I was recently introduced to Steely Dan by a friend, who had me listen to "Peg". I was enthralled with the clarity of the jazz and the rock influences, working together, alongside of the great lyrics and voices.

I am amazed that I didn't know about this band. While I am not as well versed on popular music (current or past), I like to think of myself as musically diverse. Now, I certainly have crossed another genre off in my list to understand a wide range of musical styles.

This is just good music!

Spent many a night sipping a nice Belgian beer in my apt. in Geneva, Suisse listening to this on the turntable. One of the finest pop albums ever produced. Superb for those quiet sit back evenings with your favorite beverage when you want to relax. Highly recommend. Ravenlager

this is one of the greatest pop rock albums ever produced,and if you only had to buy one steely dan cd,this would be the one to grab.this has several of the steely dan classics on here,such as josie,decon blues,and peg.this is a true masterpiece,from one of the most talented bands to ever come down the pike.great cd.

From the arrangements and lyrics, to the musicians and production, this September 1977 release is simply a stunning technical masterpiece.

The musicians appearing on the album - including Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Wayne Shorter, Tom Scott, Steve Gadd and Chuck Rainey - is a who's who in the jazz and rock fields, with producer Gary Katz perfectly putting together every element from the lengthy sessions, which spanned from January to July 1977.

Peg, Deacon Blues and Josie are superb, with the title track and Black Cow perhaps slightly underrated due to the terrific trio.

Aja is a timeless masterpiece, which any major dude will tell you.

Smooth, rich, almost silky, but never slick. This is the best of Steely Dan. A must for those brandy-in-the-snifter, feet up, after-dinner-with-friends nights. Wonderful!

An excellent remastered version of the original.I played this in my car as well as in my home theater setup and there aren,t any pops or scratchy noises as on an LP.The vocals are nice and clear.When I finally get an SACD player I have to buy the SACD version of this,an excellent value for the money.

This is rock-jazz, jazz-rock at its most sophisticated. AJA and Deacon Blues are reason enough to buy this CD. Listening to Wayne Shorter's tenor solo on AJA and Pete Christlieb's solo on Deacon Blues should be inspiration and schooling on improvisation to all tenor saxophonists. Great horn section playing and contributions from Tom Scott and Steve Gadd supplying some masterful drumming.

These guys always produce great music. I was able to see the in the early years perform, Realing in the Years, period. They were so tight, true professionals. I was suprised with Aja. So different, but well written music and expertly preformed. "Hay 19" is my feels on getting older. Wait, wrong album, but same smoooth jaz.

Steely Dan's Aja (1977), like most of the band's work, is thoughtful and sophisticated. It's also smooth, polished, and neat as a pin. The songs themselves are uniquely deceptive in the way they paint detached, sometimes sarcastic, cinematic images of life, but draw you in emotionally at the same time. The sad resignation of Black Cow with it's upscale nightlife, and the dreamer's lament Deacon Blues with it's romantic last stand poetics, are themes you just don't hear everyday in rock music. Deacon Blues has to be my favorite of all of Steely Dan's songs. It's over seven minutes long, and the music is jazzy, sleek, and melodic. It's an imaginative look into the world of a down-on-his-luck dreamer holding on for dear life...

My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance

The title track is eight minutes of delightful and jazzy expressions juxtaposed with smooth rock, and augmented with orchestration and rich vocal harmonies. Peg and Josie are pleasant and catchy pop tunes, and both were hit singles. The music on Aja is quite relaxing, actually. It's so orderly and comfortable that there's no real need to chase after it, and it doesn't leave you wishing it was something other than what it already is...an excellent and satisfying album of intelligent, soulful and sophisticated jazz/pop/rock. Aja is also Steely Dan at their highest peak. A classic.

I am a music fan who enjoys a wide diversity of genres, and as far as classic rock bands go, I will always consider Steely Dan one of the best. I have to agree with many of the reviewers here who state that this is their masterpiece. While I do own several of their other albums (and definitely plan on purchasing more of them), "Aja" is one collection of songs I find myself playing repeatedly if nothing more for the good, positive feelings it evokes in me. When I am tired/down/sad, is truly one album that ranks up there with making me feel better instantly upon hearing it; although I honestly don't have to be in any particular mood to recognize it for the sheer brilliance that it is. Smooth, uplifting, sensual, trippy, clever, intelligent, and just plain amazing!! I own a literal ton of albums, but "Aja" ranks up there easily with my Top Ten favorites. I am so glad I bought it years ago, and I can't imagine ever tiring listening to it (and the title track is incidentally my favorite Steely Dan song, as well). Donald Fagen and Walter Becker truly outdid themselves with this remarkable work!! :-)

I first heard Aja while shopping for speakers in a high end audio store. The clarity, the chord progressions, the sound just stopped me in my tracks. That was about 26 years ago. The album still is my all time favorite and the one that I will go to I need to 'get away'. The 'A' side of Black Cow, Aja and Deacon Blues is, IMO, simply a work of art and it withstands the test of time. It sounds as good today as it did then. The beautiful sax riffs, the chord changes, the subtle and ironic lyrics. Deacon Blues is my favorite and it takes me places no other song does but that whole 'A' side is just about as good as it gets.

I don't know what it is about this album, but I've listened to it about 10 times in the last week alone

Aja is one of those albums that i can play all the way through and not think about ever skipping a track. the musical fusion and hybrids of styles works so well with the compelling lyrics which has always given Steely Dan stand out as much as they do. the instrumentation and background harmonys also just grab and draw you in. Peg is the Cut, Black Cow is a Cold Jam and Deacon Blues is a smoking Jam. there are so many layers to what makes SD so incredible Musically. classic album.

This was one of the best Steely Dan CDs that I've ever heard. A must buy

AJA was Steely Dan's last great album. After five fairly hard-rocking jazz-, blues-, and R&B-based masterpieces in a row, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker must have realized that they'd taken cynicism as far as it could go with THE ROYAL SCAM, and were thinking, "Where do we go from here?" With AJA, they found an answer, playing complex, jazzy, easy-listening pop-rock that epitomizes the essence of cool in rock & roll. With its roots in Basie rather than Berry, AJA provides an escape from the noisy punk rock and prefabricated disco and teen-idol pop dominating the music world in 1977, and, unlike the duo's late-90s/early-00s "comeback" albums (ALIVE IN AMERICA, TWO AGAINST NATURE, EVERYTHING MUST GO), this one has real soul in it, showing R&B roots as well, albeit in a mellower way than the first five albums did. If you buy this CD, along with the first five, you'll have all the Steely Dan you need.

I love Rock and I love Jazz. This is the best combination of the two.

After the soul-informed pseudo grit of The Royal Scam, Steely Dan returned to their sophisticated jazz-rock-pop roots with Aja. Aside from being their most polished, tightly constructed album to date, Aja also features some of Walter Becker and Donald Fagan's strongest songwriting, their most efficient use of session musicians, and some of the smartest and most compelling experimentation of their careers. Of course, this record's also got their typically warped sense of lyrical finesse, full of elliptical jazz references, subtle irony, and genuine emotional affectedness masked by ditched sarcasm. Witness "Deacon Blues," a work of compelling, subtle beauty and airy melodies. Over a nimble, layered instrumental backing, Fagan sings a heartfelt yet subtly barbed ode to his muse, with guitars and horns moaning wistfully in the background. "Peg" is pure laidback funk-jazz, with a deviously catchy melody making way for rolling rhythms and a guitar solo that quietly sets the song on fire. "Home At Last" is a slow, dramatic beauty, and the title track is an epic wash of musical ideas, a gorgeous meld of rock, jazz, and eastern sounds, with an oceanic drum solo thrown in to boot.

To be honest, though, the other three tracks here aren't nearly as strong. "Black Cow" does feature a great chorus and a sparkling electric piano solo, but it just doesn't sustain interest. "Josie" faces a similar problem- it's a jazz-funk workout along the lines of "Peg," and it does feature some beautiful flourishes, but it also gets bogged down in a fairly clichéd rhythmic pattern and a vocal that verges on annoying. "I Got The News" has some wonderfully dirty lyrics, but its unoriginal melody and rhythm (the latter sounding like an unsuccessful attempt to ape "Peg") just plain don't work.

So, I don't see this as the Dan's masterpiece (as many people do), but it still is a fantastic album in its own right. Even the weaker songs have their moments, and the best songs are simply stunning.

5.5 stars

I've lived my life with Aja as a chief soundtrack since it came out. I got it as a kid for Peg, and it has matured like excellent wine since.
The older I get, the better this album gets. On the walkman throughout my travels in various continents, in my car as I went coast to coast many times a year, on the turntable for many sweet evenings watching sunsets fade into the gloaming....Aja never fails. Perfect background music that opens up like a 100-year lotus to reveal, upon serious listening, many layers of harmonic and melodic and rhythmic sophistication. Plus you can play it over and over back to back, and it just never seems to get boring. I can't think of many other recordings of any sort of music that hold up this well after a thousand or so listenings; maybe Kind of Blue, certain Bach pieces, Segovia's finest moments, and that's all that comes immediately to mind. Whatever mood you're in, Aja will heighten its highs and temper its lows. It's magic!
Don and Wally hit it way out of the park with this one. Seven perfect songs, not one second of fluff, some insanely great guitar solos, one of the best drum solos on record (Steve Gadd on the title track), a great Wayne Shorter alto solo on the same cut, Larry Carlton's inimitable snappy edge on Josie, lyrics that never grow old in their elliptical irony ("I cried when I wrote this song, sue me if I play too long"), and simply gorgeous production make this a gem beyond gems.
This may have been the peak of analog production; the ride cymbals breathe and shimmer, the Strat tones are snappy and fat, Tony Jackson's bass on Peg pumps and pops, and on and on. Some of the greatest studio players ever are here, and at their best.
The title track is my favorite Dan tune of them all, except maybe Your Gold Teeth II. You can just float away into heaven behind this song.
No praise is too high for Aja; if you don't own this, no matter what kind of music you like, buy it. You will not be disappointed. It's like a friend that never lets you down.

Steely Dan has to be one of the most unique rock bands in the history of rock music. They are really totally unclassifiable, maybe the only category they can be placed into is Steely Dan. There's jazz, rock, blues, prog rock, pop, it's all there. This band really created their own universe, and it's never been in more evidence than on this album. There's so much to enjoy here, from the intense, impeccable musicianship, to the great, funny, and cryptic lyrics. Every song is equally memorable, with my favorites being the underrated title track (a long, complex song), Deacon Blues, and Peg (one of my favorite Steely Dan songs). They would make one more album after this (Gaucho) before retiring and reemerging later. They are one of the most mysterious, unique bands ever to grace the scene.

I was first exposed to "Aja" in junior high and fell in love instantly. While most of my pals were headbanging I was smiling and part of a well kept secret.

Three favs from this record are. #3 Black Cow with a drop dead beautiful bass line that sets a groove that you can't ignore. Home at Last comes in second. Top honors go to the title track. The combo of Wayne Shorter on sax and Steve Gadd on drums is a match made in heaven and belongs with Coltraine and Miles.

In my view this is one of the best Steely Dan albums. I recommend too Gaucho and Two Against Nature.
Despite the age of the AJA recording this is a very good sounding CD. The music is good too and contains classic material.

By FAR and AWAY one of the TEN GREATEST albums of ALL TIME!!!

NOT TO BE MISSED!

You can count on your two hands all albums that even approach this great MASTERPIECE!

~~~Trust me, if you do not already own this great album, by all means rush out and get yourself a copy, and "grace" your shelves (and your collection) forever!!! Guaranteed, you will NEVER tire of this great release!!! ~operabruin

I played this so much in the 70's and 80's that the grooves in my vinyl even have grooves. This is on my Top 100 list of all-time albums, might even make the top ten, it's that good. It defines rock/jazz fusion for me.

there are no Bad songs on AJA.
A musical masterpiece that continues to sell.

Fagan and Becker chose the best session me in the business and the music is tasty and emotiona.

the musicianship and the recording is top notch

Still sounds fresh and clean after all these years.

If you missed this one when it was new because you were
"born too late" get it and enjoy.

There's an old joke that goes something like this: Never eat anything bigger than your head, and never eat anything that looks like puke. But I break both those rules every time I eat pizza.

I have a few musical rules - not hard and fast, but things that describe my tastes fairly accurately. I don't like music that is pretentious, jazz that is too clean, rock that doesn't rock, or bands that don't perform live. I break all those rules every time I listen to any of my Steely Dan albums, which include all of them up to Gaucho.

Aja is a record that has an inexplicable hold over me. I was already a Dan fan when this crown jewel was released. I was turning 20, maybe that just has more to do with it than anything else. Aja is anti-punk... it's the epitome of musicianship applied to pop/rock/fusion/jazz. It is everything punk set out to puncture. If Aja taught me anything, it taught me not to make rules.

Oddly enough, though I consider an album of this stature to be timeless, every track on it sounds, well, so 1977 to me. It still evokes the same emotions, the same drifting images, the same self-definition I was making for myself then. It IS timeless, but at the same time, re-living these sensations makes me very much aware of the 30 years that have passed in between. It makes me feel old, because it conjures up my youth in such a specific way. And I first noticed this about it 18 years ago.

I don't know what else to say that hasn't been said. Black Cow got stuck in my head earlier this week, and that caused me to get out Aja for a play, and it all came back to me again. The title song Aja may be the only purely sonic narcotic ever burned onto a master tape. It's not just a song about drugs, it IS a drug. And I can get wasted on it stone cold sober. After Wayne Shorter's orgasmic tenor sax solo, there's one more chorus and the song fades - with the trailing piano chords still unresolved. The song haunts me like some unfinished love affair from those days, until it calls out to me again.

What I find fascinating is the comparison to the Doobie Brothers of the same time period. I see the similarities, and recognize the names - many of the same personnel playing on the recordings. But to me the Doobies are just take-it-or-leave-it pop, and I could never stand Michael McDonald's pretentious vocals. Yet I can listen to Donald Fagen's ultra-pretentious delivery and sarcastic lyrics over and over and over.

I guess I just don't know what's good for me, or how to make rules.

Simply one of the best albums ever, of any genre.

Well I am not your average Jazz/Rock fan. I received this record as a gift tape way back in the mid 80s, but, I would have to agree with most of the reviews. This C.D. transcends proper classification or description. An album that mirrors life, in its most poignant state. I guess "Call me Deacon Blues" will always be my favorite, with "Home at Last" a close 2nd. Seeing this classic amongst my old music collection I immediately wanted the remastered disc. Yeah, this disc goes down as one of the all time greats!

I had this album on heavy rotation in my car in my junior and senior year. Eight tracks never sounded so good. Never fails to evoke a mood of somber reflection, some how sad. Deacon Blues....

If you do not have this album in your list of greatest albums of all time, I suppose I can understand if I really reeeeeeealy open up my mind. I am just extactic to know, after 30 years, that I love this album more and more. Especially now that we have the remastered version. The drumming really pops out on this version to bring the appreciation for the whole ensemble to an ever higher level. I cannot imagine life without this album (maybe I overstate a little but you get the idea).

I run to the rack and pick up this album. Of the few albums that can be called a perfect 10, this is one of them in my opinion. With not a bad cut on it, it's the best 8 dollars you'll ever spend on a CD. Superb musical artistry from Fagen and Becker.

TO ALL MY FELLOW DAN LISTENERS, I MUST ADMIT THAT I HAVE NEVER COME ACROSS A BAND / GROUP / TWO MUSICANS BEFORE LIKE STEELY DAN / WALTER BECKER / DAONALD FAGEN,THAT I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT WITH ALL THERE ALBUMS / CASSETTES / CDS / DVDS OF THERE WORK, LIVING HERE IN AUSTRALIA I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED & LISTENED TO EVERY SONG ON EVERY ALBUM THEY HAVE RECORDED,I HONESTLY CAN SAY THAT I HAVE NEVER FOUND ANY OTHER GROUP I CAN SAY THAT ABOUT. HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO BE LIVING IN "THE LAND OF DAN" BUT COME THIS SEPTEMBER FOR THE FIRST TIME WE TOO HERE IN AUSTRALIA GET THE CHANCE YOU ALL HAVE HAD FOR SOME YEARS NOW.

BIG O

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

Such a perfect album, I am amazed each time I play it. I used to have the LP growing up and I think I wore it out. I think it is the best Steely Dan CD you can purchase.

No Steely Dan collection is complete without "Aja"...a must!!!! I love the musical arrangements...but that was always what set him apart from the others. A musical master.

When I first had this on LP in the early 80's I wasn't that keen. However as I've got older, and perhaps understand music better, it has overtaken all other Steely Dan albums to become my favourite.
This has that perfect mix of catchy songs and high-class musicianship. Its worth catching the Classic Albums program on Aja, which gives great insight into the making of the album.

The list of musicians is amazing, Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie, Jim Keltner to name but three, and they are all drummers! Becker and Fagen tend to use musicians with Jazz backgrounds so Wayne Shorter plays Tenor Sax on the title track, Larry Carlton contributes Guitar to a number of tracks. However don't let this put you off, like all Steely Dan albums this is a Jazz influenced album, not a Jazz album. Becker and Fagen are just using a different palette!

Peg is a wonderfully melodic song (with very difficult backing vocals according to Michael McDonald). Josie is or was a covers band standard. The title track has everything, and perhaps sums up the album best.
There are no weak tracks on this album, and any Steely Dan fan should have this in their collection.

I first fell in love with Steely Dan's music in the 70's when I was just a teenager. Back then, the stuff they did with more of the rock guitar solos and less of the horn section was likely to catch my attention. I still love COUNTDOWN TO ECSTASY and CAN'T BUY A THRILL, but as time goes on this album has become my favorite. You often read reviews of Dan albums where the reviewer says Steely Dan's music is cold and without any heart, all calculated playing by session musicians without any feeling. Well, to that I say "bunk". Steely Dan's music is full of heart and soul and enough feeling and fantasy to put one in a great state of mind. The characters and circumstances in Steely Dan's songs have always been interesting, and with AJA the Dan outdid themselves on all fronts. I recently bought the dvd on the making of AJA and it was really insightful as to the work they put into this record ( as with all their recordings). If working with the best players around and being fanatical about getting the perfect sound makes an album cold and calculated, then more musicians should give it a try. When listening to AJA's "Deacon Blues" you get the feeling and sensitivity that Steely Dan is often accused of not having. My favorite line from this, or any album , is "this brother is free,I'll be what I want to be". One of the greatest albums ever made.

Listened to this group originally in the 70's; loved it then and now.