AMG Review of Great: Chicago in Concert

Bradley Torreano
All Music Guide

Consisting of their biggest jazz-rock hits from the first stage of their career, Chicago's In Concert is a good (if muddy) live album that shows the band at their creative peak. Although they would go on to score much bigger hits with a much simpler sound, they still had a streak of experimentalism running here that would somehow be eliminated through time. The album has average sound quality, but the performance is incredibly tight and well arranged, making it easy to ignore how bad the vocals can sound at times. Given the short running time and availability of Chicago live material, this is easy to pass up, but those who do buy it will find a confident and powerful performance from a band who never gave this aspect of their sound enough respect.