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Chicago XXXVI: Now, sometimes stylized as "NOW" Chicago XXXVI or Now: Chicago XXXVI, is the twenty-fourth studio album, and thirty-sixth overall by Chicago. It was written and recorded in 2013–2014, and was released on July 4, 2014. Aside from the occasional few new tracks found in the band's many compilation and cover albums, Now is the band's first full album of new compositions since 2006's Chicago XXX,[1] (not including Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus, which was released in 2008 but recorded in 1993).[2] This album has the first original Chicago credits for veteran musicians Walfredo Reyes, Jr. and Lou Pardini, since joining the band.

Chicago XXXVI: Now
Studio album by Chicago
Released	July 4, 2014
Recorded	2013 (2013)–2014 (2014)
Genre	Rock, adult contemporary
Length	50:27
Label	Chicago Records II
Producer	Chicago, Hank Linderman
Chicago chronology
Chicago XXXV: The Nashville Sessions (2013) Chicago XXXVI: Now (2014) Chicago at Symphony Hall (2015)

Production

The album was produced in a geographically distributed, "just-in-time"[2] fashion. Noted by the band's cofounder Robert Lamm as "a very sort of disjointed way to work",[1] Now's production model was largely enabled by a fully mobile system of the band's own design called "The Rig". It was recorded primarily in hotels and secondarily in studios along the band's American tour, constructed mostly from each musician's isolated performances between concert dates, and then synchronized via a private Web portal site for final overdubbing by coordinating producer and engineer Hank Linderman. The band's songwriting members are each respectively credited as each track's "supervising producer".[3]

Even throughout the album's year-long development, audio preview clips of each track were progressively released to the public online — some before they were completed by the addition of the band's signature brass section.[2] The first preview, "Naked in the Garden of Allah", was released in April 2013, the album was finally made available for preorder in April 2014, and was released July 2014.[4]

The ultimate goal was to make music — and now we're doing that. We're going to see how far we can go with this. Thank goodness we have 46 years of track record behind us. We're just trying to grow the legacy even more.

— Chicago cofounder, Lee Loughnane, on Now[1]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]

Beginning in April 2013, the Something Else! webzine engaged the band's progressively released preview clips. They said that "Naked in the Garden of Allah" "reanimates" the band's early "cutting" political messages, wherein "the lyrics, and the song's turbulent textures, speak to both the horrors of war and to Lamm's enduring pleas for peace".[4] "Watching All the Colors" is said to resemble Robert Lamm's 2008 solo sessions from The Bossa Project, and "Something's Coming, I Know" "rumbles along with a more scuffed-up cadence — until it's broken up by this sun-streaked, Beatlesque bridge".[2] Recorded on the tour bus, Tris Imboden's drums on "Crazy Happy" are said to "sound modern and appropriate for the song and mesh seamlessly". They complement the album's percussion, as provided by "the great Walfredo Reyes Jr."[6]

It entered the American Billboard 200 at number 82.[7]

AllMusic's Stephen Erlewine assigned 3.5 stars out of 5, calling the album "united in sound and sensibility, anchored upon the splashy horn-fueled jazz-pop they pioneered in the '70s but usually returning to the slick professional adult contemporary of the '80s", with songs that are "big, smooth, cheerful, and bright, emphasizing melody over instrumental interplay, explicitly evoking the past without re-creating it".[5]

Track listing

Personnel

Chicago

• Robert Lamm – keyboards (2, 4, 5, 7, 8), horn arrangements (2, 4, 7, 8, 11), synthesizer (3), synth guitar (8), programming (10), lead vocals (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11), backing vocals (1, 3), arrangements
• Lee Loughnane – trumpet (2, 5, 9-11), flugelhorn (3, 4, 6-8, 10), horn arrangements (3), horn transcriptions (5), lead vocals (7), backing vocals (1, 3, 7)
• James Pankow – trombone (2, 5-11), horn arrangements (5)
• Walter Parazaider – alto saxophone (7, 8, 10)
• Jason Scheff – bass guitar (2-11), synth bass (4), keyboards (4), acoustic guitars (6), acoustic piano (6), lead vocals (1, 4, 6, 9), backing vocals (1-3, 5, 7, 9), arrangements
• Tris Imboden – drums (2-11)
• Keith Howland – lead guitar (1), guitars (2-5, 7-11), Rhodes piano (9), horn arrangements (9), lead vocals (9), backing vocals (1, 5), arrangements
• Lou Pardini – keyboards (3, 9), organ (9), lead vocals (1-3, 8, 11), backing vocals (1, 5, 9)
• Walfredo Reyes, Jr. – percussion (2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11)

Additional musicians

• Jeff Babko – horn arrangements (9)
• Luis Conte – percussion (1, 6)
• Dorian Crozier – drums (1)
• Daniel Fornero – trumpet (1), flugelhorn (1)
• Trent Gardner – horn arrangements (3-5, 10), trombone (5), synthesizers (5)
• Scheila Gonzalez – baritone saxophone (1), tenor saxophone (1)
• Ray Herrmann – alto saxophone (2), soprano saxophone (2), tenor saxophone (5, 9)
• Harry Kim – trumpet (1), flugelhorn (1), horn arrangements (1)
• Larry Klimas – alto saxophone (3, 4, 11)
• Nick Lane – horn transcriptions (2, 4, 7, 8, 11), trombone (3, 4)
• Hank Linderman – guitars (2), backing vocals (10), arrangements
• Steve Lu – synthesizers (6)
• John McFee – fiddle (10)
• Michael O'Neil – guitars (1)
• Tim Pierce – electric guitars (6)
• Philippe Saisse – keyboards (1)
• George Shelby – tenor saxophone (1)
• John Van Eps – synthesizers (11), programming (11), arrangements
• Arturo Velasco – trombone (1)
• Verdine White – bass guitar (1)
• David Williams – guitars (1)

Production

Charts

Chart (2014)	Peak position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[8]	56
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[9]	100
US Billboard 200[10]	82

References

External links

• A recording session for "NOW" Chicago XXXVI on YouTube
• Robert Lamm of Chicago on "Friends with Benefits" on 95.9 WATD on YouTube, mentioning the production of NOW

На других языках

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- [en] Chicago XXXVI: Now

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[es] Chicago XXXVI: Now

Chicago XXXVI: Now es un álbum de estudio de la banda de rock estadounidense Chicago, publicado el 4 de julio de 2014. Fue escrito y grabado entre 2013 y 2014. Para la grabación del mismo la banda estaba conformada por Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow y Walter Parazaider, acompañados de más de diez músicos de sesión adicionales. También es el último álbum de estudio que presenta al bajista / vocalista Jason Scheff, saxofonista Walter Parazaider, y baterista de toda la vida Tris Imboden; Scheff dejó la banda después de 31 años, dos años después desde que citó "razones de salud familiar" a principios de mayo de 2016 con Jeff Coffey reemplazándolo como su sucesor a mediados de octubre (antes de que Coffey fuera sucedido posteriormente por el tenor vocalista canadiense Neil Donell y el bajista Brett Simons a fines de 2018), Parazaider también se retiró de las giras debido a una afección cardíaca al año siguiente en 2017, ya que la banda ya no lo incluye como miembro en su sitio web actualizado a principios de julio de 2018 (aunque ahora aparecería en el "Tribute to Founding Members" de la banda junto con Cetera, Kath y Seraphine), Imboden dejó la banda en 2018 para concentrarse más en su tiempo familiar.

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