At some point in the evening, singer Andy Caine said “No politics, please” but the significance of watching a tribute to Steely Dan, arch-satirists of the American Dream, on the evening of Donald Trump’s inauguration surely didn’t escape the cognoscenti in the audience, even if the riches of Becker & Fagen’s music went over the heads of one clutch of talkative punters in my left ear.
These were the Stacey brothers, household names on the London session and commercial scene, bringing their 14-piece Steely Dan tribute band back to its habitual new-year spot at Ronnie’s for a whole week and a total of 10 shows, many sold-out, including this Monday night.
There’ll be those, the ones who perhaps adhere to NME’s description of Becker & Fagen’s music as “yacht rock” who’ll say “What is a Steely Dan covers band doing at Ronnie’s, let alone for a whole week?” Well, for one thing, jazz definitions have been shot to pieces for years (and more so recently) but for another, the Dan’s jazz affiliations are legion. There are rock beats (and a lot of shuffle and Latin) but for those crossing over from rock to jazz in the 1970s there was a host of “jazz” chords. What better than rock plus jazz?
The duo had sought jazz aficionados in their first ads for personnel and the jazz roster got more distinguished as time went on, to include Phil Woods, Wayne Shorter and Chris Potter. The latter surely had the longest jazz solo on a Steely Dan track, ad-libbing superbly over four minutes, or about half, of West Of Hollywood on the Two Against Nature album.
Beyond personnel, Becker & Fagen, like Stevie Wonder, provided songs of GAS quality that became virtual jazz standards, to the extent of being covered by such titans as Mel Tormé (Fagen’s The Goodbye Look – here, live – and Walk Between Raindrops) and Woody Herman (the 1978 Chick, Donald, Walter & Woodrow album). Other Dan or Fagen covers have come from such as John Pizzarelli and Viktoria Mullova and, in big-band form, from Mark Masters (a notably cool interpretation) and the Hoops McCann Band, which took its name from the lyrics of Glamour Profession and featured such jazz-steeped West Coast studio luminaries as Chuck Berghofer, Chuck Findley and Bill Perkins. Further afield, the Fab Jazz ensemble of the Philippines offers this creditable performance of The Goodbye Look, with the correct tropical climate too.
The Staceys’ big band, and Frith Street, might be some way from Hollywood but as far as quality and fidelity goes, you wouldn’t know it. The band featured the cream of London studio and session players, used to the red light and the expectation of instantaneous precision. And precise it was: apart from moments of variation, arrangements and solos were virtually note-perfect renditions of the originals. So it was jazz, but perhaps repertory jazz. Those sold on the idea that jazz is improvisation (and the ludicrous inverse) might indeed have wondered where was the jazz in the jazz club? Well, it was in the material and in the playing, and since Steely Dan were renowned for their perfectionism, exactitude seems a proper part of the deal.
Accordingly, the music began on the dot at 6.30pm with a medley of The Royal Scam, Everything You Did and The Fez. The connection between the three wasn’t apparent but anyway, thereafter the songs were discrete. The first two were I Got The News (with Paul Stacey getting the jazzy, bebop end of Walter Becker in his prime) and Dirty Work (with – another jazz connection – former NYJO singer Sumudu Jayatilaka sharing lead vocal with the soul-fired Louise Marshall, and Jim Hunt doing the original Jerome Richardson sax break verbatim). Then came Kid Charlemagne (Was that a ripple of audience anticipation for the classic Larry Carlton guitar solo, well covered by Paul Stacey?), Haitian Divorce (Paul doing the trademark wah guitar with a voice controller), My Rival (Paul taking on Steve Khan on the Tele but eschewing the extended outro solo), Deacon Blue (with its beautiful wafting sax harmonies), Time Out Of Mind (Andy Caine finding great form and ushering in an effective breakdown to horns and audience clap-along) and, to close, Aja, complete with Sumudu doubling on keys for the oriental marimba-style obbligato and Jim Hunt emulating the Shorter solo to a T.
Single 75-minute sets seem to have become the Ronnie’s norm, but this evening gave us two helpings of about an hour each, and after a 20-minute break the band was back with Night By Night, Black Cow (lyrically Londonised with “I saw you at Ronnie’s” and “Down to Frith St” and reminding that the Reuben Fowler big band did a blue-chip cover of the same tune in 2017) and Babylon Sisters (studio perfect in tonality, timbre and balance, and topical too, with its “Here come those Santa Ana winds again”). Then we had Reelin’ In The Years and Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (with its nod to Horace Silver). Josie brought a departure in delegating the lead vocal to backing singer Bryan Chambers while lead singer Andy focused on admirably reproducing Walter Becker’s guitar solo. To finish it was Pretzel Logic, Green Earrings (more guitar solo anticipation) and then, after a namecheck, including for Miles Ashton on sound, Gaucho. The band had overrun in the first and second sets, so there was no encore, but given its over-delivery, time- and music-wise, no-one could complain.
If you like Steely Dan, you won’t be disappointed by this band. If you don’t know Steely Dan, here’s the chance to discover – paradoxically, given their cynicism about their country’s culture – one of America’s finest artistic achievements.
The Royal Scammers are at Ronnie’s through to Saturday, the full season as follows: 20 January at 17:30; 21 January at 17:30; 22 January at 17:30 and 20:30; 23 January at 17:30 and 20:30; 24 January at 17:30 and 20:30; 25 January at 17:30 and 20:30.
The Stacey Brothers’ Big Band Steely Dan project: The Royal Scammers at Ronnie Scott’s, 20 January 2025: Jeremy Stacey (d); Paul Stacey (g); Andy Caine (v, g); Dave Arch, Gary Sanctuary (kyb); Robin Mullarkey (b); Louise Marshall, Bryan Chambers (bv); Sumudu Jayatilaka (bv, kyb, pc); Jim Hunt, Andy Ross (s); Dominic Glover (t); Trevor Mires (tb); Pete Eckford (pc).
