 50 years ago and I was not into it then),  but they were big, and I would not be surprised if they were corner horns.  Really monstrous in that small dorm room..  A nice guy...I get a kick out of the fact that there is now a street named for him in Queens.  Surprised really, that we are mostly still alive.  Those were strange days.

 

Alan

Neat story.  Would have been interesting if very long time Bard president Leon Botstein (he started as president in 1975 when he was 28 and is still president) had been at Bard when Fagen and Becker were there.  How much influence he might have had with Steely Dan.  I'm guessing, knowing Botstein's track record, he probably has leaned on them for big donations to Bard over the years.  We visited Bard back in the early 2000's to meet with Botstein about the Gates Early College High School Initiative and Simon's Rock College.  He showed us around a little, including the fabulous performing arts center that Frank Gehry designed.  I've got several of Botstein's orchestral recordings.  He is probably the most well known musician who is also a college president!, although Brian May served as Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University about the time he got his PhD in astrophysics in the late 2000's.

 

Larry