Walter Becker of Steely Dan dies at 67

[randyhersom]

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/walter-becker-steely-dan-co-founder-dead-at-67-w50095

Always a favorite band of mine.

[ejp626]

RIP

I saw them once after they started touring again after a long layoff.  Amazing show.  Fagen says the show (current tour) will go on, but obviously it will never be the same.

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, we saw them on opening night of their 1994 tour. Cleanest sounding, and most wonderfully played concert I've ever been too. And that's not hyperbole. 

[duaneiac]

Wow!  That's stunning news.  I have not kept up with the band for many years, so I had not even heard that he was ill.  May he rest in peace.  The music of Steely Dan was a constant presence in my youth and Aja will always be a desert island disc for me.

[sidewinder]

Sad news, may he RIP. Always been a fan, will spin a Dan CD or two this afternoon.

[Hardbopjazz]

Another one gone too early. RIP Walter.

[Tom 1960]

I am really bummed to hear this. I love this band. Music that was always well done. In lieu of jazz profiles on wkcr in New York they are instead playing a tribute to Walter Becker till 7 p.m. tonight.

[JSngry]

He always was the sickly one of the two, right?

[disaac]

SD was one of the main gateways for me into jazz.  Its influence so obviously permeated both their music and I remember reading interviews with them where they enumerated their jazz influences which, of course, had me not only listening to Parker and Ellington but also to Braxton and Dolphy.  An unbelievably sad day for music.

[Soulstation1]

RIP

 

[Tom 1960]

Features Phil Woods on alto sax.

[CJ Shearn]

RIP.  Sad.

[Soulstation1]

bad ass

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i too am very sad.  the donald fagen conert a week from tmw will, due to the timing, most definitely be a memorial // tribute---

[GA Russell]

RIP.  I enjoyed very much Steely Dan's albums up through Aja.  But it was never clear to me what Becker's contributions were.   That is to say, I always felt like the albums were Fagen's.

Edited September 5, 2017 by GA Russell

[BFrank]

Definitely one of the more interesting and unique bands to come along in the last 50 years. I got to see them 3 times: in 1974 and then two times in 2009 performing The Royal Scam (once with Larry Carlton sitting in).

[catesta]

RIP

[Milestones]

Good group, though I never collected much.  I did have the first album on vinyl, and I taped Aja off the radio.  I've also heard Two Against Nature, their comeback album.

You have to like a group with that much interest in jazz and who hired the likes of Wayne Shorter and Chris Potter.

 

[Soulstation1]

http://www.uptownmagazine.com/2013/11/copyright-law-downfall-peter-gunz/

[Soulstation1]

 

[Milestones]

I have to say Aja sounds as jazzy as anything that is classified as Rock music.  

[Hardbopjazz]

Not that it makes any difference, but did his cause of death been made public?

[Hardbopjazz]

13 hours ago, Milestones said:

I have to say Aja sounds as jazzy as anything that is classified as Rock music.  

I agree. Deacon Blues' opening chord progression of major 7's with added 9th's. 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

no, but they told us enough, w/ those "eels" lyrics, it was cancer.   RIP Walter Becker!!!!