Chicago Chicago II

Rhino's 2012 box set The Studio Albums 1969-1978 rounds up their remasters of what many consider Chicago's golden period: the band's first ten albums. Every one of the albums from 1969's Chicago Transit Authority to 1978's Hot Streets is here, packaged as paper-sleeve mini-LPs. For hardcore fans, this is a handsome way to get the remasters, and for more casual fans, it's a convenient and relatively affordable way to get the best albums of Chicago in one place.
Over the years Chicago gradually changed membership, likewise the direction of their music shifted as well. Eventually the lengthy arrangements and jazzy solos of the earlier albums gave way to sophisticated pop and lite rock that matched the age of their maturing audience. One of the most enduring acts in the history of rock, Chicago continues to record and tour to this day.

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B♭ major, Op. 83, by Johannes Brahms is separated by a gap of 22 years from his first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near Vienna. It took him three years to work on this concerto, which indicates that he was always self-critical. He wrote to Clara Schumann: "I want to tell you that I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo." Ironically, he was describing a huge piece. This concerto is dedicated to his teacher, Eduard Marxsen. The public premiere of the concerto was given in Budapest on 9 November 1881, with Brahms as soloist and the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, and was an immediate success. He proceeded to perform the piece in many cities across Europe.

1999's Superharps was a great record featuring four top blues harmonica players. Two years later, Superharps II was an attempt to duplicate the success with four other harmonica wizards (in this case Carey Bell, Lazy Lester, Raful Neal, and Snooky Pryor). There are five individual features, eight songs that have two harmonicas, and a remake of the closing "Harp to Harp," which has all four harmonica players.

Chicago V (from 1972) was in some ways the end of the "old" Chicago, pointing the way towards a smoother, mellower style they'd adopt in the years to come. V still has jazz and progressive elements ("A Hit by Varèse," "Dialogues"), political commentary ("State of the Union"), and melodious, sunny, horn-laden pop (the huge hit "Saturday In The Park"). The playing was still tight and clean, and the vocals still earnest and heartfelt, but a lighter mood began to replace the urgency of the band's late-'60s recordings.