As an addition to what followed in the twenty years after their last studio album:
Two Against Nature
The title of Steely Dan's first studio album in 20 years. What took Walter Becker and Donald Fagen so long? Fagen was busy with two solo albums, The Nightfly and Kamakiriad(produced by Walter Becker). Fagen was also involved with projects such as the New York Rock & Soul Revue, featuring artists like Boz Scaggs, Phoebe Snow and Michael McDonald.
In the mean time, Becker cleaned up from a heroin addiction, moved to Hawaii, and produced artists as China Crisis and Ricky Lee Jones. Becker also made a solo album called 11 Tracks of Whack, co-produced and featuring Becker's partner in crime, Donald Fagen. This is the first time that we hear Becker sing.
Other than the incidental compilation album, and collaboration between Becker and Fagen in the 80's, there were no real Steely Dan projects until the New York Rock & Soul Revue project. During one of these performances, Becker was present, and was called on stage by Fagen to play along some of their songs. They enjoyed playing live so much that it resulted in a tour, and a live album (Alive in America, 1995). They toured again in 1996 and even played some new songs that they were working on e.g."Jack of Speed." This created an enormous anticipation for the release of a new studio album (Two Against Nature), that was released in the spring of 2000, followed by a Japanese, US and European tour.
Update: February 22, 2001
Yesterday, Steely Dan's album Two Against Nature won four Grammys: