C'Est Chic

Performer: Chic
Artist: Luther Vandross; David Lasley; Jon Faddis
Engineer: Bob Clearmountain; B. Szerlip
Producer: Nile Rodgers; Bernard Edwards
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Chic: Bernard Edwards (vocals, bass); Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin (vocals); Nile Rodgers (guitar); Tony Thompson (drums). Additional personnel: Luther Vandross, Diva Grey, David Lasley (vocals); Alex Foster, Jean Fineberg (saxophone); John Faddis, Ellen Seeling (trumpets); Barry Rogers (trombone); Robert Sabino, Andy Schwartz (clavinet, acoustic & electric piano); Raymond Jones (Fender Rhodes); Sammy Figueroa (percussion); Jose Rossy (tubular bells). The Chic Strings: Marianne Carroll, Cheryl Hong, Karen Milne. Recorded at The Power Station, New York, New York. In the 1970s, disco was dominated by anonymous artists and flash-in-the-pan singles; which is one of many reasons why Chic towers over the era. For starters, Chic was a real band--a tight-knit quintet led by the twin lights of producers/songwriters Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers (also on bass and guitar, respectively). Secondly, Chic created a consistently high caliber of sophisticated dance music that fused funk's rhythmic principles with disco sheen. Between the band's debut and the release of their classic single "Good Times," Chic released C'EST CHIC. Due largely to Edwards and Rodgers's crisp, articulate production-- which makes the band sound like the JBs on Manhattan's Upper East Side--Chic achieves a perfect cross-pollination of urban and urbane. The streamlined, minimal groove of "Chic Cheer," the album's opener, is a call to the dance floor, and Chic delivers the goods with "Le Freak," a smash single and one of the movement's defining anthems. Another dance hit, "I Want Your Love," with its tubular-bells hook, abuts smooth balladry like "At Last I Am Free." Chic replicated this record's style on subsequent releases, but never equaled its success. C'EST CHIC is a template for how disco should be done.

Q (9/99, p.136) - Included in Q Magazine's Best Happy Albums of All Time - "...the sound of the greatest party imaginable, and spelt glamour, sex with unthinkably beautiful people, fancy cocktails and always getting past the doorman....imperious classics..."

Brainchild of guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards, Chic was one of the most successful groups of the disco era, both financially and creatively. Employing sparse, syncopated rhythm tracks as the basis for a slickly produced, yet highly recognizable sound, Chic avoided typical disco blandness, appealing to a wide variety of listeners. After Chic's demise, Edwards and Rodgers became successful producers and Chic's influence continued to be heard in the music of everyone from David Bowie to Duran Duran.

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