Chicago
@ Pigeon Island, St. Lucia Jazz Festival
10 May 2009

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Biography

2007 was a milestone year for Chicago, the legendary rock ’n’ roll band with horns. Well known for extraordinary creativity, influential musicianship and staggering commercial success, Chicago now celebrated its 40th Anniversary – a show of longevity rarely achieved in most careers, let alone the music business.

In 1967, Chicago musicians Walter Parazaider, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Robert Lamm, and Peter Cetera formed a group with one dream, to integrate all the musical diversity from their beloved city and weave a new sound, a rock 'n' roll band with horns.

Chicago established a reputation for its powerful live show. Fuelled by a passion for music, Chicago’s members exploded the conventions of what rock music could or should be. The result was a groundbreaking new form, played by extraordinarily talented musicians. Early fans like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were sufficiently impressed - they took the group out on their respective tours. Once the group began making records, fans rewarded the group with record sales of 100,000,000, 20 Top 10 hits, 5 number one albums, 5 Number One singles, and 5 Gold singles. To date, Chicago is the only American band to chart Top 40 albums in five decades – a landmark accomplishment.

Today, decades after band members first gathered at Walter Parazaider’s apartment, the members of Chicago continue the legacy of music they inherited from their parents and their teachers and that they have brought to millions of fans. “My dad, he must be playing now 65 years professionally, something like that, off and on,” Parazaider notes. “I sat down with him, and he was practicing. He looked at me, and he held the trumpet in his hand, and he said, “You know, Walt, one day I’m going to learn this thing. That’s when I had a moment of clarity, and I realised that what we’ve been doing all these years is not measured in a time limit, that it’s a way of life, I learned what I want to be when I grow up, I’m in pursuit of my life’s work, and I finally realised it.”

Many people have always wondered about the name “Chicago.” One simple sentence from the liner notes of the very first album eliminates any question as to their identity. “If you must call them something, speak of the city where all save one were born, where all of them were schooled and bred. Call them Chicago.

Biography edited from Chicago’s official website;
http://www.chicagotheband.com