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Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from live performances to become a studio-only band, opting to record with a revolving cast of session musicians. ''Rolling Stone'' has called them "the perfect musical antiheroes for the seventies". Becker and Fagen played together in a variety of bands from their time together studying at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. They later moved to Los Angeles, gathered a band of musicians, and began recording albums. Their first album, ''Can't Buy a Thrill'' (1972), established a template for their career, blending elements of rock, jazz, Latin music, R&B, bluesAllMusic Steely Dan: Biography and sophisticated studio production with cryptic and ironic lyrics. The band enjoyed critical and commercial success through seven studio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Becker
Walter Carl Becker (February 20, 1950 – September 3, 2017) was an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was the co-founder, guitarist, bassist, and co-songwriter of the jazz rock band Steely Dan.Russonello, Giovanni,Listen to 13 Essential Walter Becker SongsNew York Times 2017-09-04. Accessed 2019-05-29. Becker met future songwriting partner Donald Fagen while they were students at Bard College. After a brief period of activity in New York City, the two moved to Los Angeles in 1971 and formed the nucleus of Steely Dan, which enjoyed a critically and commercially successful ten-year career. Following the group's dissolution, Becker moved to Hawaii and reduced his musical activity, working primarily as a record producer. In 1985, he briefly became a member of the English band China Crisis, producing and playing synthesizer on their album ''Flaunt the Imperfection''. Becker and Fagen reformed Steely Dan in 1993 and remained active, recording '' Two Against Nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in 1970 in San Jose, California, known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies. Active for five decades, with their greatest success in the 1970s, the group's current lineup consists of founding members Tom Johnston (guitars, vocals) and Patrick Simmons (guitars, vocals), alongside Michael McDonald (keyboards, vocals) and John McFee (guitars, pedal steel, violin, backing vocals), and touring musicians including John Cowan (bass, vocals), Marc Russo (saxophones), Ed Toth (drums), and Marc Quiñones (percussion). Other long-serving members of the band include guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (1974–1979), bassist Tiran Porter (1972–1980, 1987–1992) and drummers John Hartman (1970–1979, 1987–1992), Michael Hossack (1971–1973, 1987–2012), and Keith Knudsen (1973–1982, 1993–2005). They performed gospel influenced songs such as "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Session Musicians
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a tour. Session musicians are usually not permanent or official members of a musical ensemble or band. They work behind the scenes and rarely achieve individual fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders. However, top session musicians are well known within the music industry, and some have become publicly recognized, such as the Wrecking Crew, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Funk Brothers who worked with Motown Records. Many session musicians specialize in playing common rhythm section instruments such as guitar, piano, bass, or drums. Others are specialists, and play brass, woodwinds, and strings. Many session musicians play multiple instruments, which lets them play in a wider range of musical situations, genres and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rock Music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom.W. E. Studwell and D. F. Lonergan, ''The Classic Rock and Roll Reader: Rock Music from its Beginnings to the mid-1970s'' (Abingdon: Routledge, 1999), p.xi It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the blues and rhythm and blues genres of African-American music and from country music. Rock also drew strongly from a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical, and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a time signature using a verse–chorus form, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the United States as the drummer on the Steely Dan album ''Katy Lied''. AllMusic has characterized him as "arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer in rock from the mid-'70s to the early '90s" and says that "it is no exaggeration to say that the sound of mainstream pop/rock drumming in the 1980s was, to a large extent, the sound of Jeff Porcaro." He was posthumously inducted into the '' Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1993. Early life Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was born on April 1, 1954, in Hartford, Connecticut, the eldest son of Los Angeles session percussionist Joe Porcaro (1930–2020) and his wife, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael McDonald (musician)
Michael McDonald (born February 12, 1952) is an American singer, keyboardist and songwriter known for his distinctive, soulful voice and as a member of the bands the Doobie Brothers (1975–1982, 1987, 2019–present) and Steely Dan (1973–1974). McDonald wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including " What a Fool Believes", " Minute by Minute", and " Takin' It to the Streets." McDonald has also performed as a prominent backing vocalist on numerous recordings by artists including Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins. McDonald's solo career consists of nine studio albums and a number of singles, including the 1982 hit " I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)". During his career, McDonald has collaborated with a number of other artists, including James Ingram, David Cassidy, Van Halen, Patti LaBelle, Lee Ritenour, the Winans, Aretha Franklin, the rock band Toto, Grizzly Bear, Joni Mitchell, and Thundercat. He has also recorded for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royce Jones
Royce Jones (born December 15, 1954) is an American musician best known for his work as a touring vocalist with the bands Steely Dan (in 1973 and 1974) and Ambrosia (joined 1978). ScreamingLehman.com official bio . In the studio, Jones contributed vocals to 's ''Anywhere You Go'', Odyssey's self-titled release, Steely Dan's '' Countdown to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Palmer (vocalist)
David Palmer is an American vocalist, songwriter, and photographer, best known as a former member of Steely Dan and as the lyricist of the Carole King number two hit, "Jazzman". Musical career Palmer grew up in the New Jersey communities of Warren Township and Watchung and attended Watchung Hills Regional High School. His first band was the Myddle Class, formed in 1964 under the initial name The King Bees while members were still in high school. As the Myddle Class, the band performed at such clubs as the Night Owl in Greenwich Village, and released several 45s on the Tomorrow record label before disbanding in 1969. Palmer next formed the Quinaimes Band with several Myddle Class members, which recorded an album for Elektra Records before disbanding shortly thereafter. At the insistence of ABC Records executives, Palmer joined Steely Dan in an early incarnation in 1972. He sang lead on two tracks on their debut album, '' Can't Buy A Thrill'' – " Dirty Work" and "Brookl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Hodder (musician)
Jim Hodder (December 17, 1947 – June 5, 1990) was an American drummer, best known as an early member of Steely Dan. After leading the Boston-based group The Bead Game, Hodder moved to Los Angeles to join the first lineup of Steely Dan. He appeared on their first three albums before leaving the group in 1974. He worked as a session musician before his 1990 death. Biography Early years, Bead Game Hodder was born in the small Long Island hamlet of Bethpage, New York in 1947. He graduated from Plainedge High School in the Plainedge Union Free School District in 1965 and relocated thereafter to the Boston area, where he became active in the local music scene. As drummer and lead vocalist, he joined the Boston-based psychedelic rock group The Bead Game, named after Hermann Hesse's novel ''The Glass Bead Game''. The group built a local following before attracting the attention of Avco Records and producer Gary Kannon, later known as Gary Katz. Their first album, ''Baptis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denny Dias
Dennis Dias (born December 12, 1946) is an American guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Steely Dan. Career Dias was working with his own band out of his basement in Hicksville, New York, when he placed an ad in ''The Village Voice'' in the summer of 1970 that read: "Looking for keyboardist and bassist. Must have jazz chops! Assholes need not apply". Donald Fagen and Walter Becker responded to the advertisement. They joined his band and immediately began playing their own material. Dias fired the rest of the band, and the three of them moved to California, adding drummer Jim Hodder, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, and vocalist David Palmer before recording for ABC/Dunhill Records as Steely Dan. Dias recorded as a permanent member of the band on 1972's '' Can't Buy a Thrill'' (with an electric sitar solo on the song " Do It Again"), on 1973's '' Countdown to Ecstasy'', and on 1974's '' Pretzel Logic''. Following a tour promoting ''Pretzel Logic'', Becker and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Baxter
Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter (born December 13, 1948) is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s. More recently, he has worked as a defense consultant and advised U.S. members of Congress on missile defense. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Doobie Brothers in 2020. Early life and education Jeffrey Baxter was born in Washington, D.C., and spent some of his formative years in Mexico. He graduated from the Taft School in 1967 in Watertown, Connecticut, and was a self-described preppie. At Taft, he played drums in an upperclassmen band, King Thunder and the Lightning Bolts. He enrolled at the School of Public Communication (now College of Communication) at Boston University in September 1967, where he studied journalism while continuing to perform with local bands. His freshman roommate was blues musician James Montgomery. Music career Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Carlton
Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, for television and movies, and on more than 100 gold records. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders, the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career. Music career Session work Carlton was born in Torrance, California, United States, and at the age of six began guitar lessons. His interest in jazz came from hearing guitarist Joe Pass on the radio, after which he moved on to jazz guitarists Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery, and blues guitarist B.B. King. He went to junior college and Long Beach State College while playing professionally at clubs in Los Angeles. During the 1970s, he found steady work as a studio musician on electric and acoustic guitar in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
