Howard Mandshein talks to Larry Roy

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Howard Talks is brought to you by South Beach Casino and Resort.

[00:00:04]>> I'm Howard from 92 City FM in Winnipeg with Larry Roy, pleased to be here, Howard. God bless you. Big Steely Dan fan as I am, but I think you're the biggest. You've curated an event the weekend of the 9th and 10th. Where? At the French Cultural Centre on Provencher uh with the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra. How many uh players will there be on stage?

[00:00:25]>> There will be 18 musicians on stage, 12 horns, five singers, plus rhythm section. We're all singing, we're all playing.

[00:00:35]>> [music] >> What does Steely Dan mean to you?

[00:00:41]I mean, we all grew up uh many of us grew up with Steely Dan and and they represent my learning curve as a young musician. I learned every note on every Steely Dan record and that taught me harmony, it taught me rhythm, it gave me a a real solid base to be able to play just about anything.

[00:01:02]I love the creativity of the late Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. What they [clears throat] did found a place to my soul and I have to be honest with you. Sometimes I listen to lyrics, I had no clue what they were singing about.

[00:01:19]Well, they have so many double entendres and their their social social activism on one hand and then a love story on the other hand and I uh it it's uh it's really very subtle. I mean, they I was thinking of the lyrics of uh IGY and talk about satire. Satire is a lost art these days and but not lost on Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.

[00:01:45]Absolutely absolutely brilliant and I remember the first time that I heard Steely Dan. I just Excuse me. I had no idea the ride that I would be going on.

[00:01:55]Well, they they redefined pop music in in those days uh and still to this day they're one of probably in for many of us the they've reached the highest level of harmony and rhythm in pop music. They had the best musicians on their albums all the time.

[00:02:13]Uh as you say, the lyrics are so well crafted and uh the arrangements are second are are are as high as it gets.

[00:02:20]So, give me an idea what you would do with the jazz folks uh for this event.

[00:02:26]Well, this was a bucket list thing for me. I thought, you know what? I want to do a show with 12 horns and but I I want to maintain the the intrigue and the magic of the vocals and the music itself. I don't want it to be just a bunch of horns screaming and a and a a big band extravaganza. I want to maintain the the the mystique of the music. So, some of their tunes have horn arrangements and that makes it easy. I take that and I expand upon that. Some of them didn't have any horn arrangements at all. So, on a couple of occasions I've taken uh the guitar solo, a Denny Dias guitar solo and turned into a sax solo. So, there >> four saxes playing a Denny Dias solo.

[00:03:11]And so, it worked out actually. It worked out. We did it. I didn't know if it would if we'd pull it off, but 2 years ago we did this concert. The the reaction was so positive that a lot of people wanted to see it again.

[00:03:25]And uh so, I revamped it, added new a few new things and uh Voilà, should be fun. Kudos.

[00:03:32]Thank you very very much for what you do for Winnipeg and what you do for my soul. Uh that's very kind, Howard. I mean it. Yep. We appreciate you. God and I both.

[00:03:41]>> Catch the wave to good times at South Beach Casino and Resort.