Steely Dan-Gaucho (1980)

"Gaucho" was the seventh and final album of Steely Dan's first phase. When compared to their debut album released eight years earlier ("Can't Buy a Thrill"), it can be hard to believe that the same two musicians (Walter Becker and Donald Fagen) possessed such musical creativity, with intelligent lyrics, a silky sound, complex and brilliant musical time signatures, accompanied by stormy vocals, all wrapped in a sound akin to the most sophisticated jazz-rock and recorded in impeccably meticulous sessions. For "Gaucho", the Fagen-Becker duo once again enlisted a vast array of collaborators, so long that we would need six or seven lines to list them all, but among them we could highlight Mark Knopfler, Hiram Bullock, Tom Scott, Larry Carlton, Michael McDonald, Steve Khan, Patti Austin, Joe Sample, Randy and Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn… and so on, nearly fifty major figures of jazz, blues, and American rock. With this work, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker reached the pinnacle of stylistic self-evolution, without losing a single drop of inspiration from each and every member of their gigantic and colossal group of musicians for this legendary recording. An album that, in its entirety, feels essential, featuring brilliantly crafted and executed tracks such as "Babylon Sisters", "Hey Nineteen", "Glamour Profession", "Gaucho", "Time Out Of Mind," and "My Rival". As with all its predecessors, "Gaucho" once again placed Steely Dan at the forefront of jazz-rock, earning them their second consecutive Grammy for Best Studio Recording.