ALL - Super Audio CD is re-mastered by Mobile Fidelity.  The greatest advancement since the introduction of stereo, Super Audio CDs employ the innovative single-bit encoding system, Direct Stream Digital.  Every SACD player performs superbly with Compact Discs. And Hybrid SACDs will play back beautifully on CD players.   

Features:

Super Audio CD

SACD Stereo SACD Layer

This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!

Numbered, Limited Edition with gatefold jacket.

Mastered From Original Master Tapes

 Chicago The Chicago Transit Authority Numbered Limited Edition Hybrid Stereo SACD

Numbered, Limited Edition Hybrid SACD! Mastered from Original Master Tapes!

1969 Double-Album Debut Broke the Ground for Rock, Pop, and Jazz Fusion

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Longtime Audiophile Favorite Now Possesses Reference-Caliber Separation, Tonalities, Balance

Instrumental Interplay and Dialogues Between Musicians Yield Unprecedented Sonic Synthesis

Includes the Hits Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, Beginnings, Questions 67 and 68

As the Sixties prepared to give way to the Seventies, a myriad of artists explored the idea of fusing together several seemingly disparate styles. Yet no band bridged so many gaps and did so with such precision, vision, and skill as Chicago. One of the only groups to ever release a debut filled with such ambition, greatness, and enthusiasm that it got the go-ahead to make a double-album, the ensemble parlayed jazz, classical, rock, and pop elements into an eclectic blend that appealed equally to both mainstream tastes as well as hardcore music aficionados. The set also launched the ongoing career of the second-most commercially successful American rock band in history.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD lavishes Chicago Transit Authority with a clarity, transparency, and detail no previous digital edition has ever enjoyed. Pulling back the curtain on the recordings, this collector’s version exponentially expands the soundstaging dimensions, imaging proportions, and dynamic information, allowing the songs to breathe and enjoy a roominess that enhances the stellar interplay and complex arrangements. Everything from tautly sculpted material such as Listen to the adventurous, free-form 14-plus-minute Liberation emerges anew, anchored by lifelike tonalities, full-range frequency responses, and stellar balances.

Featuring a virtuosic lineup that counted a trombonist, trumpeter, keyboardist, guitarist, drummer, bassist, woodwind expert, and several vocalists, Chicago peruses territory on its multiplatinum 1969 effort that remains singular in execution and delivery. Here, hard-driving rock gets paired with a similarly forceful power brass section that yields energetic aural cross-sections that marry loose improvisation and focused creativity like nothing heard before.

Chicago Transit Authority has its cake and eats it, too, traversing both avant-garde approaches and pop techniques. Such pioneering methods earned the group three hits Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, I’m a Man, and Questions 67 and 68 all longtime standards. Breaking down borders, the unified jazz and R&B strains speak to compositional possibilities that, arguably, initiated fusions entrance into the mainstream.

An entrenched sense of chemistry and cohesion is tethered to the landmark songwriting. Peter Cetera’s high tenor voice, Terry Kath’s trailblazing guitar, and the horn sections colorful accents function as a whole, not independently of one another. Indeed, it’s this amalgamation of such unified playing and personality that comes across with unprecedented vibrancy on Mobile Fidelity’s Gold CD. And it’s why Chicago Transit Authority is a must for fans of jazz, rock, pop, and/or R&B.

 Selections:

1. Introduction

2. Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?

3. Beginnings

4. Questions 67 and 68

5. Listen

6. Poem 58

7. Free Form Guitar

8. South Carolina Purples

9. I'm a Man

10. Prologue (August 29, 1968)

11. Someday (August 29, 1968)

12. Liberation

 Chicago Chicago II Numbered Limited Edition Hybrid Stereo SACD

Chicago's 1970 Album On Numbered Limited Edition Hybrid SACD from Mobile Fidelity! Mastered From Original Master Tapes!

1970 Double Album Ups Ante for Pop, Rock, and Jazz Fusion

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Longtime Audiophile Favorite Now Possesses Reference-Caliber Separation, Tonalities, Balance

Introduction of Classical Elements, Advanced Progressive Changes Reflect Original Band at its Peak

Includes the Smashes 25 Or 6 To 4 and Make Me Smile

Chicago shortened its name on its second album but altered little else. Improving upon the creative synthesis shown on its debut, the ensemble ups the ante for pop, rock, and jazz fusion on its 1970 sophomore set, introducing classical signatures as well as a penchant to delve even deeper into unchartered waters. Ambitious arrangements and brazen interplay remain, yet further addition of multifaceted melodies and seamless syncopation finds the group stepping up its songwriting. Witness 25 Or 6 To 4 and Make Me Smile, smashes that resonated with the mainstream.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD lavishes Chicago II with a clarity, transparency, and detail no previous digital edition has ever enjoyed. Pulling back the curtain on the recordings, this collectors version exponentially expands the soundstaging dimensions, imaging proportions, and dynamic information, allowing the songs to breathe and enjoy a roominess that enhances the stellar performances and interwoven structures. In particular, the harmonic vocals naturally carry and possess lifelike decay, never in competition with but always in sympathy with the telepathic instrumentation. Yes, the sonics here are as good as gold.

As reflected by the 7-part, 13-minute “Ballet for a Girl in Buchanan” suite, Chicago II draws from classical as well as traditional rock and jazz influences in presenting an experience that eviscerates disparate when pertaining to musical styles. Paired amidst progressive rhythms, a surfeit of driving horns and gritty R&B vocals again affords the band the privilege of rocking as hard as any of their contemporaries. And yet, due to the collectives diversity and prowess, Chicago also lends poignant sensitivity to ballads such as the prom favorite Colour My World.

The septet’s command of switching between aggressiveness and intensity, softness and sensuality, defines Chicago II. Such dichotomy is represented in the form of guitarist Terry Kath, a secret weapon whose contributions on Mobile Fidelity’s exquisite version emerge with newfound energy and emotionalism. Highlighted, too, are the group’s forays into thematic lyrics, with the politically barbed “It Better End Soon and grim Poem for the People speaking to the record’s original dedication that states With this album, we dedicate ourselves, our futures and our energies to the people of the revolution. And the revolution in all of its forms.

Features:

Super Audio CD

 SACD Stereo SACD Layer

This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!

 Numbered, Limited Edition

Mastered From Original Master Tapes

Selections:

1. Movin' In

2. The Road

3. Poem for the People

4. In the Country

5. Wake Up Sunshine

6. Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon

Make Me Smile

So Much to Say, So Much to Give

Anxiety's Moment

West Virginia Fantasies

Colour My World

To Be Free

Now More Than Ever

7. Fancy Colours

8. 25 or 6 to 4

9. Memories of Love

Prelude

A.M. Mourning

P.M. Mourning

Memories of Love

10. It Better End Soon

1st Movement

2nd Movement

3rd Movement

4th Movement

11. Where Do We Go from Here

Chicago Chicago VI Numbered Limited Edition Hybrid Stereo SACD

Chicago Chicago VI on Numbered Limited Edition Hybrid SACD from Mobile Fidelity! Re-Mastered From Original Master Tapes!

1973 Set Continues Fusion Group’s Commercial Dominance

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes: Reference-Caliber Separation, Tonalities, and Balance

First Chicago Album Recorded at Producer James William Guercio’s Caribou Studios

Includes the Top Ten Hits Just You N Me and Feelin Stronger Everyday.

And the hits kept coming. Just several years removed from its pioneering debut and follow-up efforts, Chicago found itself in an environment where musical tastes had radically shifted. Slightly streamlining its approach and continuing to develop irresistible melodies, the band again proves that there’s nothing quite as powerful as first-rate songwriting and cohesive playing on Chicago VI, a multiplatinum effort that spawned two Top Ten hits and positioned the group at the top of the mainstream pop-rock ladder.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s Hybrid SACD lavishes Chicago VI with a clarity, transparency, and detail no previous digital edition has ever enjoyed. As the first album to be recorded at producer/manager James William Guercio’s custom-built Caribou Studios, the 1973 set features remarkable harmonic extension, terrific separation, and finely sculpted images. All of these facets and more are improved and further brought into balance on this SACD, which throws the septet’s phenomenal interplay and skyscraping vocals into unopposed relief on wide, extra-deep soundstages.

Chicago VI can be viewed as a perfect summation of the band’s many strengths. While the extended arrangements are slimmed down, there’s no shortage of horn-stoked rock momentum or head-turning jazz/pop fusion. Guitarist Terry Kath, per usual, is a tremendous presence, spicing the funk-leaning Jenny with fretwork on par with that of Jimi Hendrix. Pianist Robert Lamm shows off by way of Critic’s Choice, a sardonic albeit delicately professional response to the groups detractors. Country accents arise via Peter Cetera’s In Terms of Two, an acoustic tune underpinned by the band’s strong chemistry. Then there are the hits.

Tapping into the era’s pop aesthetic, Feelin Stronger Every Day remains a quintessential merger of Chicago’s more aggressive early sides and its later, softer approach. Cetera’s vocals soar, triggering within the listener sentiments associated with the bittersweet experiences of moving on from a relationship. Similarly diverse, Just You N Me rides a trombone to the top of the charts, the group capitalizing on its insouciant mix of horns, harmonies, and crescendos. Anyway you look at it, Chicago VI is a pop triumph.

Features:

 Super Audio CD

 SACD Stereo SACD Layer

 This Hybrid SACD contains a 'Red Book' Stereo CD Layer which is playable on most conventional CD Players!

 Numbered, Limited Edition

Mastered From Original Master Tapes

Selections:

1. Critics' Choice

2. Just You 'N' Me

3. Darlin' Dear

4. Jenny

5. What's This World Comin' To

6. Something In This City Changes People

7. Hollywood

8. In Terms of Two

9. Rediscovery

10. Feelin' Stronger Every Day