Chicago: Terry Kath (vocals, guitar); Robert Lamm (vocals, keyboards);
Peter Cetera (vocals, bass); Walter Parazaider (winds, background vocals); Lee Loughnane (trumpet, background vocals); James Pankow (trombone); Daniel Seraphine (drums).
Recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, New York; Columbia Studios, Hollywood, California in August 1969. Originally released on Columbia (KGP-24). Includes liner notes by David Wild.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: Terry Kath (vocals, guitar); Walter Parazaider (vocals, woodwinds); Lee Loughnane (vocals, trumpet); Robert Lamm (vocals, keyboards); Peter Cetera (vocals); James Pankow (trombone); Daniel Seraphine (drums).
Audio Remasterer: Dave Donnelly .
Liner Note Author: David Wild.
Recording information: Columbia Recording Studios, New York, NY (08/1969).
Photographers: Herbert Greene; Hugh Brown .
CHICAGO II remains a classic album, encapsulating its time (1969) in all its tumult and glory. The Vietnam War (and the civil unrest it inspired) was still raging, the counterculture dream had not yet crashed and burned, and rock music could be taken seriously as an "art form" while still generating radio hits. Chicago, with their then-new fusion of jazz, rock, and pop, rose high on the charts, while taken seriously both in and beyond the rock-critic establishment. (Some jazz listeners respected and enjoyed Chicago as well.) Their approach had a freshness and vibrancy--"25 Or 6 To 4" was surging, dramatic, and slightly ominous; "Fancy Colours" and "Make Me Smile" were full of soulful optimism; a four-movement suite showed the band had ambition beyond the three- or four-minute pop song. To paraphrase one of Chicago's song titles, it was only the beginning.
Professional Reviews
Q (10/02, p.122) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Yeilds intermittent rewards, most notably on the baroque psychedelia of 'Fancy Colors' and 'AM Mourning'..."
Mojo (Publisher) (10/02, p.112) - "...Crammed full of fine stuff..."
