California Transit Authority - Full Circle (2007)

This critically acclaimed album will please fans of Chicago's early music as well as a new younger audience. Originally released in August 2007, it features remakes of Chicago's early recordings done in an updated, high energy fashion.

Drummer Danny Seraphine was a founding member of Chicago and performed with the group for over 20 years. He is the central figure in CTA, the initials standing for California Transit Authority, a reference to Chicago, which was called Chicago Transit Authority in its early days, also sometimes abbreviated as CTA. The appellation is appropriate, since Seraphine's CTA is, in effect, a tribute band to the earliest period of Chicago's music. This album, Seraphine writes in a sleeve note, "was done with the utmost in honesty and musical integrity to pay homage to a special time and place in music." That time, it seems clear, was the late '60s and early ‘70s; the place was Los Angeles (where Chicago the band had relocated in search of a record contract). During that period, Chicago played in an eclectic array of musical styles, filling a series of double LPs that made its reputation; later, in the mid-‘70s, the group turned to a softer, more pop-oriented sound. Seraphine's CTA posits the question, what would have happened if Chicago had moved more toward its harder rocking, jazz-fusion side instead? Teaming with guitarist Marc Bonilla and including Larry Bragg (vocals), Peter Fish and Ed Roth (keyboards), and Mick Mahan (bass), Seraphine re-creates a bunch of early Chicago songs. But CTA downplays the pop elements. Fish re-creates Chicago's horn section on a synthesizer; Bonilla echoes original Chicago guitarist Terry Kath's performances, but, as is his wont, also evokes the speedy metal playing of Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. Seraphine makes sure the drums are high in the mix and plays with the same energy he brought to the initial recordings. So, these takes are closer to jazz-rock than pop/rock. "Make Me Smile" is done as an instrumental, with Bonilla's guitar replacing the vocal line. "Colour My World" is entirely rearranged by Bonilla and Seraphine, again making room for a lengthy guitar part. "I'm a Man" has a lengthy percussion section, with Seraphine joined by Sheila E. on timbales and Alex Acuna on congas. The result is an album that plays up exactly the style Chicago itself has often tried to play down, its jazz-rock side. Seraphine's departure from Chicago was not amicable. In his notes, he expresses his "deepest gratitude … to all the Chicago fans, fellow drummers and musicians around the world that have made me feel very special, appreciated, and missed." Full Circle is his version of his old band should have been, rather than what it became. -- William Ruhlmann