We love The Roots’ willingness to tackle music from a variety of eras and genres in their role as house band for NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Some of the best music they make takes place during commercial breaks. An example of this could be found on Tuesday, when The Roots teamed with soul singer Bilal for a take on a Steely Dan classic that went mostly unseen by the television audience.

Drummer Questlove propels the beat, guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas adds a swagger-filled groove with choppy rhythm work while keyboardist James Poyser lays down impressive electric piano licks all while Bilal shows off his incredible vocal range during The Roots and Bilal’s cover of Black Cow. Check it out…

[via Okay Player]

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen will take Steely Dan back on the road this summer for the Mood Swings: 8 Miles To Pancake Day Tour. The group will make over four dozen stops between the tour opener on July 19th in Atlantic City and its currently scheduled end on September 28th at Foxwoods.

In addition to all the dates announced today, The Dan makes specific mention that “additional special engagements will be announced soon.” Beacon run anybody? For this tour Walter and Donald will be joined keyboardist Jim Beard, drummer Keith Carlock, vocalists La Tanya Hall, Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery and Catherine Russell as well as guitarist Jon Herington, bassist Freddie Washington and a four-piece horn section.

Here’s the list of dates as it currently stands with on-sale dates where available…

READ ON

A few days back the official Steely Dan website with the following message…

If you’re an avid Hidden Track reader, you already knew Steely Dan will tour this summer. We previously posted about dates at the Chicagoland venue Ravinia and at San Diego’s Humphrey’s By The Bay. While a formal announcement appears imminent, fans on the band’s Facebook page came across a listing for an August 10th Steely Dan show at Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City, Utah. This will be the Dan’s first show in the state of Utah.

Here’s the dates we’ve come across thus far…

August 1 and 2 @ Ravinia Festival – Highland Park, IL
August 10 @ Red Butte Garden – Salt Lake City, UT
August 21 @ Humphrey’s By The Bay – San Diego, CA

We’ll be sure to post the full tour itinerary when it’s confirmed.

Earlier this month we came across a pair of Steely Dan tour dates near Chicago that we figured were just the first of many shows the jazz-rock band will play this summer. Today, another date has surfaced, as the bayside San Diego venue Humprey’s By The Bay has announced its 2013 lineup, which finds Steely Dan performing there on August 21st.

NBC’s SoundDiego website lists all shows and ticket prices for the season and we were surprised to see Steely Dan tops the list of ticket prices by a whopping $45. Steely Dan fans will have to pay $155 face ($169.50 with fees) to see the band play at Humphrey’s By The Bay. For comparison’s sake, tickets to see Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys AND Alejandro Escovedo are only $55 a piece, while tickets to see legendary performer Willie Nelson run $88. Jazz pianist Diane Krall, who will play the venue on September 20th, is the only show on the lineup for which tickets are over $100 (tickets to see Krall’s Glad Rag Doll show cost $110).

Steely Dan famously sang about making “tonight a wonderful thing” in their 1980 hit Hey Nineteen by enjoying “the Cuervo Gold” and the “fine Colombian.” If you pair those two things with a Steely Dan concert in San Diego, you’re looking at a $300+ night as Huffington Post puts the street price of a gram of cocaine in the U.S. at $120, while you can buy a liter of Cuervo Gold for $15.98. Bear in mind Humphrey’s By The Bay is an intimate venue with a capacity of 1,450, but it isn’t often a ticket to a Steely Dan show costs more than the “fine Colombian,” though some say the Dan were singing about weed not coke.

When Donny & Marie Osmond kicked off the January 13th, 1978 episode of their popular self-titled ABC variety show, they delivered an incredibly schmaltzy version of Steely Dan’s 1972 hit Reelin’ In The Years that featured Rockette-esque figure skaters and ice dancers. Donny & Marie sing Fagen & Becker’s lyrics such as “The weekends at the college didn’t turn out like you planned” without any sense of what they were singing about which adds to the absurdity of the moment.

Thanks to the folks at Dangerous Minds for searching out this fawesome piece of kitsch…

After hitting the road hard for their “Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven” tour in 2011, legendary jazz-rock act Steely Dan took 2012 off. We’ve been awaiting word on whether the band would tour in 2013 and we’ve got our first major sign that they will indeed return to the road.

When the schedule for Chicago area summer stage Ravinia Festival’s 2013 season came out, Steely Dan was among the acts listed. Steely Dan will play the Highland Park, Illinois venue on August 1st and 2nd. Tickets for Steely Dan at Ravinia are currently available through the venue’s website with a donation. The public onsale will start on April 25th.

As of now, those are the only Steely Dan Summer ’13 dates we can find, but you can be assured the band won’t regroup just to play a pair of shows near Chicago. Expect a full slate of dates to be announced soon. We’d love to see them continue to add themes to their performances such as the Aja and rarities shows they performed earlier this decade. We’ll keep you posted.

During a hiatus from Steely Dan in 2006, Donald Fagen embarked on a theater tour to support his third solo album, Morph The Cat. Fagen’s extremely talented band featured keyboardist Jeff Young, Wayne Krantz and Jon Herington on guitars, trumpet wiz Michael Leonhart, drummer Keith Carlock, bassist Freddie Washington, Walt Weiskopf on sax with Carolyn Leonhart and Cindy Mizelle on vocals. On the heels of the flood of outrageous Steely Dan bootlegs that surfaced last month comes a soundboard from that memorable tour circulated by the same guy (Buttmanos on Trader’s Den).

When Fagen and his band pulled into NYC’s Beacon Theater on March 7th, 2006 they treated the audience to a mix of Steely Dan classics such as Home At Last, Pretzel Logic and FM with gems from his solo catalog. He also turned the show over to Canadian singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright (daughter of Loudon and sister of Rufus) for her own Year Of The Dragon. The sound on this recording is tremendous and any Steely Dan fan would be wise to add it to their collection. For MP3 files of Disc One (Disc Two coming tomorrow) head over to the Talkin’ About My Revolutions. Head to The Trader’s Den (registration required) for the FLACs.

We’ve uploaded FM from this show to SoundCloud for your streaming pleasure…

It’s somewhat of a national retail holiday today, so did you really think we’d fill this morning’s video slot with a different song? Of course we debated between using the Levon Helm Band featuring Donald Fagen’s version of Steely Dan’s Black Friday but figured we’d go right to the source with a fantastic clip from a 2006 Dan show. Jon Herington’s guitar solo absolutely smokes. Take a look…

Steely Dan – Black Friday

Now that Steely Dan has been touring off and on for the past 20 years, it’s easy to forget that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker famously withdrew the band from the road in 1975 to focus on writing and recording. After reforming in 1993 the pair, and a variety of extremely talented backing bands, have toured the world a number of times; generally with a different setlist for each excursion.

Steely Dan soundboards have been few-and-far between, so we were thrilled to see a user named “buttmanos” on The Trader’s Den website [registration required] share a batch of crystal-clear recordings from throughout the “reunion years.” There’s four soundboards of note that all Danfans need to add to their collections. We’ve compiled links for them below…

“Dallas 1994 First Night” – September 2nd, 1994

Buttmanos’ Notes: Here is a fantastic soundboard recording from the 94 tour. The quality exceeds that of Irvine ’94 as that show is lacking in the bottom-end department. This one more than makes up for it! Indeed, we have a great stereo spread and a crystalline, transparent capture — this may be the best sounding Steely Dan ROIO ever. It is certainly in the upper echelon. Plus, we have a great backing band and an even better setlist.

• Where To Download: FLAC / MP3

“The Second Theater We’ve Blown up this Year” – June 25th, 2000

READ ON

We’re huge fans of A.V. Club’s Undercover series of videos in which they give participating bands a list of covers to choose one from and film the resulting version. We’ve probably posted most, if not all, of the inventive covers since the series started, but the latest installment kicks so much ass in our humble opinion that we didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to share.

Brooklyn indie pop trio Hospitality, who claim to have never played a cover before this one, give a krautrock spin, complete with motorik beat, to the Steely Dan classic Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.

Hospitality covers Steely Dan

[A.V. Club. via Stereogum]

HT faves Steely Dan and Steve Winwood are currently in the midst of a co-headlining tour of Australia and New Zealand. While the first shows on the run, which marks only the second Steely Dan set of shows down under, didn’t feature any collaborations between the legendary acts, Winwood sat in with the Dan for Pretzel Logic in Sydney on Tuesday night.

Steely Dan w/ Steve Winwood – Pretzel Logic

Not only does Winwood add his signature organ swirls to the mix, but he also takes lead vocals on the title track from Steely Dan’s third studio album. Stevie’s sit-in went down during the encore at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Both bands are in Melbourne this evening for a performance at Rod Laver Arena. All in all, the two acts have six Oceania gigs left and we sure hope they continue to collaborate.

In other Steely Dan-related news, Donald Fagen will join The Levon Helm Band, Natalie Merchant, John Medeski, Graham Parker and Chris Wood at a benefit for victims of flooding from Tropical Storm Irene at the Broadway Theater at Ulster Performing Arts Center in Kingston, New York on November 18. Tickets are available now through Ticketmaster.

Steely Dan kicked off a seven-show run at NYC’s Beacon Theatre with a performance billed as “Dawn of the Dan” that mixed songs from the group’s first three albums and “additional selected favorites and hits.” Overall the Dan played 12 tunes from those first three albums and six originals spanning the rest of their nearly 40-year career.

Steely Dan – Boston Rag

Of particular note was the first-ever version of Pearl of the Quarter from Countdown to Ecstasy. Blue boarder Steely Dad reports that the debut of PotQ was “especially tight” and that “Donald Fagen’s voice was sounding stronger than when I saw him on his solo tour last year.” Fagen, Becker and the Miles High Big Band also treated NYC to the rare Boston Rag.

Here’s a look at last night’s setlist…

Set: Intro/Dizzy’s Bidness, Your Gold Teeth, Black Friday, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Hey 19, Parker’s Band, Time Out Of Mind, Show Biz Kids, Boston Rag, Bodhisattva, Do It Again, Godwhacker, Pearl Of The Quarter, Papa Don’t Mess/Band Intros, Dirty Work, Night By Night, Peg, My Old School, Reelin’ In The Years

Encore: Kid Charlemagne

[via Gus Winterbottom]

Next up for Steely Dan is “Gaucho” + Selected Hits at the Beacon on Friday night followed by the highly anticipated “Rarities” show on Saturday.

Guitarist Larry Carlton’s mesmerizing work on Steely Dan’s The Royal Scam is one of the defining characteristics of the LP,  so those attending the Dan’s September 23rd performance are in for a treat as Carlton will sit in as the band performs the classic album.

The show on the 23rd was originally billed as “21st Century Dan” and was set to focus on the group’s last two releases. Apparently there aren’t many folks who want to hear those most recent albums since The Royal Scam has been added to the mix. Ticketmaster shows the theme of the performance as “The Royal Scam plus selected hits,” while SteelyDan.com lists it as “21st Century Dan plus The Royal Scam.” Three albums worth of ground to cover seems a bit ambitious, so we’re thinking Ticketmaster has it right.

Also, Carlton’s website says he’ll play on “The Royal Scam plus selected hits.” Carlton, who sat in at seven shows on Steely Dan’s Rent Party ’09 tour, has won numerous Grammy Awards and lent his familiar tone to the theme song from Hill Street Blues.

[via Larry Carlton's FB, H/T Radio Dupree]

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker sure love the Beacon Theatre as the pair have made the Manhattan venue a regular stop on each of their recent tours. Steely Dan returns to the Beacon for seven shows between September 14 and 23. Each night will have a different inventive theme.

On September 14 the Dan will offer a show titled “Dawn of the Dan” in which they’ll perform selected songs from their first three albums – Can’t Buy A Thrill, Countdown to Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic plus “assorted favorites and hits.” On September 15 Steely Dan offers up the Gaucho LP in its entirety plus “additional selected favorites and hits.” The September 17 performance is billed as “Rarites” which the band’s press release describes as “The unreleased, the mythic, the reborn, the rarely-if-ever-heard; On this numinous Night of Nights, all will be revealed (along with additional selected favorites and hits).

For the September 19 gig Steely Dan will perform the classic album Aja in its entirety plus “additional selected favorites and hits.” The next night, September 20, The Royal Scam will be played in its entirety plus “additional selected favorites and hits.” On September 22 the Dan offers a show entitled “By Popular Demand” featuring a setlist filled with “oft-requested songs of recent years” while the September 23 closing show features songs from Steely Dan’s most recent releases, Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go, along with “additional selected favorites and hits.”

A pre-sale for all of the Beacon shows is set to take place on May 15 through Ticketmaster with a public onsale on the site to follow on May 20.

HT faves Steely Dan returns to the road in 2011 for the Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven tour which kicks off on July 2 at the WAMU Theater in Seattle, WA and concludes on September 28 for the second of two shows at the Wang Theatre in Boston, MA. Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and the Miles High Big Band will perform greatest hits and deep cuts at each stop plus complete albums and setlists determined by fan voting in certain cities as on the group’s last big tour in 2009.

Becker and Fagen also promise the addition of special guests at some dates and “an idealistic strategy for World Peace.” Once again Sam Yahel and his jazz trio will open most shows.

Here’s the full list of tour dates…

Sat. July 2 – Seattle, WA – WaMu Theater
Sun. July 3 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Tues. July 5 – Saratoga, CA – The Mountain Winery
Wed. July 6 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
Fri. July 8 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
Sat. July 9 – Los Angeles, CA – Greek Theatre
Tues. July 12 – Tulsa, OK – Brady Theater
Wed. July 13 – Thackerville, OK – Winstar Casino
Fri. July 15 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
Sat. July 16 – Detroit, MI – Fox Theatre
Tues. July 19 – Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavilion
Wed. July 20 – Toledo, OH – Toledo Zoo
Fri. July 22 – Toronto, ON – Molson Amphitheater
Sat. July 23 – Canandaigua, NY – Constellation Brands
Mon. July 25 – Danbury, CT – Ives Center
Tues. July 26 – Lenox, MA – Tanglewood
Fri. July 29 – Mashantucket, CT – MGM Grand at Foxwoods
Sat. July 30 – Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Event Center
Tues. August 2 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thurs. August 4 – Durham, NC – Durham Performing Arts Center
Sat. August 6 – Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park
Sun. August 7 – Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park
Wed. August 10 – Bethlehem, PA – Musikfest
Fri. August 12 – Highland Park, IL – Ravinia Festival
Sat. August 13 – Highland Park, IL – Ravinia Festival
Mon. August 15 – Interlochen, MI – Kresge Auditorium
Wed. August 17 – Louisville, KY – Palace Theater
Fri. August 19 – Nashville, TN – The Woods at Fontanel
Sat. August 20 – Tuscaloosa, AL – Tuscaloosa Amphitheater
Sun. August 21 – Orange Beach, AL – Snowden Grove Amphitheatre
Wed. August 24 – St. Louis, MO – Fox Theatre
Thurs. August 25 – Kansas City, MO – Starlight Theatre
Sat. August 27 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
Sun. August 28 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
Tues. August 30 – Minneapolis, MN – MN State Fair
Wed. August 31 – Omaha, NE – Orpheum Theater
Sat. September 3 – Aspen, CO – Jazz Aspen
Fri. September 9 – Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
Sat. September 10 – Upper Darby, PA – Tower Theatre
Tues. …