“Free Flight” is only 25 seconds long and, if memory serves me correctly, appears to be the first track on a Chicago album since 1977’s XI to feature only original members of this formerly great band.
Chicago’s horn trio of James Pankow, Walt Parazaider and Lee Loughnane are the spotlighted players, and considering how superfluous the horn section had become by the time they released 1986’s Chicago 18, it’s very surprising they got their own little ditty here.
The Pankow-composed track is entirely instrumental, and sounds like it could be a snippet that was meant to be pasted on top of another song but never used. By pasted, I mean it’s been my understanding that the horn charts were recorded independently from the basic track and dubbed on top later.
I can hear “Free Flight” as part of an instrumental break in a finished song, or even as the introduction to one. The arrangement is catchy, but only a little. It would be interesting to see what the results would have been if Chicago had fleshed this out into something more substantial instead of just filler.
Chicago 18 is not my favorite album, but I was glad to hear this little reminder of what the band once was.
- How Billy Joel’s ‘Turn the Lights Back On’ Recalls Past Glories - March 22, 2024
- ‘George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle’ by Philip Norman (2023): Books - January 10, 2024
- Yes, ‘Now and Then’ Is an Actual Beatles Song - November 6, 2023
