Friday 16 August 2019

Chicago - The Chicago Transit Authority (1969)


The debut album from this US band.

The band was a seven piece big band with a lineup of guitars, organs, woodwinds, tambourine, drums, percussion, bass, cowbell and vocals.

I never thought I would ever review or even listen to another Chicago album after I bought their Hot Streets album forty years ago. The albums Chicago released after that was considered very uncool pop albums. You can read my review of Hot Streets here, btw.

So I have got this band wrong, all the time. And I am a curious creature. So this is the first review of their earliest albums.

And it is a double album, no less. Seventy-two minutes, no less.

A double album which combines a lot of the genres from that time and age. We find blues here, rock, soul, jazz, fusion, pop and rock. We also get avant-garde jazz.

There is a lot of guitars from the then guitar maestro Terry Kath. A guitar maestro who lost his life far too early. We get lots of brass too. And a lot of organs. And last but not least; a lot of very good vocals.

This album is a smorgasboard of everything that were shaking and rolling in 1969. It was a also genre busting and genre hopping album.

And the music still feels very good and strong. Terry Kath takes the price as the best performer. But everyone here comes out of this smelling of roses and they can truly say they created something special here.

3.5 points


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