MFSL CDs

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The unforgettable music of Steely Dan caputed an entire generation of listeners through the 1970's and 1980's. Unlike many of the bands of the time, Steely Dan featured many sounds in their music including rock, R&B, Jazz, funk and other sounds. In their best selling album AJA, Steely Dan features so many of these great sounds. The intro song Black Cow has a strong jazz beat and the music of Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and Phil Mitchel on saxaphone are prominently featured on this song.

Aja is Steely Dan's third album and is a breakaway from a traditional rock band format. Becker and Jones used a studio performers to create a big band jazz sound that has not been replicated since. What is clear, is that Steely Dan made a choice to break away from the traditional mold and created a mega band from the 1970's. To quote Rolling Stones in their review of AJA: "As a result, the conceptual framework of their music has shifted from the pretext of rock & roll toward a smoother, awesomely clean and calculated mutation of various rock, pop and jazz idioms. Their lyrics… remain as pleasantly obtuse and cynical as ever." All of the songs have a melodic jazz beat and are quite simply catchy songs. If you listen to songs like Black Cow, Deacon Blues, Peg and Jose you will find yourself humming the beat all day long.

AJA was Steely Dan's most successful album; selling over 5 million copies worldwide. In addition, AJA won a grammy award for the best non-classical production album in 1978. The album climbed the charts to #3 in the United States and # in the U.K. The album also was named as a top 150 album by Rolling Stone.

Listening to AJA on the MFSL platform is a truely great listening experience. The master recording picks up all those intricate pieces of Steely Dan's music that you can't get on a regular cd.