Aja Vu
Watertown Riverfest Appearance
Sunday, August 3
Noon
By Greg
Ylvisaker of the Watertown Daily Times
staff
Aja Vu, a Steely
Dan tribute band based in the San Francisco area, will be playing at Riverfest
on Aug. 3 at noon. The name Aja Vu is a play on the term "deja vu,"
but Aja is also the name of Steely Dan's most popular record. Ron Jamison, the
band's lead singer and founder, said the response from fans of the classic rock
band has been "extremely positive."
The band has
been playing together since the summer of 2004. It is comprised of a group of
about eight people that have been playing together, and with other bands, since
Steely Dan was touring.
"We've all
played together in the past," Jamison said. "We've all played classic
rock and R&B, but Steely Dan's stuff was just more musically challenging
which made it more fulfilling when it all came together. There are a lot of
four part harmonies, and horn sections that present a challenge, and it was
about a year before we actually began touring."
Most of the band
have families and day jobs, which makes it necessary to stay closer to home a
majority of the time. Jamison has a daughter attending the University of
California at Santa Cruz, a city not far from San Francisco. They do like to
get on the road from time to time however.
"Jobs and
families make it hard to go too far," Jamison said. "It's also hard
unless you've got a pretty big name, but our agency does a good job keeping us
busy which is great."
Aja Vu has never
played at Riverfest before, but last summer they played at the Kettle Moraine
Jazz Festival.
"It was a
great experience," he said. "There was some really great
entertainment like Paul Jackson and Clint Eastwood's son, Clint. Our show went
over very well out there. We even put a couple of selections up on YouTube.
Everybody is really excited about making it back out there."
Besides playing
in Watertown, Aja Vu will be at the Wisconsin State Fair, and they have shows
pending confirmation in Florida and Virginia.