Kamakiriad
	Produced by Walter Becker
	Released on May 25, 1993
	US CHART POSITION #10 . . . UK CHART POSITION #3
	Find it at GEMM
9 45230-2 cover

K amakiriad feels like an inoculated Aja, the songs wound impossibly tight and threatening to go BOING at any moment, yet they never do. The theme reminds me of Roger Waters’ The Pros And Cons of Hitchhiking (wait, come back), where an older man picks up a younger woman and together they see where the road takes them, at least initially. I know, you’re thinking “Nineteen,” and maybe that is the source, I dunno. I’m prone to lump this next to Gaucho rather than The Nightfly, since the final Dan album likewise left me underwhelmed at first (whereas I liked The Nightfly right out of the gate). Kamakiriad seemed too dry; even “I Got The News” and “Peg” looked luscious next to the sere arrangements of “Trans-Island Skyway” and “Springtime.” I listened to it a few times in succession, but only the familiar “Tomorrow’s Girls” caught my ear, and I ended up playing that over and over. So I waited a while before reintroducing myself to Kamakiriad and VOILA the groove hit me. It’s still a little too tight for my tastes, minus the wonderful guitar solos and keyboard passages you’d find on vintage Dan, but I can see myself warming up to this in time. “Trans-Island Skyway,” “Snowbound” and “Tomorrow’s Girls” justify the purchase price, and if the rest seems like thin gravy, it’s still better than a musical diet without Dan. Walter Becker handles bass, solo guitar (what little of it there is) and production, so the Dan comparison isn’t way off base. The other familiar faces are missing, but the instrumentation breaks out about the same: horns, backing vocalists, drums. It’s sharp lyrically, smart-stepping and punchy, but stripped down to its lean essence. Time will fill in the missing features, when the blanched “Snowbound” blooms like a garden of delights, so stick with it until that happens. When it does, you’ll know you’re there. The 2003 audio DVD includes the videos for "Tomorrow's Girls" and "Snowbound."

9 45320-2 booklet back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. TRANS-ISLAND SKYWAY
2. COUNTERMOON
3. SPRINGTIME
4. SNOWBOUND    (Walter Becker/Donald Fagen)
5. TOMORROW'S GIRLS
6. FLORIDA ROOM    (music by Donald Fagen; lyrics by Donald Fagen and Libby Titus)
7. ON THE DUNES
8. TEAHOUSE ON THE TRACKS
   
   Songs by Donald Fagen unless noted

CREDITS

DONALD FAGEN -- keyboards & vocals, rhythm and horn arrangements
WALTER BECKER -- bass/solo guitar
RANDY BRECKER -- trumpet, flugelhorn
CORNELIUS BUMPUS -- tenor sax (solo on tracks 6,7)
LEROY CLOUDEN -- percussion, drums (tracks 3,5,8)
RONNIE CUBER -- baritone sax
ILLINOIS ELOHAINU -- tenor sax (solo on track 2)
LAWRENCE FELDMAN -- tenor sax, flute
FRANK FLOYD -- background vocals
DIANE GARISTO -- background vocals
PAUL GRIFFIN -- Hammond B3 organ
AMY HELM -- background vocals ("You're not my Jackie")
BASHIRI JOHNSON -- percussion
BIRCH JOHNSON -- trombone (solo on track 8)
MINDY JOSTYN -- background vocals
BRENDA KING -- background vocals
CURTIS KING -- background vocals
LOU MARINI -- alto sax, flute, clarinet
JENNI MULDAUR -- background vocals
ANGELA CLEMMON PATRICK -- background vocals
JIM PUGH -- trombone
ROGER ROSENBERG -- baritone sax
ALAN RUBIN -- trumpet, flugelhorn
KATHERINE RUSSELL -- background vocals
DIAN SOREL -- background vocals
FONZIE THORNTON -- background vocals
DAVE TOFANI -- tenor sax, flute
GEORG WADENIUS -- guitar
Dennis McDermott -- drums (track 4)
Christopher Parker -- drums (tracks 1,2,6,7)
Roger Nichols -- chief engineer
Wayne Yurgelun -- house engineer
Tony Volante, David Dll, Dave Russell, Tom Fritze -- more engineers
Carol Bobolts/Red Herring Design -- design
James Hamilton -- photography

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