Steely Dan member issues first album in 14 years
By Greg Prato
Fri Mar 28, 4:15 AM ET
Steely Dan principal Walter Becker plans to release his first solo album in 14 years by early June, and says he may hit the road to promote it later in the year.
"Circus Money," the follow-up to 1994's "11 Tracks of Whack," exhibits the jazzy studio perfectionism that Steely Dan has been long known for. But, as evidenced by such tracks as "Bob is Not Your Uncle Anymore" and "Do You Remember the Name," it also embraces another musical style.
After Steely Dan's most recent tour, Becker tells Billboard.com he "went into a deep research period. One of the guitar techs is a big Jamaican music fan. And I started to listen to all this stuff that he had -- these really deep, dub cuts from the '70s. I just became totally fascinated with it, so I spent a lot of time listening to that and working on stuff along those lines."
While the album does not feature an appearance by longtime partner in crime, Donald Fagen, it does include quite a few veterans of the Steely Dan touring band, including keyboardist Ted Baker, guitarist Jon Herington, drummer Keith Carlock, saxophonist Roger Rosenberg, and singer Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery, among others. "One of the ideas we had was that we wanted to do all the tracks with basically the same band," explains Becker. "And that's what we did -- plus or minus a few personnel changes.
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