Morph The Cat Donald Fagen

• 1 Morph The Cat 06:49
• 2 H Gang 05:15
• 3 What I Do 06:02
• 4 Brite Nitegown 07:17
• 5 The Great Pagoda Of Funn 07:40
• 6 Security Joan 06:08
• 7 The Night Belongs To Mona 04:18
• 8 Mary Shut The Garden Door 06:29
• 9 Morph The Cat 02:52
• Total Runtime 52:50

Info for Morph The Cat

Donald Fagen’s 'Morph The Cat' is just your average soulful and sexy masterpiece about love, death and homeland defense. “There’s nothing sexier than the Apocalypse,” Fagen explains helpfully. “I suppose you could call this album Apocalypse Wow.' The darkly beautiful third solo effort from Fagen – the longtime co-leader of Steely Dan – follows 1981’s classic The Nightfly and 1993’s acclaimed Kamakiriad, and represents the latest installment in what now appears to be a powerful and at times deeply personal trilogy. “The Nightfly is sort of looking from the standpoint of youth, “Fagen explains. “Kamakiriad would be more about midlife. This new one is about endings really. So in a way this really has become a sort of trilogy. In fact, there are plans to put all three albums out in a box where they belong.”

Musically, Morph The Cat blends jazz, soul and other musical influences – not unlike Brother Ray once did – with extended grooves and ever changing textures and a sort of musical ambition rarely heard anymore – think Aja set in current day Manhattan. “I like it when songs develop in some way and four minutes isn’t usually enough time for something to develop musically usually,” says Fagen. “I’m still kind of plugged into the Duke Ellington model – something akin to classical music – where you start with something, you develop it a little bit and stick with it. And when you get a groove going, time flies.”

Written and arranged by Fagen with engineering help by Elliot Scheiner, Morph The Cat features some familiar names among its musicians. “The players here are people who Walter and I have been working with for a while,” says Fagen. “When we started touring again in the Nineties, we began building a band again. Most of the players on the record are the people we ended up with after going through various players through the Nineties and now into the Twenty-First Century.”

Fagen says he has no concern about releasing Morph The Cat at a time when the music industry and the market seem as uncertain as the world itself. “I operate under Seventies rules no matter what time it is,” Fagen explains. “It’s a contract I have with my mind. I just keep forging on no matter what and reality doesn’t have much to do with it.”

'[T]he juxtapositions play out while he reflects on mortality....In 2006, as in 1976, pop music doesn't get any headier than this.' (Uncut, 5 stars out of 5)

'Morph The Cat fans out in all sorts of magical directions, delivering multilayered musings on everything from a skyward feline determined to brighten New York's trampled soul to a bedraggled but bemused traveler eager to hand his heart to a wand-wielding airport-security officer.' (JazzTimes)

Donald Fagen, vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, organ, background vocals
Ken Wessel, guitar
Frank Vignola, guitar
Hugh McCracken, guitar
Ken Emerson, guitar
Jon Herington, guitar
Wayne Krantz, guitar
Howard Levy, harmonica
Roger Rosenberg, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone
Walt Weiskopf, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Mark Patterson, trombone
Lawrence Feldman, flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone
Illinois Elohainu, flute
Marvin Stamm, trumpet
Ted Baker, piano, Fender Rhodes piano
Harlan Post, Jr., acoustic bass
Freddie 'Ready Freddie' Washington, bass guitar
Art Smith, drums
Keith Carlock, drums
Gordon Gottlieb, percussion, background vocals
Bashiri Johnson, percussion
Joe Passaro, percussion
Phonus Quaver, vibraphone, marimba
Cindy Mizelle, background vocals
Jerry Barnes, background vocals
Amy Helm, background vocals
Carolyn Leonhart, background vocals

Engineered by Elliot Scheiner
Recorded at Avatar Studios, New York, NY, Clinton Recording Studios, New York, Sear Sound, New York, Sugar Sound, Kauai
Mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray at AcousTech
Produced by Donald Fagen

Awards: 2006 Grammy Award Winning Album

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This album contains no booklet.