University of Virginia Library

Winning Seven From The Windy City

By JIMMY FAMA

Chicago, a seven-piece band
originating in the city of the
same name, will be playing at
University Hall this Saturday.
Presented by P K German, the
concert will begin at 8:00 p.m.
There will not be any tickets
available at the door; the show
has been sold out.

Chicago is a well-travelled
group that has been around for
over six years. The six original
members at first called
themselves The Big Thing. They
"paid their dues" playing in
small clubs around Chicago,
but in 1967, Jim Guercio, a
record producer who helped
The Big Thing come into
existence, decided that the
band would never make it in
Chicago. He moved them to
Los Angeles and changed their
name to the Chicago Transit
Authority.

Soon after, they added their
seventh member, bassist Pete
Cetera, and began to make a
name for themselves playing in
small clubs in the Los Angeles
area. Later on they moved up
to playing at the Whisky
A-Go-Go and other big name
clubs on Sunset Strip.

Eventually their first album
was released in 1968,
containing "Beginnings" and
"Does Anybody Really Know
What Time It Is", two of their
biggest selling 45's. After that,
Chicago was on the charts and
has been on the way up ever
since.

Broad Background

The group is well-integrated,
with a broad background of
musical experience. Jim
Pankow, trombonist, was a
classical music major at DePaul
University; Terry Kath, the
lead guitarist, is self-taught;
Bob Lamm, who takes care of
keyboards and vocals, fostered
his interest in music by singing
in a church choir; Walt
Parazaider studied jazz and
classical clarinet before joining
Chicago.

Bass player Pete Cetera and
drummer Dan Seraphine both
played rock while studying on a
formal basis before they
became members of Chicago.
Lee Louhghnane, the trumpet
player for the group, used to
play country-western music.

The solidifying force that
holds the seven members of
Chicago together is their
producer, Jim Guercio. Mr.
Guercio produced Blood Sweat
and Tear's second album, as
well as producing all of
Chicago's albums. Speaking of
Mr. Guercio, trumpet player
Lee Loughnane has said,
"Guercio is the finest producer
around. At least he's the best
for us. He knows exactly the
sound we want. We select our
own material, but with seven
guys there has to be one
personality strong enough to
unite the others. With Jim, the
compromise works this way:
he guides us, yet we retain
creative control. It's an ideal
setup, and there are very few
arguments."

International Travelers

In the last two years Chicago
has toured all over the world.
They have appeared before
audiences in England,
Germany, France, Denmark,
Sweden, Italy, Japan and
Australia, and they are
planning to eventually play in
Yugoslavia, Poland and
Czechoslavakia. Although they
plan to play behind the Iron
Curtain, Bob Lamm has
emphatically said that the
members of Chicago have no
desire to be "goodwill
ambassadors" for the United
States. They are going to these
countries as musicians, not as
diplomats.

Of all their touring in the
United States, Chicago prefers
the college campus concerts to
the club dates and the
mammoth concert hall gigs.
According to Jim Pankow, the
members of Chicago feel they
get a better reception and are
more appreciated by students.

Chicago has made five
albums–all of them double-set
except for the four record set
"Chicago at Carnegie Hall". The
Carnegie Hall album, their only
live album, is perhaps the most
notable. In 1971, from April
5th through 10th, Chicago
performed a "theatrical week"

at New York's renowned
Carnegie Hall, an event not
attempted by any
entertainment act since 1902.

Jazz-Rock

Chicago is often compared to
Blood Sweat and Tears– a
comparison which the
members of Chicago feel is
unfounded. Bob Lamm claims
that Chicago was into the
jazz-rock "bag well before
Blood, Sweat and Tears were."

Lamm points out the
underlying stylistic differences
between the two bands; "Our
roots are basically rock, but we
can and do play jazz; Blood
Sweat and Tears is basically a
jazz-rooted combo that can
play a lot of rock."

Jim Pankow insists that there is a
big difference between the two
bands in instrumentation as
well. Chicago is a seven-piece
group with three horns while
Blood Sweat and Tears is a
nine-piece group with five
horns.

Chicago has been known in
the past to put on excellent
live performances. Audiences
have invariably been impressed
by the fact that Chicago can
faithfully reproduce in concert
the songs from their albums.

The group achieves this by
relying on very few special
effects when they are
recording. So when they are on
stage, without the benefit of
these studio-type effects, they
can nevertheless almost
flawlessly reproduce the
unique sound of Chicago that
is heard on their albums.