CHICAGO III

Chicago is one of the great enigmas in the history of music and after three brilliant albums and a super worthy fourth volume, in the middle of 1973 they turned their direction to more commercial waters, at a time when winds of condescension or leveling down had not yet blown. That special concoction made of rock, soul, funk, psychedelia, jazz, classical and contemporary American music plus the plus of three good and diverse voices made the first two volumes a revolution in a time full of revolutions everywhere. Chicago III further deepens that direction, where that special feeling that they did what they wanted regardless of the companies continues, and they do not one but three suites, where we remember classic American composers like Aaron Copland. Peter Cetera, Robert Lamm and Terry Kath they sing and their voices provide the roughness and the velvet according to each moment of the record. These guys knew how to write, the powerful horns layered with Kath's throbbing guitar jamming until the fingers drop...and the ears! Even a political position regarding Vietnam and also the issue "Progress?" where with the winds they simulate noise pollution, the constructions that make skyscrapers that precisely... Are they progress? Testimony of an era, how from an evocation of country airs a la Crosby, Stills and Nash in "Travel Suite - Flight 602", to something of an atonal nature in "Free", also from the Travel Suite. Above all I highlight the progress in the cohesion between one part and another, the composition of the bridges creating -as if it were chapters of a book- introduction, middle and outcome.