When it comes to combining funk, jazz and rock there are few bands who did it as good as Steely Dan. Through their signature use of complex harmonies, syncopated rhythms, and classic timbral tone, Steely Dan created a sophisticated and distinctive sound combining elements of funk, jazz & rock and creating a fantastic cocktail of colourful & groovy music. The song “Josie” from the album Aja, is a classic example this delicate combination of styles, from its strong syncopation and bright tone to its complicated and awesome chordal progressions.
The song features a fairly regular instrumental setup; Electric guitar x2 (Lead & rhythm), Bass guitar, Keyboard, Drum kit, and Vocals, but it also includes a brass section, occasional backing vocals and some chimes. The Bass is smooth, and the Drums are thin, so as to not disturb the colourful and bright sound of the song. The rhythm guitar and keyboard have a chorus and light flanger effect on them creating a bright and dynamic timbrel quality to the music. The guitar however acts as more of a timbrel backbone to the song as it can be heard throughout the whole song, with the keyboard coming in only during the chorus’ (1:02). This bright timbre gives the song its cool & upbeat sound adding to the funky side of the music’s style. The vocals, sung by Donald Fagen, have an energetic & groovy expressiveness to it with the tonal qualities of his well pronounced grainy voice, adding to the songs bright funky sound (1:26).
When it comes to rhythm, the song is in 4/4 at a moderate tempo blah blah blah… but most importantly, it is very syncopated and played with an almost godlike rhythmic accuracy. While the drums and bass guitar play to the strong beats of the rhythm (mostly), the electric guitar and vocals are very syncopated rarely landing on the strong beats of each bar. During the intro to the first verse the electric guitar can be heard playing a very syncopated rhythm over a single chord, playing almost every strum on the off beat except for beat 2 with a very strong funky expressiveness (0:17). This syncopation forces the rhythm of the song forward as you eagerly wait for it to land on a beat, which comes on the not quite so satisfying second beat of every bar. Though this is then satisfied as the vocals come in and land on beat one (0:30), but only every four bars, continuing this groovy syncopated rhythmic feeling. The main sense of satisfaction from this syncopation is at the end of each chorus as each beat of the last bar is accented (1:17), and then goes back into the syncopated verse. This use of syncopated rhythm and groovy expressiveness are what gives the song it's truly funky feel, because it feels almost free of boundaries and it gives you an almost uncontrollable urge to tap your feet to the beat.
The jazzy sound of the song comes from the particular use of a lot of extensions and also several regular triad chords with the fourth of the root note on the bass (eg. Amaj/D and Gmaj/C). An example of the abundance of extended chords can be heard in the quick chordal changes in the intro (0:10), and throughout the chorus (1:02). These uses of chordal extensions such as Maj9, 7#9, Maj7#11, etc create a very interesting jazzy harmonic quality, giving the whole piece a very colourful sound that well reflects its cool & funky nature. Another very interesting use of chords lays in Steely Dan's use of 4ths in the bass notes of regular triad chords. A good example of this can be heard several times in the verses when, within 2 bars, the chord progression goes as follows, A/D G/C, D/G C/F, (0:42) This irregular use of chords gives the piece a very interesting harmonic colour and also provides a sense of freedom and adding to the Jazzy feel.
So as you can probably tell by now, Steely Dan are pretty awesome, and are also very good at what they do. They can combine the styles of Jazz, Funk and Rock into a blend of colourful, groovy and fun sounds because of their in depth knowledge of all of their preferred styles of music, which is something us musicians can certainly take away from them.
Refrences:
Steely Dan - Josie, video, TrixxyKatt, Febuary 16 2016, Viewed 15 October,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I87efmq_ZYM>
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