James William Guercio
James William Guercio (born July 18, 1945) is an American music producer, musician, songwriter and director. He is best known for his work as the producer of Chicago's first eleven studio albums. He also produced the early recordings of The Buckinghams and Blood, Sweat & Tears. In the mid-1970s, he managed the Beach Boys and was a member of their backing band. Guercio has also worked in the motion picture industry as a producer and director. He is married to the former model Lucy Angle. Early life and career Guercio was born on July 18, 1945, in Chicago, Illinois, to James Guercio, Sr (1922-1998) and Grace Guercio (née Williams, 1923 – 2010). He is of Italian, German, Irish, Scottish, and English descent. He has four brothers and two sisters. As a child, he was friends with future Styx keyboardist and vocalist Dennis DeYoung. In the 1960s, Guercio moved to Los Angeles and began working as a session musician and songwriter. He played on several recordings, wrote Chad & Jeremy' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of United States cities by population, third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles. As the county seat, seat of Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area, often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a Chicago Portage, portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Mississippi River watershed. It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is a jazz song written by Joe Zawinul (lyrics by Gail Fisher) in 1966 for Cannonball Adderley and which appears on his album '' Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at "The Club"''. The song is the title track of the album and became a surprise hit in February 1967. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" went to #2 on the Soul chart and #11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. Original version The original version was performed by: Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone), Nat Adderley (cornet), Joe Zawinul (piano, electric piano), Victor Gaskin (bass) and Roy McCurdy (drums). The theme of the song is performed by Zawinul on a Wurlitzer electric piano previously used by Ray Charles. Musical analysis The first part of the theme is played twice and is completely made of notes from the major pentatonic scale of the first degree. The tune is in the key of B-flat major and has a 20-bar structure with four distinct sections. The chord progression is mainly made of dominant-seventh chords o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers
''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers'' is the Firesign Theatre's third comedy album, released by Columbia Records in July 1970. In 1983, ''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide'' called it "the greatest comedy album ever made". It was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1971 by the World Science Fiction Society. In 2005, the US Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry and called the Firesign Theatre "the Beatles of comedy." Track listing All tracks by The Firesign Theatre Side one #"This Side" – 22:16 Side two #"The Other Side" – 24:12Firesign Theatre. ''Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers''. Columbia Records, 1970. Detailed track information and commentary This was The Firesign Theatre's first album wherein a single theme took up both sides of the album. In Phil Austin's notes to the 1987 Mobile Fidelity re-release of this album he says "''Dwarf'' is the story of the five ages of Man and in particula ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Firesign Theatre
The Firesign Theatre (also known as the Firesigns) was an American surreal humour, surreal comedy troupe who first appeared on November 17, 1966, in a live performance on the Los Angeles radio program ''Radio Free Oz'' on station KPFK FM broadcasting, FM. They continued appearing on ''Radio Free Oz'', which later moved to KRLA 1110 AM broadcasting, AM and then KMET (FM), KMET FM, through February 1969. They produced fifteen album, record albums and a single (music), 45 rpm single under contract to Columbia Records from 1967 through 1976, and had three nationally syndicated radio programs: ''The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour'' in 1970 on KPPC-FM; and ''Dear Friends (radio program), Dear Friends'' (1970–1971) and ''Let's Eat!'' (1971–1972) on KPFK. They also appeared in front of live audiences, and continued to write, perform, and record on other labels, occasionally taking sabbaticals during which they wrote or performed solo or in smaller groups. The Firesign Theatre wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Moondog
Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), known professionally as Moondog, was an American composer, musician, performer, music theoretician, poet and inventor of musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer, his prolific work widely drew inspiration from jazz, classical, Native American music which he had become familiar with as a child,Scotto, R. M., Hardin, L., Reich, S., Glass, P., Gibson, J., Jordan, P., & Lakatos, S. (2007). ''Moondog, the Viking of 6th Avenue: The authorized biography''. Los Angeles, Calif: Process. p. 45. . and Latin American music. His strongly rhythmic, contrapuntal pieces and arrangements later influenced composers of minimal music, in particular American composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Due to an accident, Moondog was blind from the age of 16. He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1972, during which time he was often found on Sixth Avenue, between 52nd and 55th Streets, selling records, composing, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chicago V
''Chicago V'' is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Chicago. It was released on July 10, 1972, by Columbia Records. It is the group's first single album release, after having released three consecutive double albums and a four-disc box set of live material. History Following the release of '' Chicago III'' in 1971, the group changed from producing double albums, with many songs arranged in extended suites, in favor of more concise tracks on a single album. It is often considered the group's return-to-basics as it has a sound resembling their first album, ''Chicago Transit Authority.'' ''Chicago V'' is also notable for Robert Lamm's prolific songwriting; Eight out of its ten tunes are composed solely by him. Terry Kath wrote and sang the album's final track "Alma Mater", which showcased his acoustic guitar abilities. The song "A Hit by Varèse" is a tribute to French-American composer Edgard Varèse. This would be the last album not to have any compositions from P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chicago II
''Chicago'' (retroactively known as ''Chicago II'') is the second studio album by the American rock band Chicago, released on January 26, 1970, by Columbia Records. Like their debut album, ''Chicago Transit Authority'' (1969), it is a double album. It was their first album released under the name Chicago—the band's prior name, Chicago Transit Authority, was changed due to a threatened lawsuit from the actual mass-transit operator of the same name—and the first to use the cursive Chicago logo that the band used as its logo. ''Chicago'' was commercially successful. It reached No. 4 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart, and produced three top ten singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in April of the same year of its release, and certified Platinum in 1991. The album received three Grammy Award nominations at the 1971 Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Vocal ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Down Beat
''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music, also called "beat one", or the first beat of a musical measure. ''DownBeat'' publishes results of annual surveys of both its readers and critics in a variety of categories. The ''DownBeat'' Jazz Hall of Fame includes winners from both the readers' and critics' poll. The results of the readers' poll are published in the December issue, those of the critics' poll in the August issue. Since 2008, the Hall of Fame also includes winners from the Veterans Committee. Popular features of ''DownBeat'' magazine include its "Reviews" section where jazz critics, using a '1-Star to 5-Star' maximum rating system, rate the latest musical recordings, vintage recordings, and books; artic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious and significant awards in the music industry in the United States, and thus the show is frequently called "music's biggest night". The trophy depicts a gilded gramophone, and the original idea was to call them the "Gramophone Awards". The Grammys are the first of the Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and are considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards with the Academy Awards (for films), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theater). The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. After the 2011 ceremony, the Recording Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 67th Ann ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Walter Parazaider
Walter Parazaider (born March 14, 1945) is an American woodwind musician who is a founding member of the rock band Chicago. He is best known for being one-third of Chicago's brass/woodwind section alongside Lee Loughnane and James Pankow. Parazaider is a multi-instrumentalist. He plays a wide variety of wind instruments, including saxophone, flute, and clarinet. He also occasionally plays guitar. Early life Parazaider was born in Maywood, Illinois, and began playing the clarinet at the age of 9. As a teenager, his growing talent was being groomed for a career as a professional orchestral musician, and he gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in classical clarinet performance from DePaul University. Career with Chicago Inspired by the Beatles hit " Got to Get You Into My Life", Parazaider became enamored of the idea of creating a rock 'n' roll band with horns. Early practice sessions at Parazaider's house included guitarist Terry Kath and drummer Danny Seraphine, who were both fri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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DePaul University
DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Vincent de Paul, Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Catholic theology, Catholic university in terms of enrollment in North America. Following in the footsteps of its founders, DePaul places special emphasis on recruiting first-generation students and others from disadvantaged backgrounds. DePaul's two campuses are located in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Lincoln Park and the Chicago Loop, Loop. DePaul is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The university enrolls around 14,500 undergraduates and about 7,900 graduate/law students. In 2017, about 90% of DePaul's students commuted or lived off campus. Th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Musical ensemble, bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All-Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar, and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as compact discs (CDs) replaced LP record, LPs and cassette (format), cassettes as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it, he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he res ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |