Apart from the jazz content which is immense emanating, as it does from Higgs' laid back trumpet and flugel solos, Harry Greene's probing tenor and sizzling alto, the rock solid duo of Gascoyne and Double laying it down for Ingham's piano and his appealing voice that has the same, but different, magnetism that the originals had which combined with the streetwise lyrics - think Tom Waits or Joni Mitchell - paint an emotional picture of America. Maybe not quite as it is now but certainly as it was then.
It's a compelling album. In Donald Fagen and Walter Becker you have two lyricists who create fictional characters that become real within the song. This is beautifully, if somewhat poignantly, displayed in What a Shame About me. The Hollywood Goddess who visits her hometown and meets the failed novelist. At college they had been quite an item and all of their old crowd had gone on to greater things. However things aren't quite as they seem for her either and the song's title applies, in the end, to her as much as to him.
Compelling listening or even just reading the lyrics. If you liked Steely Dan but wished they had been more jazzy then this is for you.
The Chris Ingham albums that I've been privileged to review over the years: Hoagy l (2014), Dudley (2016), Stan (2019) and Hoagy ll (2023) have all been excellent and I'm pleased to say that Walter-Donald is of the same high standard. What's more, this is only Volume One of a Becker-Fagen Songbook which suggests there is more to come - whoopee!
The inner album notes date back to 1999 when Chris Ingham met Walter and Donald in New York and contains excepts from what they told him. The article, Joined at the Hip, appeared in the January 2000 issue of Mojo. It can be read on Chris' website HERE.
Recommended - an absolute gem! Lance
Any Major Dude Will Tell You; I Got the News; What a Shame About me; Your Gold Teeth ll; Razor Boy; Haitian Divorce; The Last Mall; Only a Fool Would Say That; Green Flower Street; Paging Audrey: Black Friday
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