Chicago Transit Authority [Remaster]

Performer: Chicago
Engineer: Fred Catero
Producer: James William Guercio
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: This is part of Columbia/Legacy's Master Sound series. Master Sound releases are 24-karat gold CDs remastered from first-generation masters. This process utilizes 20-bit technology and Sony's revolutionary "Super Bit Mapping" system. This debut has surprisingly endured, whereas all their following 18,000 albums with the same title (other than a number change) have little or no credibility in the public's memory. This album can be interchanged with the second and third Blood Sweat And Tears album; all represent the very best of late 60s American jazz/rock. The band changed their name soon afterwards as they ploughed a successful path into smooth AOR. Lengthy tracks such as "South California Purples" and their excellent cover version of Spencer Davis Group's "I'm A Man" prove beyond doubt that these chaps can really play. Maybe they were smarter than most in seeing the limitations of jazz/rock and moving on to play Russian roulette.

Q (8/94, p.119) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...an aggressive metallic guitar sound...offered feedback, soulful grooves and a green attitude..." Uncut (01/03, p.140) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Heavy on blasting brass, hollering vocals, and the turbulent psychedelic blues guitar of Terry Kath..."

Chicago was the longest-running and most commercially successful of the hordes of jazz-rock bands with horn sections that sprang up in the late-1960s wake of Blood, Sweat & Tears. After myriad personnel changes (including the death of founding guitarist Terry Kath due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound), Chicago eventually mutated into a more conventional pop group that was able to score hit after hit well into the '80s, usually with romantic ballads. They remain among the best-selling American bands of all time. In the mid 1990s they briefly returned to their roots with an album of big band-era standards given the Chicago treatment.

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