James Pankow may be known as a founding member and resident trombone player/arranger/songwriter in Chicago, but for a gaggle of grandkids living on the West Coast, he’s Papa. It’s a respite he recently enjoyed before bouncing back into his aforementioned musical role as Chicago returns for their 58th year as a unit.
Averaging between 80 to 100 shows a year, this Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 10-piece are out supporting the recently released Chicago at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (9/16/71), a 4-LP/3-CD set encompassing that historic gig. And while that show occurred 54 years ago, it still resonates for Pankow.
“We were one of the first artists to perform there,” Pankow recalled. “This was in July 1971 and the Kennedy Center had just opened a few weeks prior to our performance. It was a brand-new venue and they were looking at inaugurating the venue with acts that were meaningful and exciting. We were invited to perform and we did. And of course, being that it was a historic appearance, we recorded the performance. It was also the first time we performed ‘Saturday in the Park’ live. It hadn’t even been recorded yet and we hadn’t even decided who was going to sing it. Peter Cetera is singing the lead for this performance. It wasn’t until we went into the studio to complete the recording of Chicago V, which included ‘Saturday in the Park,’ did Robert [Lamm] end up singing the lead vocal on his song ‘Saturday in the Park.’”
While the Kennedy Center set contains a number of well-known early-career standards, including “Colour My World,” “25 or 6 to 4” and “Make Me Smile,” the set also includes ambitious compositions that reflect the distinctly proggy-flavored inflections Chicago built into some of their material before the 1980s saw the band shift toward pop ballads (such as “Hard To Say I’m Sorry,” “You’re the Inspiration,” “Hard Habit to Break” and “Look Away”) that produced a second round of chart success. For instance, the Kennedy Center set includes “A Hit By Varèse,” an intricately arranged sub-five-minute tribute to the French composer, while the “1st Movement” through the ‘5th Movement” uses a classical framework to showcase the band’s R&B, funk and rock roots, while throwing in flute and guitar solos.
This unique sound was created by a group of friends who met in the late 1960s at the Windy City’s DePaul University. Despite starting out as a covers-only nightclub act (“Club owners didn’t want to hear our stuff—they wanted to hear Top 40,” Pankow said), Chicago moved on to playing all originals. And after relocating to Los Angeles in 1968, they became the house band at the famed Whisky a Go Go, despite being unsigned. As fate would have it, Jimi Hendrix caught them during an off night and was immediately impressed.
“Jimi Hendrix was in L.A. to do a gig as part of his tour and he stopped in at the Whisky on a night off where he heard us and was blown away,” Pankow said. “Hendrix knew what we were doing—he got it. He said we had a horn section that sounded like one set of lungs and a guitar player that’s better than him. He invited us to go on the road, which ended up being a whole summer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience as his opening act. And that was without a record. We had not recorded anything yet. We were unknown artists and virtually nobodies. We went back to the Whisky and labels and people started taking note. Word got out that we had opened for Hendrix. Record companies started bidding and we wound up signing a deal with Columbia and the rest is history.”
The nearly six-decade run that followed enabled Chicago to build quite the deep canon. And while that’s allowed a lot of flexibility to put together tours—like last year’s co-headlining pairing with Earth, Wind & Fire (the sixth installment for the two groups, according to Pankow)—this year’s tour will be an evening with Chicago.
“This year, people will get to hear songs that they didn’t get a chance to hear because we’re going to be on stage for the whole evening,” Pankow said. “We’re going to be doing some things from every album, which isn’t something we always get a chance to do. It’s going to be a lot more in-depth snapshot about what Chicago is all about musically.”
Pankow may be 77, but the enthusiasm and joy he derives from playing live (along with an exhaustive workout routine meant to prime him for the rigors of the road) keep him going. And when you ask him about Chicago’s longevity, the St. Louis native isn’t quite sure himself.
“This music has crossed generations,” Pankow said. “When you’re writing a song, you’re experiencing a moment, idea or a feeling that is very personal. The next thing you know, this is a mantra for millions of people. That’s a powerful transition and as a songwriter, you’re even more amazed that fans have embraced this stuff because this personal idea has become a timeless experience for millions of people. It’s the music that has enabled this longevity. When you look into an audience, you see three or four generations. They’re all experiencing this music on their own level differently than each generation before or after them. But the common thread in this music is one that all of them can relate to. And that is a mystery that I’ll never figure out.”
Chicago plays at 7:30pm Sept 6-7 at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Tickets: $113+. mountainwinery.com
