Could I Play Bass With Steely Dan? | Janie Runaway

Sadly, since the passing of Walter Becker, there is no more Steely Dan as we know and love them from before. So the answer is a clear no. But it would have been nice to do the gig back in the day, and I think I would have thrived in the fabled high pressure studio environments they are known to have created.

I love recording, I love very few takes, and this one went down the first time. The song took about 15 minutes to learn, and I played it with the record for about another 45 to get a feel for Walter's bass playing on the track.

I didn't want to copy what he did, and was trying to get as close to the feeling of being in the studio on the session as the bass player as possible. The one and only take was all feel in terms of fills and embellishments. Luckily I've heard this album a lot so form wasn't an issue, and I was able to react to horn parts and Chris Potter's solo as I was tracking.

I used LALAL.ai to take out the original bass and everything you hear is my own playing. Signal chain on this one was the caveman audio BP-1 and then straight into the desk with the slightest of compression plugged in in post in the box.

For breakdowns on all these songs, and a deeper look into my transcription process both with bass lines and melodies, check out my "Transcription Vault" course here: https://janekgwizdala.com/bass-courses

Tour Dates: https://janekgwizdala.com/tour

My Newsletter: https://janekgwizdala.substack.com/

Bass Books: https://janekgwizdala.com/store

Bass Lessons: https://janekgwizdala.com/store/p/basslessons

Stream the new album on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5DNkCixSd0J6TqHzeDNk0N?si=w8imwKwuTU-_HQjeE5R_sQ

Drums - Cliff Almond

Piano - Tom Cawley

Recording/Mixing/Mastering - Juan Pablo Alcaro

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