Aja

Aja creates space for instrumental movement inside clearly shaped songs. The title track allows drums and saxophone to become increasingly prominent when the voice recedes. Peg concentrates guitar and backing vocals into a much smaller span. Beyond its familiar reputation as an impressive recording, the album offers different solutions to the relationship between a song and the people playing it.

The original seven-song programme appeared in 1977 as Steely Dan’s sixth studio album. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wrote the material, with Gary Katz producing. Different combinations of players serve individual tracks. Keeping credits attached to their songs is more useful than treating the entire personnel list as a fixed band. Steve Gadd and Wayne Shorter on the title track do not define the lineup of every other selection.

Precision leaves room for force

Gadd recalls that Becker and Fagen wanted the improvisational passages to become more forceful than drummers ordinarily expected on pop sessions. Careful production was not necessarily a demand for restraint everywhere. The title track opens spaces in which instrumental activity can grow beyond the earlier vocal setting. Attend to that contrast before deciding whether the record’s complexity makes it approachable or remote.

A change of scale between sides

Black Cow leads into the nearly eight-minute title track and the lengthy Deacon Blues. Those three pieces formed the first side. Peg opens the second at just under four minutes, changing the proportions immediately. A compact pop song and an extended instrumental passage need not compete for the album’s identity. Home at Last and I Got the News then give the shorter side further changes of shape.

Backing voices have individual roles

Michael McDonald and Paul Griffin receive backing-vocal credits on Peg; Timothy B. Schmit appears on the closing Josie. Those changing combinations are arrangement choices too. Transfer attention from the lead melody to the voices surrounding it. A chorus need not be only an added layer of volume. The seven tracks retain a shared character while making room for different contributors, rather than reproducing one complete setup unchanged.