Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an
American musician and songwriter, best known as the co-founder,
lead singer, and the principal songwriter (along with partner
Walter Becker) of the
jazz-influenced
rock band Steely Dan.
Fagen is known for his use of complex jazz harmonies, elaborate
arrangements, and exacting attention to detail––all anomalies in
the pop-rock genre. Fagen launched a successful, if sporadic solo
career in 1982, spawning three albums to date.
Early life
Fagen was
born in Passaic, New
Jersey
, on January 10, 1948 to Joseph "Jerry" Fagen and
his wife Elinor. Joseph worked as an
accountant. From the ages of 12 to 17, Elinor
sang in a hotel band in upstate New York's
Catskill Mountains until bouts of
stage fright (a condition her son would
later be afflicted with) forced her to discontinue performing live.
Donald would later recall: "I can't ever remember when there was
silence around the house. She was either playing
records or singing."
Around
1958, the Fagen family moved from Passaic first to the suburb of
Fair
Lawn
, and then quickly moved and settled into a ranch-style house house in Kendall Park,
New Jersey
. The transition greatly upset Donald, and he
detested living in the suburbs. He would later tell an interviewer
that it "was like a prison. I think I lost faith in [my parents']
judgement… It was probably the first time I realised I had my own
view of life." Living in Kendall Park would later inspire tracks on
his album
The Nightfly.
In the late 1950s, Fagen became interested in
rock and
R&B music,
with his first record purchase being
Chuck
Berry's "Reelin' and Rockin'". Around age 11, after receiving
musical recommendations from a cousin and attending the
Newport Jazz Festival, he quickly
became a self-declared "jazz snob. I lost interest in rock n' roll
and started developing an
anti-social
personality."
Fagen would regularly take the bus to
Manhattan
to see Charles
Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis perform. Soon afterwards, he
learned to play the
piano, and also played
baritone horn in the in
high school
marching band. Fagen also began a
life-long fondness for
table tennis
during his teenage years.
The family was of the
Jewish faith.
Donald had
his bar mitzvah at Kendall Park
's Congregation Beth Shalom in 1961, a synagogue his father helped found.
After
graduating from South Brunswick High School
in 1965, Fagen enrolled at Bard College
to study English
literature, having been inspired by Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs,
Gregory Corso,
Allen
Ginsberg, and
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti. While at Bard, Fagen met musician
Walter Becker. The duo, along with a revolving
assortment of musicians which included future-actor
Chevy Chase, formed various groups called The
Leather Canary, The Don Fagen Jazz Trio, and the Bad Rock
Band.Fruchter, Rena.
I'm Chevy Chase...and You're Not.
Virgin Books, 2007. Fagen would later describe his college bands as
sounding like "
The Kingsmen performing
Frank Zappa material." None of the
groups lasted long, but the partnership between Fagen and Becker
would continue for decades. The duo's early career included a stint
with
Jay and the Americans
under
pseudonyms, and in the early 1970s,
as
pop songwriters, prior to forming
Steely Dan.
Career
Steely Dan
Fagen and Becker founded Steely Dan in August 1972. They initially
formed the core of the band, and co-wrote all the group's music; on
tour and record, Becker played bass (and later lead guitar) and
Fagen played keyboards, as well as performing almost all of the
lead vocals on their recordings.
After releasing their third LP in 1974, the other members gradually
left (or were fired from) the band, and it evolved into a studio
project headed by Becker and Fagen. From the mid-70s onward, Steely
Dan only recorded their albums with well-known American jazz and
rock session musicians. They scored their biggest success in 1977
with the platinum-selling album
Aja.
After a lengthy period of inactivity as a band which began in the
early 1980s, the duo of Becker and Fagen revived Steely Dan in the
mid 1990s, and have since produced two more Steely Dan studio
albums: 2000s
Two Against
Nature which won several Grammys, and
Everything Must Go
(2003), as well as the live CD
Alive in America (1995) and a live
concert
DVD.
Solo Career
After Steely Dan's breakup in 1981, Fagen released his critically
acclaimed solo debut album,
The
Nightfly, in October of 1982. It reached #11 on the
Billboard Album Chart and was
certified
Platinum for sales of
over a million copies in the United States alone. Its premiere
single was
"I.G.Y. " - aka International Geophysical Year. The song hit
the Adult Contemporary Top 10 and peaked at #26 on the
Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up single,
"New Frontier" peaked at #34 AC and
#70 Pop but was aided by a popular MTV music video.
The
Nightfly was nominated for several
Grammy awards including
Album Of The Year. It was significantly
more jazz based than Fagen's Steely Dan work.
RHINO Records released a special DVD Audio version of
The Nightly in honor of the album's twentieth anniversary
in 2002.
Fagen's second solo album, 1993's
Kamakiriad, was produced by Becker. It
climbed into Billboard's Top 10 but sold fewer copies than
The Nightfly, topping off at
900,000 in sales.
Recording sessions for Fagen's third solo album,
Morph the Cat, began in August 2004 and
the album was released March 14, 2006. Performing on the album are
Wayne Krantz (guitar),
Jon Herington (guitar),
Keith Carlock (drums),
Freddy Washington (bass),
Ted Baker (piano), and
Walt Weiskopf (sax). Upon its release,
Morph the Cat received universal acclaim and was later
named Album of the Year by
Mix magazine. Fagen was also given the
Producer of the Year award. The 5.1 mix of "Morph the Cat" won the
2007
Grammy Award for Best Surround
Sound Album.
All three of Fagen's albums previously released on the
DVDA format have now been released in Warner's latest
format MVI (Music Video Interactive) as a boxed set. Each album
features a DTS 5.1, Dolby 5.1 and PCM Stereo mix but no MLP encoded
track, along with bonus audio and video content. Customers will
also be able to select any track or any portion of a track and use
it as their
mobile phone ringtone.
In March 2006, Fagen embarked on his first-ever solo tour to
support
Morph the Cat. This theater
tour of the northeast (including one Canadian date in Toronto), the
midwest, and the west coast played to sold-out houses and excellent
reviews. Fagen's management also sold VIP packages for the tour,
which included a pre-show party, premium seats, and access to the
band's sound checks. This was mocked on his song-writing partner
Walter Becker's website.
[60713]
Fagen joined Becker for a Steely Dan/Michael McDonald tour the
following summer of 2007.
He also toured with the
New
York Rock and Soul Revue. The 1986 debut album by
Rosie Vela,
Zazu, inspired the first
collaboration between Fagen and Becker following the disbanding of
Steely Dan. This led to their reunion as a writing team and the
creation of a new touring version of Steely Dan. The following year
Fagen co-produced Becker's solo debut,
11 Tracks of Whack.
Work for, and with, other Artists
In 1977, he played synthesizer on
Poco's Indian
Summer album.
In 1983, he played synthesizer for the track "Love will make it
Right", which he also wrote, on
Diana
Ross's solo album
Ross.
1986 had Donald writing the title track to The
Yellowjackets' album
Shades.
1991 saw the group
The Manhattan
Transfer record Donald's song "Confide in Me" on their album
The Offbeat of Avenues.
In 1992,
Jennifer Warnes recorded
Big Noise New York (co-written by Donald Fagen and
Marcelle Clements)on her solo album
The Hunter.
Note: Donald's own versions of both "Confide in Me" and "Big Noise
New York" were released as "'B' sides" for the CD singles of the
Kamakiriad tracks "Tomorrow's
Girls" and "Snowbound", respectively. They were subsequently made
available on the Bonus CD of the Nightfly Trilogy Boxed set in
2007.
In 2008, Donald played synthesizer on the album
I Know You're
Married But I've Got Feelings Too by
Canadian American folksinger
Martha Wainwright.
Soundtrack Contributions
Donald Fagen has contributed work to the following film
soundtracks:
(1981)"True Companion", to the animated
cult
film Heavy
Metal.
(1983)He wrote "The Finer Things" which appeared on the soundtrack
to the
Martin Scorcese film
"
The King of Comedy",
as well as sang background vocals on the song.
David Sanborn is given credit for the main
part of the song.
(1988) "Century's End", to
Bright Lights, Big
City.
(1988) "Reflections", along with guitarist
Steve Khan, on the film "
Arthur 2:On the Rocks". This song was
not an original composition, however, it was a cover of a song by
Thelonius Monk..
(1992) "Blue Lou" was an instrumental piece recorded for the film
Glengarry Glen
Ross.
Other Works
Donald Fagen wrote briefly in the 1980s for
Premiere magazine, including a few
witty pieces on
Henry Mancini and
Ennio Morricone. These are available
online from Donaldfagen.com
[60714] His website also features other articles he
has written, such as ones for
Slate.com.
In 1988, Fagen was a co-producer of the Broadway soundtrack album
The Gospel at
Colonus.
In the late 2000s, he appeared as the "Wise Man" in a promotional
video for the
Electro-Harmonix
Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai digital delay/
looper. This short promo video was directed by
frequent
Steely Dan trumpet player
Michael Leonhart.
Discography
Awards
In 1984,
Fagen was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree by his alma mater, Bard College.
In 2001,
both Fagen and Becker received Honorary Doctor of Music degrees
from Berklee College
of Music
. They both accepted their degrees in
person.
In 2001,
Steely Dan (Fagen and Becker) were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame
.
Personal Life
In 1993, Fagen married fellow songwriter
Libby Titus.
Although the two of them had attended
Bard
College at around the same time, they didn't become friends
until 1987 when they were both going backstage after a Dr. John concert.Libby Titus co-wrote the
song "Florida Room" that appears on 1993's album
Kamakiriad.
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
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