Denny Dias

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Denny Dias (born December 12, 1946 in Philadelphia ) is an American guitarist, known from the early days of Steely Dan .

Career

Dias took an early interest in jazz ( Miles Davis , John Coltrane , Thelonious Monk ) and had his own band in Hicksville on Long Island in the late 1960s . He was looking for a keyboard player and bass player by advertisement, to whom Donald Fagen and Walter Becker answered; they became part of the band and started playing their songs. Around 1971 the three of them moved to California and took drummer Jim Hodder , guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and singer David Palmer into the band, which then got a record deal as Steely Dan .

Dias played on the first three albums Can't Buy a Thrill (with an electric sitar solo on Do It Again ) from 1972 to 1974 , and on Countdown to Ecstasy and Pretzel Logic . After that, Fagen and Becker decided to give up the band and continue working with studio musicians. Denny Dias was also involved as a studio musician on Steely Dan, in 1975 on the album Katy Lied , where he played the solo on Your Gold Teeth II , in 1976 on The Royal Scam and 1977 on Aja .

In 1991, Dias joined Toto on their Summer Festival tour . He also made recordings with Wayne Shorter , Wilfrido Vargas and Pete Christlieb .

Dias then worked as a programmer in Los Angeles. Together with Rich McConnell and Basil Hosmer, he was the software architect for the Clipper 5.x xBase compiler.

Discography

CD

  • Can't Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan (1972)
  • Countdown to Ecstasy - Steely Dan (1973)
  • Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan (1974)
  • Katy Lied - Steely Dan (1975)
  • The Royal Scam - Steely Dan (1976)
  • Aja - Steely Dan (1977)
  • Tribute to Jeff Porcaro - David Garfield (1997)
  • Hoy - Wilfrido Vargas (1997)
  • Round the Gum Tree: The British Bubblegum Explosion! - Various Artists (2004)
  • Apogee [Bonus Tracks] - Pete Christlieb (2004)
  • Footprints: The Life and Music of Wayne Shorter - Wayne Shorter (2004)

Video

  • Classic Albums - Steely Dan: Aja (2000)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry on MusicBrainz
  2. ↑ the showbiz wizard, accessed July 23, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Dias, Denny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American musician
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia