Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Considered by many to be the bands magnum opus, Steely Dan’s Aja was recorded over a seven month period in 1977 in what was an example of obsessive perfectionism on the part of band leaders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The recording sessions for this album not only took forever, but also had a cast of millions and in total involved a staggering thirty session musicians including six backing vocalists, five keyboard/piano players, six guitarists, a whopping ten horn players and seven drummers. With this the case there can be no doubt that Fagen and Becker were going for studio efficiency and perfection over everything else on this album as they sought a heavily sophisticated jazz rock sound. Fagen and Becker (the only remaining original members) had already been heading in this direction and seemingly had been preparing to make this album for a few years. They had already relieved the other original band members of their duties in 1974 in favour of studio musicians, whilst also turning the band into a studio only act in 1975 when they decided to stop touring. The result of these decisions manifested itself in the recording and subsequent release of this album, with the results being definitely worthwhile to the listener at least.

As I have already mentioned, Aja has a slick jazz rock sound to it or what I like to describe as cocktail jazz. The reason being is that when I listen to this album the music ridiculously produces images of me sipping cocktails in a New York bar in downtown Manhattan; the music definitely has that nightclub feel to it. Musically, the sound of this album is sexy with amazing sax solos and horn harmonies; it is jazzy with a rhythm section of drums and bass holding down the backbeat, whilst the keyboard and piano playing is smooth in nature with little melodic runs and jazzy sequences. Throughout there is a strong emphasis placed on structure, harmony and carefully placed solos whether they are keyboard, guitar, or horn. Careful attention is also given to the sound of each instrument, with the final mix ensuring that all instruments are heard clearly with no one instrument getting more scope than the other. This slickness and careful construction of the instrumental backing is due to the quality of the session musicians, many of whom were the best in the business in terms of playing jazz and would have clocked up many hours of studio time themselves playing on many records during the period.

The songs on Aja are highly textured and include multiple layers of instruments resulting in quite a sonic sound and a very warm feel. In terms of structure the songs are quite like classical pieces in that they have different parts and sections with an example being the title track Aja that starts with the main motif of the song then has a middle free form jazz section, before moving back to the motif and finally finishing with another jazz flourish. With this amount of attention placed on song structure and jazz arrangements you get the feeling it would have taken hours and hours to get these songs right, with multiple takes probably being the order of the day during the recording sessions. Multi-tracking would also have been significantly important considering the complexity of some of the songs and without it the dense layering of the instrumentation would have been very hard to produce on record. Meanwhile lyrically the subject matter of the songs is classic Steely Dan, very eccentric, witty and often sarcastic in tone and content, whilst by no means pretentious or serious in any way. These guys didn’t really write love songs, instead they wrote songs that were highly narrative usually about New York and Los Angeles where the band was based, that included fictional and often real characters with interesting lyrical constructions of great depth to the point that they sometimes even confused the listener. What results in is an interesting and sometimes entertaining listen even if you can’t quite work what they are singing about.  

Aja was a great success for the band both critically and commercially. It went on to become the groups bestselling album, and was ranked 145 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. As an album it was definitely more slickly produced than much of their previous work and it seems Fagen and Becker were going all out for absolute perfection in the studio, but this didn’t matter as the songs themselves were fantastic sounding and some of the bands best. There can be no doubt that Aja is one of the Dan’s best albums and if not their most complete sounding work. It is a must listen for jazz rock fans as well as those into classic 70s rock.

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- Sam

Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die (1970)

Traffic was a band that flew under the radar during the late-60s and into the early-70s, and was not as big commercially speaking as some of their more famous contemporaries. Why? I don’t know as they not only had one of the best soul/R&B singers to ever come out of England in Steve Winwood, but also released some dam fine albums of which John Barleycorn Must Die was one.

Released in 1970, this album originally started as a Steve Winwood solo project as at this point Traffic was still disbanded after Winwood ended the group in order to form Blind Faith with Eric Clapton. But because of a burning desire to play with like-minded musicians, Winwood called on ex-Traffic members Jim Capaldi (drums/percussion) and Chris Wood (sax/flute) to work with him, and henceforth the project became a full on Traffic reunion and album. Stylistically, John Barleycorn was a massive step away from their previous psychedelic pop sound towards a more jazz and R&B influenced sound, and as an album was one of the earlier examples of jazz fusion, also known as jazz rock.

The jazz fusion sound the band was trying to create is best exemplified by the first two tracks on the record. The opening track “Glad” which is also an instrumental is a free jazz jam complete with sax flourishes and a jazzy piano riff, while “Freedom Rider” one of the standout tracks on the album is an intense fusion of R&B and jazz and features Chris Wood’s masterful flute playing. Both of these tracks also contain Winwood’s amazingly superb Hammond organ and piano playing, something that is a definite highlight of the record and is the main driver behind a lot of the songs. In order to get the jazz fusion style they were after, it is worth noting that this is not a guitar album by any means, with the music on the album very much based around piano, organ, flute and sax, with guitar by in large playing a secondary role. The Second side of the album is less jazzy and I guess more rocky with “Stranger To Himself”, the pastoral acoustic folk of “John Barlycorn Must Die” a traditional English folk song which offers a nice break from the heavy jazz and R&B, and album closer the anthemic “Every Mother’s Son” with its swirling psychedelic organ solo and classic rock guitar riff. John Barlycorn Must Die is not a lengthy album with only six songs on it, but the denseness of the tracks with four coming in at over six minutes, as well as the jazzy instrumental nature of the songs compensates for this and ensures the album is probably the right length for the material on display.

On its release the album went to number five in the US and helped establish the band on the highly lucrative touring rock circuit during the early seventies. It also marked the bands high point commercially becoming their first gold selling record. Although it is quite removed from their early work, I think John Barleycorn Must Die is Traffic’s best album and best represents their unique sound, with all of their influences from jazz to folk coming to play. The musicianship and playing on this record is first class, while the overall fusion style of jazz, R&B, rock and even folk is incredibly groovy in places, especially during the free jam breaks where Winwood especially comes into his own.  A great early-seventies album and well worth a listen for those into groovy jazz/R&B styled music, fusion genres, and 70s British rock.

 

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- Sam

1970s "Fusion"

When I was a teenager I loved rock, and in fact looking back it seemed as if everything I listened to had to have a guitar solo in it. At the time you certainly would not have got me listening to much in the way of jazz or rhythm and blues, which in itself is surprising considering I grew up listening to a lot of jazz music. These days however, it seems that maturity has allowed me to expand my musical horizons a lot more, and it was after seeing a brilliant contemporary jazz-soul band called the Alan Brown Project one night that I began to delve into the wonderful fusion music of the 1970s, and boy oh boy what a treat I was in for.

Now when I mean fusion I’m talking about music which combines two, or more styles together to create a new style, and in the process fusing elements of the two styles together. Two examples of fusion that have appealed to me greatly have been jazz fusion in particular the work of Traffic, and Steely Dan, and fusion within R&B/soul especially the work of Stevie Wonder, and The Meters.

Jazz fusion combines together jazz and rock elements and usually includes the presence of horns, a more prominent piano sound, and highly sophisticated rhythms. Jazz fusion artists also tend to experiment more with extended jams, as well as often putting a stronger emphasis on improvisation. Two works that have captured my eye significantly from the 1970s period within this style have been Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die, and also Steely Dan’s Aja. John Barleycorn Must Die sees a strong emphasis placed on free jamming, and throughout the album sees appearances by the flute, saxophone, and piano/Hammond organ. The album showcases a strong jazz/blues influence on many of the tracks, with Steve Winwood’s soulful vocals almost playing second fiddle to the amazing playing and virtuosity on display. In contrast, Steely Dan’s Aja is much slicker and very well produced, and is an album I would describe as sounding like cocktail jazz. It is very “cool” sounding, and when listened to you can just picture yourself sitting in a bar somewhere in New York with the band themselves playing live in front of you. The interesting thing about “Aja” is that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen hired a full cast of talented jazz session musicians to play on it, a move that gave the tracks on the album that slick and heavily polished Jazz-Rock sound. Keyboards and horns feature prominently on this album also.

In terms of fusion within 1970s R&B/soul, two albums that I have enjoyed immensely have been Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, and The Meters Rejuvenation. Both albums showcase a fusion of funk, soul, rhythm and blues, and gospel and in doing so do a fantastic job in blending so many different styles together without compromising the quality of the music. Innervisions is a funk album instrumentation wise, with a strong soul/gospel influence in the vocals. Stevie also places a strong emphasis on rhythmic patterns on Innervisions. This can be seen across the album as he experiments with keyboards and synth technology, something that was quite revolutionary for an African-American artist at the time. On the other hand, his socially aware lyrics fit into the gospel/soul mould which he had been a pioneer of for many years up to that point. Rejuvenation by The Meters is less experimental than Innervisions and follows a more traditional electric band model. The tracks on this album usually see soulful vocals backed by a funky beat combining drums and bass, while topped off with nice touches of electric piano, organ, and horns. The extended jam of “It Ain’t No Use” is this albums centrepiece, a song that includes a seven minute free style jam highlighting just how good funk and rhythm and blues can sound when combined together effectively.

I am now a huge fan of the fusion music from this period, and through my listening experiences have come to appreciate more the skill that is involved in combining such distinctive elements from different styles into one. Artists had been combining and mixing styles of music for years prior to the 1970s, and have continued to do so since. But on the back of work from people like Herbie Hancock, and Miles Davis, the early to mid seventies period showcased some amazing efforts in fusing different music styles together, and experimenting with different sounds on records. Artists were more open to ideas and trying new things on records, and whether or not you were primarily a rock musician, or a soul musician did not stop artists from looking at how they could incorporate elements of other styles into their own. All rules were off and anything was possible, with the results speaking for themselves.

- Sam