Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Chicago Transit Authority.




Formed by a group of Depaul University music students in 1967, The Chicago Transit Authority started out as a local late night- night club band, that creatively blended a raw- yet smooth sound of rock, pop and jazz, with bites of Latin percussion, and sometimes fuzzy feedback driven guitar work. The Band was formed by Saxist Walter Parazaider, Guitarist Terry Kath, Drummer Danny Seraphine, Trumpet player Lee Loughnane and Trombonist James Pankow. The group was later joined by Keyboardist Robert Lamm. And later still Tenor vocalist bassist Peter Cetera, with the final piece of the band in place, the bands first pass at a working name, called themselves The Big Thing, and started out playing cover tunes of top forty hits, but it wasn’t until after Cetera joined that they began working out some original material in 1968 and would relocate to Los Angeles California under the advisement of their manager. They landed a recording contract with Columbia records and would change their name to Chicago Transit Authority. Their first record- the self Titled The Chicago Transit Authority was released in April of 1969 and the rare double album debut had sold over a million copies by 1970 and garnered them platinum status, The record would become a staple on the newly popularized FM radio with the Singles- “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?”, “Beginnings”, and “Questions 67 and 68” a brush with legal matters would cause the band to later shortened their name to simply Chicago. Although Chicago has seen several line up changes through the years, the band has remain intact and still remains a top draw a live stage act to this day.


~Information obtained in part through Wikipedia.com~




6 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed listening to Chicago!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah yes. Remember them well. I didn't know they were still active though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Miss B:


    Chicago was great. now not so much, still good but not great.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mr. O:


    The last time I heard they were.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I saw them in 1969, 70 or 71 I just don't remember now which it was, they were in Frankfurt Germany. Very enjoyable, Went to the concert with a beautiful lesbian who loved to tease me with the cute chicks she picked up in bars. She always got the girl and I was left to drink alone as the night wore down, oh well, it was fun. We both really liked Chicago, also went to Frankfurt with her to see "the Band" that was really a great concert, one of the best ever.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Scratch:

    It is interesting to note that some bands remain virtually unchanged in sound from yesteryear and are still popular, while other bands have tried without success to modify their sound to keep up with changing musical tastes.

    ReplyDelete