Kamakiriad Donald Fagen

• 1 Trans-Island Skyway 06:30
• 2 Countermoon 05:05
• 3 Springtime 05:06
• 4 Snowbound 07:08
• 5 Tomorrow's Girls 06:17
• 6 Florida Room 06:01
• 7 On The Dunes 08:07
• 8 Teahouse On The Tracks 06:10
• Total Runtime 50:24

Info for Kamakiriad

Originally produced by Steely Dan's co-founding member, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen's Kamakiriad is a brilliantly executed futuristic retro concept album which spins a unique Sci-Fi outlook on the world. The eight-song cycle re-creates a retro-futuristic world in which Fagen's '50s nostalgia meets high-tech millennialism. If you loved the studio-intensive blues-rock, tantalizing, crisp white funk grooves that made Steely Dan, and Fagen's Nightfly solo album so compelling, Kamakiriad will keep your pulse racing.

Kamakiriad impressed music critics worldwide, and went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award in 1994 for Album of the Year. This was a fascinating concept album that took listeners on a journey into a brave new musical world; a few years in the future, near the millennium. In the opening track, Trans-Island Skyway, the narrator tells us he is about to embark on a journey in his new dream-car, a custom-tooled Kamakiri. It's built for the new century: steam-driven, with a self-contained vegetable garden and a radio link with the Tripster routing satellite. The next six songs describe his adventures along the way. In the closing track, Teahouse on the Tracks, the narrator lands in a dismal Flytown where he must decide whether to bail out or to rally and continue moving into the unknown.

Donald Fagen was one of the two masterminds behind Steely Dan, the seminal jazz-pop band of the '70s. Fagen's solo work has been a continuation of the band's work of the early '80s — carefully constructed and arranged, intricately detailed pop songs that are more substantial than their stylish surface may indicate. His 1982 solo debut, The Nightfly, was the best album he had made in years; it covered the same ground as the last two Steely Dan albums, yet surpassed it in terms of ambition and achievement.

After the success of The Nightfly, Fagen suffered a case of writer's block; for the rest of the decade he contributed music to the occasional film and briefly wrote a column for Premiere magazine in the mid-'80s. In the early '90s, he toured with the New York Rock & Soul Revue as he finished the material for his second album. With his former Steely Dan partner Walter Becker producing, 1993's Kamakiriad sounded like Aja recorded with '90s technology. It had some success on the adult contemporary charts, but it was overshadowed by the duo's decision to re-form Steely Dan and tour for the first time in nearly 20 years; the tour was a massive success. One more album - 2003's Everything Must Go - came out the reunion before Fagen decided to begin work on his third solo album. With death as its main theme, Morph the Cat appeared in March of 2006. Soon after the album's release, Fagen embarked on his first solo tour.

'Very Good - ...Donald Fagen is still in touch with aspects of his greatness....' (NME)

Musicians on the Kamakiriad album:
Donald Fagen (vocals, keyboards)
George Wadenius (guitar)
Lou Marini (alto saxophone, flute)
Cornelius Bumpus, Illinois Elohainu (tenor saxophone)
Lawrence Feldman, Dave Tofani (tenor saxophone, flute)
Ronnie Cuber, Roger Rosenberg (baritone saxophone)
Alan Rubin (trumpet, flugelhorn)
Jim Pugh, Birch Johnson (trombone)
Paul Griffin (Hammond B-3 organ)
Walter Becker (bass, guitar)
Leroy Clouden (drums, percussion)
Christopher Parker, Dennis McDermott (drums)
Bashiri Johnson (percussion)

Producer: Walter Becker
Recorded & mixed at River Sound New York, additional recording at Hyperbolic Sound, Hawaii; Clinton Recording and The Hit Factory, New York.
Mastered at Masterfonics, Nashville.


Nominated for a 1994 Grammy® Award for Album Of The Year.
#10 position The Billboard 200

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This album contains no booklet.