Perseverance . . .

20 Top Ten singles, 12 Top Ten albums (five of which were #1), and sales of more than 120 million records . . . stylistic changes, I must admire the work ethic and perseverance of these musicians, the early work of which had [and still has] a tremendous influence on my music. . .


(from http://www.classicbands.com/chicago.html)
". . . "Baby, What A Big Surprise" sailed into the Top 5, and Chicago XI was certified platinum the month after its release. But only a few months later, the band would be devastated by a terrible loss. On January 23, l978, Chicago guitarist and singer Terry Kath died from an accidental gunshot wound. "Terry Kath was a great talent" says Jim Guercio, who worked with him on a solo album that was never completed. "Hendrix idolized him. He was just totally committed to this band, and he could have been a monster (as a solo artist)." Kath's death devastated Chicago, and the band considered breaking up. A short time after Terry's death, "Take Me Back To Chicago," was released as a single.

If the band was going to continue, it would need a new guitarist, and auditions began in earnest in the spring of 1978. "We felt that we were being left behind by the new music," says Cetera, "and we thought we needed a young guitar player with long hair. We sat through I don't know how many guitar players, but I'm sure it was 30, 40, or 50 guitar players. Toward the end, Donnie Dacus showed up. He played a couple of songs right and with fire, and that's how he was in the group."


Fast forward to 2014 - their new album . . .
(from http://chicagotheband.us/profiles/blogs/james-pankow-interview-chicago-trombonist-and-horn-arranger-leads)
" . . . includes 11 brand new songs, recorded on the road.

"We have some very exploratory stuff and music that is traditionally Chicago," Pankow said. "We have the signature horns and the identity that the music has always had, but we also have the fun of taking it places that was not possible before. The music is very daring in some ways. It is where we are now."

For this record, Chicago built a new "recording rig" that travels with the band.

"This new technology has allowed us to be extremely mobile," Pankow said. "The music is reported by us as we travel, as we get inspired. We can record in hotel rooms, on the bus, in the venue. We don't have to, like the old days, assemble in a traditional recording studio and track new songs and go through the protocol. We are now free to do whatever we want. We can push the limits."

They have even created an online collaboration portal that allows even more performances to be worked on around the clock from remote locations.

"For the first time since the beginning of the band, we are looking at not only a new way of making records, but a new way of manifesting those records," Pankow said. "We do business now essentially direct to fans through the Internet."

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OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)

My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Also, be sure to visit:
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Art, Passion, Success & Jazz . . .

 If I evaluated the level of my success in enumerable sales of physical items alone, I, with a multitude of others, could easily and realistically be deemed failures.  But there is so much more to life.  Viewing my own objectively, I am happy to report that I do not view it as such.  Upon the realization many years ago that my own art could reasonably and truly entertain my own self with a sufficient level of emotional content and technical ability was to attain a certain, albeit modest, level of success in and of itself.  That, combined with the good fortune and personal contentment my personal life has awarded me, give me the distinct impression and definite opinion that, with all modesty and humility, I am a success.   Unfortunately, others have not experienced the favorable circumstances nor made the necessary choices to enable themselves to feel quite the same way. . . 

In 1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered a third and final heart attack, and died believing his work forgotten. In the last year of his life, he wrote his daughter, "I wish now I'd never relaxed or looked back—but said at the end of The Great Gatsby: I've found my line—from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty - without this I am nothing." By his own admission, Fitzgerald viewed himself as a failure, and only 25,000 copies were sold at the time of his death. His obituary in The New York Times mentioned Gatsby as evidence of great potential that was never reached. However, a strong appreciation for the book had developed in underground circles; future writers Edward Newhouse and Budd Schulberg were deeply affected by it and John O'Hara showed the book's influence. The republication of Gatsby in Edmund Wilson's edition of The Last Tycoon in 1941 produced an outburst of comment, with the general consensus expressing the sentiment that the book was an enduring work of fiction.

By 1930, Scott was an alcoholic and Zelda had suffered the first of her multiple breakdowns, fighting her way back to sanity over 15 months in a Swiss clinic. After Zelda’s release in September 1931, the couple and Scottie, then 10, returned to the United States, but five months later, Zelda fell apart again. When Fitzgerald wrote to H. L. Mencken for advice, the latter suggested the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, at that time the nation’s premier institution for the treatment of the mentally ill. Phipps director Adolf Meyer advocated a scientific approach to psychiatry but believed that psychogenetic factors, not physical disease, caused most mental illness. He thought that people became mentally ill “by actually living in ways that put their mind and entire organism and its activity in jeopardy.” The Fitzgeralds— whose marriage Meyer diagnosed as a “folie a deux”— seemed a living embodiment of his theories, which perhaps explains why they both detested him.  (thanks to both http://www.baltimorestyle.com/index.php/style/baltimore/baltimore_f_scott_fitzgerald_in_baltimore/#sthash.cD1aikhO.dpuf and http://www.wikipedia.com)

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My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

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This'll help. . .

. . . don't you think?

(from http://www.businessweek.com)

Colorado Gun Sales Surge After the Aurora Massacre
By Caroline Winter on July 24, 2012  Tweet Facebook LinkedIn Google Plus 10

Background checks for people wanting to purchase firearms in Colorado spiked more than 40 percent this past weekend, after a gunman opened fire in a suburban Denver movie theater, killing 12 people and wounding 58 more.

During the three days following the July 20 shooting, gun dealers submitted 2,887 requests for state background checks, compared with 2,012 during the same period a week earlier, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

Booming gun sales following mass shootings are not unusual. Immediately after a Glock-wielding gunman killed six people at a Tucson shopping center in January 2011, for example, one-day sales of handguns in Arizona jumped 60 percent, to 263, according to FBI data obtained by Bloomberg.

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newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE

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