Tuesday night, my girlfriend took me to see Chicago and The Doobie Brothers at the Bank Of America Pavilion in Boston for my birthday.

Great show. I was really impressed with Jason Sheff on bass and vocals. I really hadn't paid much attention to Chicago (one of my favorite bands and one of THE greatest and most successful bands to ever have emerged from the U.S.) since the departure of Pete Cetera in 1985.

Jason covered Cetera's parts so well. In fact, I never realized until Tuesday night how good a vocalist Jason is!

Jason's father, Jerry Sheff, was Elvis Presley's bass player for many years as well as a noted studio musician.

While searching the internet for additional information in catching-up with the band, I came across Jason's myspace page
on which he has this astounding a cappella version of "Stairway To Heaven" posted. I haven't been moved by an a cappella arrangement like this since Billy Joel's "The Longest Time". It's really something to hear!

I wanted to share this with everyone. Here's his myspace link:

myspace.com/jasonscheff

His other tunes are good as well!

The Doobie Brothers are another great American band and it was a thrill to see Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston still tearin' it up and in great form!

At the end of the show both bands played together, jamming on 25 or 6 to 4, Takin It To The Streets, and a number of other songs.

Jason took over in 1985 when he was only 23! There's something to be said for that. At that time Pete Cetera was 41.

The Herald has always been a tabloid, worthy of the Enquirer.

Lou,
I know what you mean about Scheff's bass playing versus Cetera's.

Having grown-up listening, studying and even transcribing a number of Cetera's bass parts, I'm intimately familiar with his playing style.

Cetera's vocals seemed to get better and better the more he sang over the years along with his songwriting.

One of my favorite arrangements they do is "Goodbye" of off Chicago V, circa 1972—a Robert Lamm composition. The tune starts out in 6, changes into 7 during the verses (with sort of a latin, bossa nova feel), into 4 during the chorus and back to 6 for the solos and the outro. The bass swings beautifully the whole time and every note rings so tastefully.

I transcribed the bass for that tune years ago. It was a great deal of work and an exercise in ear training.

The more I examined the piece, the more I was impressed with
the depth and sophistication of the musicianship behind it. I remember thinking, "Wow, they did that!" And they did it while they were still in their twenties for the most part.

As good a musician Jason Scheff is, he certainly isn't like Pete Cetera to be sure. Yet, the performance I bore witness to Tuesday night did not warrant the treatment doled-out by the Herald. He did a fine job!

What those guys did (Chicago) in those early years back in the 70s' was very special and born out of a great chemistry that they shared when they were young, inspired and on fire that I don't think even they could replicate at this stage in their lives and career—now well in their 60s'.

FYI,... They're up at Meadowbrook on Sunday. Should be a good show.

I agree Mike, even Cetera wasn't playing his own style of bass over the last 3-4 years in the band due to the direction of the writing and the slick sound of early to mid-80's production.
As I said, Jason is a hell of a player - I wasn't comparing one's playing to the other, my thing was the approach he takes to covering the old Chicago material.....not bad by any means, but it isn't the same for me.

The entire Terry Kath era of Chicago was a great body of work. They had some decent songs afterwards that fans of the older stuff might enjoy, but never came close to capturing the sound or vibe that the original lineup had.
As great a musician as Bill Champlin is, his voice is just wrong on the songs Terry sang. And Danny Seraphine had such a signature sound and style, losing him really hurt their live sound - it's almost as though Robert Lamm and the horn section are playing in a tribute band. It's hard could lose 2 of the 3 original singers, and the original guitar, bass, and drums, and maintain the integrity of the original sound.
I've seen them 6 times over the past 8 years, the guys they have now play extremely well and still put on a great show.
For a big fan like me, it might not be the same, but it is still worth the price of admission to see them.

When I was just a kid one of my older brothers asked me to go see Chicago. I was into nothing but hard rock and blues back then. "A horn band?" I didn't even want to go. That was for wimps. I went anyways.
Boy, did I get turned around!
They kicked my ass.
This was the original Chicago band with Terry Kath and Danny Seraphine, and let me tell ya, they rocked the joint.
Kath did this free form guitar thing, kind of like Hendrix, and I almost lost my mind. I also remember that they announced their soon to be released new song 'Saturday In The Park."
(that's how long ago this was)

Check out this clip if you're a Terry Kath fan.
youtube.com/watch?v=j-lortub5...

Later that year I saw Edgar Winter and The White Trash, and it was those two concerts that lead me to starting a band with a horn section, which was completely different from all the bands my friends were in.
Moral of the story: Remain open to all kinds of music.
My current love of jazz is a direct result of seeing that Chicago show back in the mid 70's.

I always thought it was quite funny to see the 3 horn players in Chicago all playing horn parts on synths in the 80's.

Did the record company keep them on so they could still capatialize on the fact that Chicago was still a "horn" band, even though all the horn parts were synth'd??

Problem is, they started having David Foster write all their sappy stuff. Chartwise, it's their best stuff, but man talk about going from "25 or 6 to 4" to "Then along comes a woman".

Snip-snip here, snip-snip there, and a couple of tra-la-las.
They took Chicago's "sack" away, in the merry, merry land of Oz.

More like stone of "Sissy-puss"