1998 – Pretzel Logic

Pretzel Logic grew out of my continuing musical partnership with Jim Chefero. Jim and I put the group together as a Steely Dan tribute band, an ambitious undertaking considering the complexity of Steely Dan’s music.

By the 1990s, Steely Dan had become legendary for sophisticated studio recordings featuring intricate arrangements, unusual chord changes, demanding vocal parts and some of the finest session musicians in the business. Reproducing that sound with a live band was quite a challenge—and that was precisely what attracted us to the idea.

We assembled a group of musicians capable of tackling the material:

Jim Chefero – Lead Vocals
Tony Mason – Keyboards & Vocals
Mike Parker – Saxophones, Keyboards & Vocals
Hylton Reiff – Bass & Vocals
Yogi – Drums
Mike McDonald – Guitar (Guest Musician)

The repertoire included some of our favourite Steely Dan songs, among them “Black Cow,” “Night by Night,” “Pretzel Logic,” “FM” and “I Got the News.”

Playing this music was very different from performing conventional rock material. The bass parts, harmonies, rhythms and arrangements demanded concentration and precision, but that was also what made the project so enjoyable for me.

Live Recordings

Fortunately, some of our performances were recorded live at Maxwell’s and Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto, preserving what Pretzel Logic actually sounded like on stage.

One of the recordings catches Jim struggling somewhat with the higher vocal notes—he had the flu that night—but we kept the recording because it remains an authentic document of the band performing live.

Recorded live at Maxwell’s and Grossman’s Tavern, Toronto, 1998.