On "Aja", Donald and Walter reached the zenith of their perfection, with an unsurpassed attention to sonic detail and texture. In fact, the recording of these 40 minutes of music took them about a year of studio work. They assembled an incredible array of the finest session musicians around at the time, creating 7 timeless tracks of jazz-rock fusion, impeccably engineered and produced by Roger Nichols (this is the other Roger Nichols!) and Gary Katz. "Deacon Blues" is certainly one of the most heartfelt, mellow tracks they ever created. It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly effortless they create this elegance in the harmonies and chord progressions.