Steely Dan: Aja

Wayne Shorter, along with the other founding members of Weather Report, put fusion on the map in the early 1970s. The saxophonist also recorded with a wide array of artists from the pop and rock world in the '70s and '80s. With the rock/jazz group Steely Dan, Shorter contributed a solo to the song "Aja" that garnered critical praise and introduced a new world of listeners to his artistry. Shorters dry tenor enters after a lilting guitar solo lending an immediate urgency to the performance. Over drummer Steve Gadds syncopated lines and jazz-inflected chords from Donald Fagens synthesizer, Shorters tenor soars to an enormous climax before incrementally descending back for the closing melody.