CHICAGO – O Christmas Three (2012)

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Christmas has arrived early as one of America’s most successful rock bands, CHICAGO, and producer Phil Ramone have teamed up for the release of the band’s third, and perhaps most rocking, holiday recording yet with “O Christmas Three” — also known as Chicago XXXIII.

The band is playing with the album’s name (tree/three) as they recorded two holiday season LP’s during the nineties.

“O Christmas Three” was published by themselves for last year’s Xmas, and now Rhino Records is picking up the recording for a US national retail release.

Jason Scheff, Lou Pardini, Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider, Tris Imboden, Keith Howland and Drew Hester treat us to 14 Christmas and holiday favorites that have been “Chicagoized” with that famous sound we’ve all come to know.

There’s the Chicago typical smooth jazz / West Coast AOR sounds to their more rocking approach on these tunes.

The band cranks up the guitars along with the brass on a rollicking cover of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”.

We have guest performances on some tracks, being my favorite the contribution of fellow classic rockers America for a tunefully joyous version of the traditional carol “I Saw Three Ships”.

Chicago wrote a new song for the recording: the playful “Rockin’ and Rollin’ on Christmas Day” with the great Steve Cropper on guest guitars. An album highlight.

Of course there’s softer moments with some jazzy Chicago’s overtones in “I’ll be Home for Christmas” and “My Favorite Things”, arranged by Robert Lamm.

And the obligatory ballad (after all it wouldn’t be a Chicago record without a power ballad, but there’s only one on this CD, as most of the album is mid and uptempo), “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” where Jason Scheff sings beautifully.

There have been here many requests for Christmas albums, and I think “O Christmas Three” fulfils the quality requirements.

This is not your typical Holiday album, it’s essentially a Chicago album, doing Christmas songs, yes, but ‘Chicago-ized’. The music runs the gamut of their long and storied career as Chicago has explored about every style of music, from jazz-rock to horn-filled Soul, L.A. WestCoast AOR and Rock ‘n roll.

Happy Holidays!

BUY IT !

www.amazon.com/Chicago-XXXIII-O-Christmas-Three/dp/B008VBSR5A