Donald Fagen - The Nightfly

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Limited to Just 6000 Numbered Copies!

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes With Mobile Fidelity's One-Step Process: The Nightfly UD1S 45RPM Box Set is the Ultimate Analog Version of Donald Fagen's 1982 Landmark Debut

Lavish Packaging Includes Opulent Box and Special Foil-Stamped Jackets: Deluxe Audiophile Pressing Strictly Limited to 5000 Numbered Copies (Limit One Per Customer)

Cinema for the Ears: The Nightfly Remains One of the Best-Sounding Albums Ever Made with Reference Production, Standout Playing, and Jazz-Like Arrangements That Embody Timeless Cool

Donald Fagen's largely autobiographical The Nightfly remains one of the best-sounding albums ever made. Revered by audiophiles, the Steely Dan co-founder's 1982 set immediately became a demonstration disc at hi-fi shows and audio salons the world over. It also quickly emerged as an irreplaceable monitor-evaluating tool for recording-studio engineers and front-of-the-house testing device for concert-venue soundboard engineers who continue to use it today. Painstakingly recorded over eight months by illustrious producer Gary Katz and a Hall of Fame-worthy cast of perfectionist-minded musicians, The Nightfly endures as a rare trifecta of superlative performance, consummate songwriting, and crisp, benchmark production. Mobile Fidelity gives this seminal effort unsurpassed treatment befitting the most serious music connoisseurs.

Fagen's solo debut reaches three-dimensional sonic and emotional heights never before attained by analog recordings on Mobile Fidelity's opulent UD1S (UltraDisc One-Step) box set. Strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, this ultra-hi-fi collector's edition literally and figuratively brings you closer to music that picks up where Steely Dan's Gaucho leaves off. You'll enjoy deep-black backgrounds, boundless soundstaging, pointillist details, staggering dynamics, and arguably, the most lifelike tonalities and nuances ever committed to vinyl. Experienced via UD1S, The Nightfly places Fagen and his session pros in your listening room. Every note, breath, and movement is reproduced with exquisite accuracy, wowing clarity, and impeccable balance. Consider this edition your new go-to reference.

The lavish packaging and beautiful presentation of Mobile Fidelity's The Nightfly pressing befit its extremely select status. Housed in a deluxe box, this UD1S version contains special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. No expense has been spared. Aurally and visually, this reissue of The Nightfly is a curatorial artifact meant to be preserved, poured over, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and creativity, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the images to the textures and liner notes.

Nominated for seven Grammy Awards, The Nightfly "represent[s] certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight, and build," pens Fagen in the liner notes, revealing the work's thematic thrust and wistful, nostalgic appeal. At their core, songs look at the world via an optimistic, mindfully innocent lens and through the eyes of an adolescent holed up in his bedroom with his ear to a radio whose exciting transmissions inspire thoughts of futuristic cities, late-night deejays, otherworldly hopes, and Cold War romances. Cinema for the ears, The Nightfly comes on like a film transferred to wax – its stories filled with relatable vulnerability, ambition, and warmth.

It is also timelessly cool, with everything from the iconic album cover – complete with Fagen in the role of a cigarette-smoking disk jockey spinning a Sonny Rollins album on an RCA turntable at 4:09 in the morning – to the flawless playing honoring the laid-back, hip, stylish jazz pedigree of the arrangements. Indeed, The Nightfly's fame owes as much to the stunning contributions by stickler musicians – saxophonist Michael Brecker, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Larry Carlton, drummer Steve Jordan, bassist Marcus Miller, drummer Jeff Porcaro, and "Harmonica Frank" Floyd included – as it does the particulars behind its creation, which involved cutting-edge technology, novel microphoning techniques, and pioneering recording methods that gave Fagen exactly what he demanded. His insistence on dialing in exacting drum sounds is by itself the stuff of legend.

The results of the meticulous sessions transcend eras and generations – part of its very design. Virtually every track connects with classic '50s and '60s styles. "Green Flower Street" doubles as an homage to the jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street." The title track draws imagery from blues pioneer Charley Patton. "Ruby Baby" references soul greats the Drifters. "Maxine" nods to harmonies perfected by big-band vocal quartets like the Four Freshmen. "The Goodbye Look" acknowledges the bossa-nova craze of Fagen's youth. In all respects, The Nightfly rules the airwaves.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Instead of utilizing the industry-standard three-step lacquer process, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's new UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) uses only one step, bypassing two processes of generational loss. While three-step processing is designed for optimum yield and efficiency, UD1S is created for the ultimate in sound quality. Just as Mobile Fidelity pioneered the UHQR (Ultra High-Quality Record) with JVC in the 1980s, UD1S again represents another state-of-the-art advance in the record-manufacturing process. MFSL engineers begin with the original master tapes and meticulously cut a set of lacquers. These lacquers are used to create a very fragile, pristine UD1S stamper called a "convert." Delicate "converts" are then formed into the actual record stampers, producing a final product that literally and figuratively brings you closer to the music. By skipping the additional steps of pulling another positive and an additional negative, as done in the three-step process used in standard pressings, UD1S produces a final LP with the lowest noise floor possible today. The removal of the additional two steps of generational loss in the plating process reveals tremendous amounts of extra musical detail and dynamics, which are otherwise lost due to the standard copying process. The exclusive nature of these very limited pressings guarantees that every UD1S pressing serves as an immaculate replica of the lacquer sourced directly from the original master tape. Every conceivable aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the most perfect record album available today.

Features:
• Numbered, Limited Edition - Only 6000 Copies
• UltraDisc One-Step
• 45rpm Speed Edition
• 2LP Box Set
• Housed in an opulent box
• Production and Mastering by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab

Selections:
1. I.G.Y.
2. Green Flower Street
3. Ruby Baby
4. Maxine
5. New Frontier
6. The Nightfly
7. The Goodbye Look
8. Walk Between Raindrops