Weekend pictures

Thanks to Dwight McCann you can see what Steely Dan looked like on stage at the Chumash Casino on January 19. Great pics! Just click here.

It arrived today!

And we're not talking about the monthly paycheck, but rather the latest official Steely Dan Newsletter!

It lists two more shows that have been added to the Heavy Rollers 2007 tour:

May 06 The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans, LA
May 12 Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL

The newsletter also answers the question Will There Be More?

"Yes, more dates will be added!

However ----
there will be no single posting
of a complete schedule this time.
Instead, dates will be announced
as we go along.

Given this rolling announcement schedule,
we will *not* send a newsletter every time
a new date is added.

This means interested fans should monitor steelydan.com
for the very latest on confirmed shows,
on-sale dates, and buy-ticket links."

Not a word about the rumoured European dates in July/summer. And since last years talk about Donald Fagen solo shows in Germany and Italy proved to be just rumours we at Radio Dupree have decided to disregard any rumours, thoughts and hopes of European Steely Dan shows in 2007 until the actual dates are posted over at steelydan.com!

Steely Dan rocks zombies?

Following the Steely Dan corporate show a funny comment over at donaldfagen.com. It starts with:

1/17/07 From The National Occult Newsletter:
ZOMBIES IN VEGAS
January 17:
Several hundred bonafide zombies attended a Steely Dan concert last night in a ballroom at the Four Seasons hotel on the Las Vegas strip. The venue had been booked to hold a dinner and a concert as part of KingWorld Productions' annual Confab. There seems to be some controversy as to whether the zombies were masquerading as KingWorld executives or if authentic KingWorld executives were themselves zombies.

Read the full account over at http://www.donaldfagen.com/lexisays.php

Donald plays a solo gig and Steely Dan surprises

With Steely Dan's small venue Heavy Rollers 2007 tour up to three announced shows so far, Donald Fagen has decided to play two solo dates. On February 2-3 he'll be at the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.

Sharing the bill with Fagen will be the roots-rock-gospel ensemble Ollabelle and Phoebe Snow.
One of Ollabelle's members is Amy Helm daughter of Fagen's wife Libby.

Ollabelle will open the show, then serve as the backing band for Fagen and Snow. Fagen will be performing Steely Dan songs.

Steely Dan will do a first for the group; play a corporate gig. It's the annual National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE)convention who'll cough up the dough to get an exclusive show for the convention participants. The convention takes place in Las Vegas January 15 - 18.

Saxophonist Michael Brecker dies

Saxophonist Michael Brecker died of leukemia Saturday. He was 57.

Brecker recorded and performed with numerous jazz and pop music artists, including Frank Zappa, Aerosmith, James Brown, Lou Reed, Funkadelic, John Lennon, Elton John, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. He played on two Steely Dan albums; Katy Lied and Gaucho as well as Donald Fagen's The Nightfly.

Michael and his brother Randy started the successful 70's jazz-rock fusion group the Brecker Brothers.

His solo career began in 1987 with his latest album Wide Angels released in 2004.
Apparently Brecker managed to record a final album, as yet untitled, that was completed just two weeks ago.

Arnold Layne competition

Record your own version of the Pink Floyd classic Arnold Layne and get a day at Abbey Road studios!
That's the thing being offered through Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's website.
Radio Dupree has picked two favourites among the uploaded stuff:

* Philemon A - Makes a funky and stompy interpretation but still quite close to the original version.
Vote for this version by clicking 1 to 5 stars below the RANK IT! text, then "SUBMIT" and enter an email address. You can only vote once per computer.

* The Tonic - The new chord changes in the verse adds new energy to the composition.

We urge you to visit http://www.davidgilmour.com/arnoldlayne/
Listen, pick your own favourite and then register to vote.
But hurry. The competition closes Monday 22nd of January.

Ooops! Looks like somebody forgot to renew elonjohn.com!

Today anyone trying to access the official homepage of Elton John just found the following message:
"eltonjohn.com expired on 01/02/2007 and is pending renewal or deletion."

The site was there yesterday and had just recently announced that a new look was coming. We're pretty sure this is not what they had in mind.

Eltonjohn.com has been run in a ... let's say "lacklustre" way since it started, but had in the past couple of months showed signs of finally coming alive and delivering what you can expect from the official site for one of the most poular and successful artists of the past 40 years.

It'll be interesting to see how long it will take for the site to come back online. Even if they're switching to another host it's remarkable to find a major recording artists site go offline like this.

30 years ago this year... The Police to reform?

It's 30 years since drummer Stewart Copeland founded The Police, and rumours are getting stronger that the successful three man band will be back together this year to celebrate the occasion with a few gigs ... maybe even enough to call it a tour.

Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers have been eager to reunite the band, but singer Sting has - so far - been against.
Since the breakup in 1986 they've played together two times; at Sting's wedding in 1992 and the band's 2003 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We'll see what happens... And while we wait:

Donald Fagen's The Nightfly trilogy box set set for March 2007

The box set of Donald Fagen's three solo albums was already mentioned around the release of Morph The Cat last year. And now it looks set to be released about a year after Morph... At least a couple of British online sellers have it listed for release on March 5, 2007.

Amazon.co.uk as well as Spin CDs have no other information than the release date, that the record company is Warner Brothers and that it consists of four CDs. Play.com is another advertising the upcoming set. And we also found a Swedish online store; Megastore.com.

James Brown is dead

Soul music artist James Brown, also known as "The Godfather of Soul", has passed away at the age of 73.
James Brown started his carreer in 1953 and had more than 116 songs on the charts. James Brown was one of the first soul artists to write songs that expressed criticism against racism (Say It Loud, I'm Black And I'm Proud).

Steely Dan cut from Joni Mitchell tribute album?

It's been "years in the making", but according to a news item at billboard.com, the long awaited tribute album to Joni Mitchell will be released in the spring of 2007:

Bjork, Prince, James Taylor and Elvis Costello are among the artists who have recorded covers for "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell," due in the spring via Nonesuch. The 11-track set also boasts contributions from Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris and Sufjan Stevens.

The complete track listing according to billboard.com is:

Free Man in Paris Sufjan Stevens
Boho Dance Bjork
Dreamland Caetano Veloso
Don't Interrupt the Sorrow Brad Mehldau
For the Roses Cassandra Wilson
A Case of U Prince
Blue Sarah McLachlan
Ladies of the Canyon Annie Lennox
Magdalena Laundries Emmylou Harris
Edith and the Kingpin Elvis Costello
(Note that just 10 tracks are listed. The 11 should be k.d. Lang's Help Me, as she is mentioned in the news item.)

The album was announced late 2000 with the title A Case Of Joni. Numerous artists have been submitting tracks to the tribute over the years, including Steely Dan doing a version of Carey. Looks like it's cut from the album toghether with a few others. What happened to PM Dawn Night in the City, Stevie Wonder Woodstock, Janet Jackson Beat of Black Wings, Duncan Sheik Court and Spark, Chaka Khan Hejira, Etta James Amelia, Elton John Free Man In Paris and Lindsey Buckingham with Mick Fleetwood Big Yellow Taxi? It's enough to do a Volume 2!

Weekend music: Spot the star ... yes, even Zappa's there!

U2 decided to let other people perform their new video Window In The Sky. So they borrowed a bunch of old cuts from a bunch of mainly old/oldish artists, and this is what they ended up with:

R.I.P. Ahmet Ertegun

Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records has died at the age of 83. Ertegun helped shape American popular music. He signed and supported rock groups like King Crimson, Led Zeppelin and Genesis as well as legendary jazz artists like Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman.
Ertegun was respected in the business. The founder of Rolling Stone magazine, Jann Wenner, puts it like this in a statement: "Ahmet was perhaps the most revered, respected figure in American popular music of the modern era."
Even the rather cynical Frank Zappa (1940-93) seemed to like Ertegun.
Zappa was known to refer to record company people as "record company pricks", but he named one of his sons after Ertegun...Ahmet Zappa.

Pink Floyd eyeballs for sale

The giant eyeballs used for Pink Floyd's Pulse DVD are being auctioned for charity.
The ebay auction opened on December 14 and after ten hours the highest bid was up to £ 5900.
BBC reports that the money will support the homeless through the organisation Crisis.
During Christmas Crisis will open seven centres in London for homeless people.

Steely Dan 2007 tour twice as long! Yup, that's two shows instead of one

As Anonymous commented two posts below the previously announced single show at Chumash Casino - Santa Ynez, California on January 19, has been joined by a second taking place two days earlier:

January 17: Table Mountain Rancheria Casino - Friant, California. Tickets go on sale December 18.

This makes the Heavy Rollers 2007 tour two dates long. Will more be added? We'd like to think so, but decide to quote the Steely Dan Newsletter mailed to fans this weekend:

"Will there be more?
Who can really say for sure.
The canny oddsmaker can only keep an eye on
http://steelydan.com/"