Chicago capitalizes on fusing old with new

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

"I live in fear of being a nostalgia band," said Robert Lamm, keyboardist and lead singer of the band, since nostalgia often translates to has-been.

Lamm, largely responsible for launching the classic Chicago sound via such hits as "Saturday in the Park," "25 or 6 to 4,"

"Beginnings" and "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?," is heading to Hawai'i for the group's first concert here in 20 years, at 7:30 p.m. today at the Waikiki Shell.

"The way we get around being or feeling like a nostalgia band is to continually put in a new wrinkle in what we do," Lamm said. "Fans want to hear the old hits; and songs we haven't played in a long time are occasionally brought back in new acoustic arrangements. We're at a point in our career where it's an easy temptation to fall into the nostalgia camp. But only if you don't put in the effort to update."

Lamm, speaking last week from his recording studio in Santa Monica, Calif., said that the declining membership among the fraternity of rock triggers him to thinking about his own mortality.

"John Phillips' (of the Mamas and the Papas) passing the other day gets you thinking about your own situation as you approach middle age. I grew up listening to the Mamas and the Papas, so his death made a profound impact," said Lamm, who declined to give his age ("you can ask, I won't answer").

And the demise of an earlier band member Terry Kath and the passing of his friend Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys have had a sobering effect on the way he views his life and livelihood.

"When our own Terry Kath passed away, it was our first brush with mortality," he said. "Most of us were in our 20s and 30s at the time; but in retrospect, this was all part of life.

"Then my good friend Carl Wilson died. I had done an album with him and Gerry Beckley of America. It made me step back and think about doing away with the more frivolous activities one does in the way we travel and live, and pay a little more attention to what's around you, embracing who you are and who and what are essential in your whole life: your family, for instance. This now has become essential and a philosophic part of my life."

Lamm's goal is to keep relevant and resonant, and to be creative, to keep growing artistically.

That's why the band, in keeping with the tradition of naming its albums only by the group's name and chronological number, recorded "Chicago Live 26," the newest CD, which capsulizes and perpetuates the group's current sound, a fusion of newer members alongside the originals, with a potent live rendering of some classic signature songs that now play to a new, expanding fan base. It's simultaneously old and new, a synergy of yesterday and today.

"I think it's the best album we've ever done, with some of our best songs ever written. The unconscious motivation is that the album is a mirror of who we are now," said Lamm.

Lamm said that fans often ask about former Chicago member Peter Cetera, the renegade who struck out on his own about 15 years ago, who has done well as a recording soloist (his newest CD, "Another Perfect World," is just out).

"Some people ask about a reunion, but once Peter left, that was it," Lamm said. "I saw him on a VH-1 Behind the Music show and he said it best himself: 'When you get a divorce, you don't hang around with your ex-wife.' He left for a specific reason, to launch a solo career apart from us, and there's no animosity. We've always wished him well."

Lamm said the Hawai'i concert is the last of a brief spring tour for the band. Over the next two months, Lamm will be working on music for "Chicago 27," which is expected to be recorded this fall.

Lamm said that he believes Chicago has endured because of the band's ability to deliver its music in live concerts, with fidelity that alternately preserves the original versions and at the same time improves or enhances them.

"So many pop and rock acts these days can't perform live without substantial pre-recorded material, or even lip-synching," he said, naming no names. "Singing to tracks, or working with computer-generated music, has become quite common.

"With Chicago, it's always been about music; we're live musicians. We know how and love to perform. Over the years, we've become better and better in live performances. That's one of the things that keeps going for us. But we're always renewing audiences, age-wise. I look into an audience often and when

I see someone 18 or 20, I realize they're seeing the real thing. We see the awe in the faces because of the staying power of our music, with songs like '25 or 6 to 4,' which, to me, signifies the strength of our songwriting."

Work aside, Lamm can't wait to soak up the pleasures of the Islands.

"I get over (to Hawai'i) just about every year," he said. "I like the way it smells. I am a visual person, so the beauty of Hawai'i is ingrained in my memory. But there's something about the way it smells that captures me. Puts me in another place."