Steely Dan To Perform With Orchestra For First Time At Hollywood Bowl

This Saturday Steely Dan brings “The Dan Who Knew Too Much” tour to the famed Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to kick off the venue’s season. Steely Dan will be joined by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra on the 18th which as per the L.A. Times will be the jazz-rock act’s first-ever performance with an orchestra.

Principals Donald Fagen and Walter Becker spoke with the L.A. Times about teaming up with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and other topics. The pair and the band are going into Saturday’s gig with few expectations. “It’s gonna surprise us as much as anyone else, really. We talked to the arranger, Vince Mendoza, and we tried to give him some clues as to what might work and what might not work,” Fagen said. Becker and Fagen discussed while they are now willing to cede some control by working with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra:

Becker: That’s why we haven’t done this type of thing before. I don’t know if we’ve ever been offered one, frankly. But for some reason we decided we were gonna do this one. I’m not sure why or why not. I guess at this point we feel like —

Fagen: We just like to live on the edge.

Becker: And we feel like our band is our band. It’s very solid; they can’t take that away. So basically you’re talking about some fiddle players et cetera.

Fagen: I told [Mendoza] to go out and buy a copy of “Agon” by Stravinsky.

The other big news to come out of the interview is Fagen revealing Steely Dan has discussed performing at Desert Trip next year. This October’s inaugural installment of the event held at the site of Coachella in Indio, California features Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young & Promise Of The Real, The Who and Bob Dylan. What does Donald Fagen think about Desert Trip? “Well, you know, a lot of these people are still very creative and still have the will and the charisma to make something like that successful. On some level for a musician, a job is a job, no matter what they call it. The Senior-delic Festival or whatever it’s supposed to be — we don’t care so much what it says on the sign out front.”

Head here for more of Walter and Donald’s chat with the L.A. Times.