Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad

2025

Kamakiriad (1993) was Donald Fagen‘s second solo album, part of a trilogy book-ended by The Nightfly (1982) and Morph The Cat (2006) and was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year. The eight-song cycle of Kamakiriad relates the futuristic adventures of the narrator’s journey in his high-tech car, the Kamakiri (Japanese for praying mantis). Kamakiriad was produced by Fagen’s musical partner, Walter Becker, who also provides impressive bass and guitar throughout. The album marked the first collaboration between Fagen and Becker since 1980’s Gaucho, which at the time was the most recent album by Steely Dan. Fagen handled the horn arrangements, working with latter-day Steely Dan stalwarts Cornelius Bumpus, Roger Rosenberg and Jim Pugh. The songs follow the Steely Dan template of cool swing horns and tasty solos (though more lyric-heavy than typical Steely Dan) and the blending of the sardonic and sincere that defined such classics as “Charlie Freak” and “Deacon Blues.”