The King and I

As the super-group Chicago gets ever nearer to the point that we all must arrive in our lives (Robert Lamm  has left the road due to serious health issues, and Jimmy is taking ever more well-deserved time off as well–HEY! …none of us is gettin’ any younger!), I wanted to take yet another moment to say thank you. To the group, its history, its legacy, the music, the artists, and specifically, James Carter Pankow. The King of rock trombone, one of our greatest and most thoughtful songwriters, and just one of the coolest cats on the planet.

This post is made up of excerpts from various things I’ve written and shared on this subject since around 2017. Yep, I think about this guy and what he has done quite a bit, Y’all.

And I am forever grateful for all of it. 

So without further ado, here are some of my thoughts of gratitude for The King and I…

The 2023 Version of Chicago

(FROM 2023)

Quite often I post on Facebook about not only my 50-year love of the music of Chicago (the group has been around for 56 years, but I only became aware of them in 1973) but specifically just how much the writing and trombone playing — along with the electric stage persona) of Jimmy Pankow has been an influence on my personal style — both as a trombonist and a writer. Upon seeing them again on Tuesday (5/9/23) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and spending some time backstage with Ray Herrmann, Lee Loughnane, and the man himself, Jimmy Pankow, I was reminded once again of just how important this musical entourage, and specifically James is in my life.

Jimmy and me backstage at and earlier show at beautiful Red Rocks in Colorado, 2017

In the early 1970s, a deeply eclectic offering of music was available to everyone in my community in Hattiesburg, Mississippi via the all-inclusive AM and FM radio stations of the day. While there were indeed “pay for play” scandals here-and-there, the DJs and program directors chose things that THEY thought was cool in multiple genres and disciplines and put it ALL on the air. The biz hadn’t become so style-name specific in those days (creating isolated “brand” specific silos as is the case currently), so a typical day of programming would include what we would now describe as rock, pop, soul, R&B, blues, funk, heavy metal, prog rock, and more. Because of this wide-open gumbo of groove goodness, I was exposed to CTA, and soon thereafter hooked for life on the entire Chicago experience.

In those days, (the early 1970s) I was just starting out in my education as a musician with trombone as my voice of choice. When I was presented with the “rock band with horns” and told that it was the “hippest and newest thing” by the radio powers-that-be, I took notice BIG TIME” Here was sticky, catchy, grooving rocked out fare with a Beatles kind of ancestry…but the overall texture was TROMBONE! What-WHAT?!

Just as important as the wonderful voices of Robert, Peter, and Terry, Danny’s solid jazz-tinged drumming, and Terry’s EPIC guitar playing was a horn section with a prominent trombone mix! The music was intricate, timely, creative, and recorded with an obviously high level of craft. The whole thing imprinted on my heart and soul INSTANTLY! I bought every LP when it came out and spent hours basking in each one learning every note of every track while playing along with King James. Glorious!

The King in all his glory! ...This was at a concert in Mississippi (2019) where I brought my brother Andy, and my friends Jon Fairbank, Larry Osborne, Ray Hale, and Randy Dickerson to go backstage and say hello.
The CATS at the 2019 show: top pic Randy Dickerson, me and Andy. Middle pic: Me, Jon Fairbank, Larry Osborne, Ray Hale. Bottom pic: my brother Andy, Me, and Ray Herrmann. That middle picture are the guys who were in a garage band with me back in the day (along with Randy) where we played Chicago transcriptions!

Which brings us to just what Jimmy has meant to my life and my career. As far as how James and the band kept me going through some truly terrible times in my high school years, check out this ditty that I wrote here on the website “Medium:” Hattiesburg, Pine Straw, and Jimmy Pankow.

As time moved on, and I went deep into the early years of my career, I first met Jimmy and the band back in 1987 in Dallas, Texas, when I was getting my Master’s degree at the University of North Texas. Being the current lead trombonist with UNT’s famed One O’Clock Lab Band and a former soloist and writer with Maynard Ferguson, bought me the opportunity to go backstage and hang with the band. It was like meeting the Beatles and I was in heaven!

Over the years via a happy confluence of events such as my writing a big article celebrating Jimmy for the International Trombone Journal, and my taking the One O’Clock Lab Band when I followed Neil Slater as its director, to see a show with a backstage hang, Jimmy and I became fast friends. We admire one another–to the point that he told my friends at the Milwaukee concert that we have a “mutual ass-kissing society.” Jimmy even recorded some solos on my project Concerto for Folded Space: The Pank! (Soundcloud) He also wrote the liner notes for my jazz fusion project “Phröntrange The High Road”

When your hero writes the liner notes to your album! (from the project "The High Road: Steve Wiest and Phröntrange)

But what I was really reminded of at the concert this week (2023) was Jimmy’s SOUND.

He has two very distinct and iconic sounds that have become the heart and soul of my own approach: his horn writing, and his trombone playing. In the realm of his horn writing, at an impossibly young age, he created a new sound. And that was right when I started to pick up on it and followed its development all the way up to the present day. Not only did he write in such a way that the trombone took precedence, but his voicings were like nothing else on the radio, and highly effective (the iconic #9 sound spelled out 3, #9, b7 being one of my favorites) When you add to that mix his fat, bold, loud, pure trombone sound you really have something…in fact you have something that has influenced countless trombonists ever since. And it was on full display and sounding better than ever last Tuesday. In fact, the band Chicago just released their 36th album and sound better than they EVER have! Truly, the best live show on the road right now.

That SOUND!

All of us have people we admire, be it a big brother, younger siblings, a celebrity, teachers, an artist, or a friend. As creative folk across all genres, we also all have mentors and role models, people that inspire us and help to give us direction. How lucky am I to have all of the above wrapped up into one fiery force of nature that is the one-and-only world’s greatest rock trombone player?!

Very lucky indeed Y’all. Very lucky indeed.

AN ADDENDUM FROM 2025

This past summer (July 4, 2025 at Milwaukee Summerfest), I saw one of the more recent versions of the band without Robert Lamm. Jimmy and Lee were there as the sole (or should I say SOUL) original members, along with my pal Ray Herrmann, and the amazing vocals of Neil Donell, along with the explosive drums/percussion team of Walfredo Reyes Jr, and Ray Yslas. I didn’t know the rest of the members, but collectively they sounded GREAT! 

I was playing with a stellar Milwaukee band led by Matt Antoniewicz and Barb Stephan, and we got to be one of the opening acts for Chicago at Summerfest. We went on right before Chicago and therefore Jimmy and Ray were standing right behind us while we played. I had a trombone solo where I went ballistic with high notes (surprise!) and then twirled my trombone with a serious Pankowian flair! The King himself waved on in approval and I was in my GLORY!

Afterward, Ray told me (in jest of course) that “Jimmy’s lawyer would be contacting me about that trombone spin move”, and then at the end of the night, Jimmy and I gave each other a big ol’ hug while espousing our shared admiration for what we both do.

And really folks… how cool is that?!

So if that show really was goodbye…an end of an era, I am totally good with it. How EPIC to have come full circle from being that young lad doing the best he could with a tough situation in Hattiesburg, Mississippi all the way to this 68-year-old trombonist sharing the stage with the KING: James Pankow and ending the night celebrating that Voodoo that Weedoo together.

In the final analysis folks… life IS grand indeed! 

Here's some Jimmy Snippets from the July 4, 2025 Show:

8 thoughts on “The King and I”

  1. Teri D'Angelo

    What can you say about James Carter Pankow? Jimmy is the best composer and trombonist there is. At the age of 20 he wrote Ballet For A Girl In Buchanan a piece that’s so brilliant it’s my favorite Jimmy Pankow song to this day! It’s produced two of Chicago’s best songs Make Me Smile and the very short but beautiful Colour My World. He’s a sweet soul who signed a picture for me at the Chicago Convention that someone brought to him. I sent a little note telling him how I wished I could meet him. Soon after I received a call from a girl in the publicists office saying Jimmy would like my address! I was floored. Jimmy was gracious enough to send a proper picture of himself telling me to stay strong. I will cherish that forever ❤️ Thank you King James for being such a big part of Chicago and giving me the ride of my life ❤️

    Reply
  3. Chris Braymen

    Beautiful thoughts, Steve. The guy’s been a huge mentor to so many. The sheer scope of the WORK is overwhelming. 56 years since that first album? Really? Only recently have I begun to understand the years of WORK undertaken before then. Playing clubs in Chicago, entertaining people, and writing hipped up versions of cover tunes to keep the interest and the artistry high. The music evolved from an authentic place, and it came with a deep harmonic knowledge and respect evident in the prolific horn writing. I’m so happy that you’ve befriended the man, and can put voice to the history there; his, yours, and all of ours. The music feels heady and timeless these days. Whenever I play one of the early tracks I’m always struck by the thought, “How old were they when they recorded this? Wrote these harmonies? Took this solo? Crafted this blend?” It is amazing. No wonder folks still come out in droves to experience it! Thanks for the 2025 clips and the insights!

    Reply
    1. Steve Wiest

      All I can say my friend is “I know, right?” 🤠

      MAN! We have been inspired by this cat FOREVER! I still have such fond memories of you and I on the Jar listening to their music, and being thrilled with their “newest” record of those years (1982) I agree with everything that you said, and I feel the very same way when listening to their stuff.

      Young, YOUNG Cats making GENIUS music. Dayum! What a treat to be blessed with this stuff for over FIFTY SIX years. Incredible.

      Reply
  4. Alan McElroy

    Thanks for the post about Jimmy. As a fellow trombonist for 71 years, Jimmy is one of my biggest influences. He’s 14 months younger than I am. I first heard CTA on the radio in July 1969. I had gotten out of the Army in April 1969 (3rd Army Band 3 years) and put my horn away. Wasn’t sure what the future as a musician held for me at the time. Then I heard Beginnings on the radio, and though Holy shit, THAT’s IT. Sat In with a band playing R&B in August, they hired me on the spot cause I knew all the tunes, they had just learned Beginnings and threw that at me, which I played just from hearing the record. The point I’m making is Jimmy is DIRECTLY responsible for my getting back into music and I’ve been playing ever since. Currently in a Chicago tribute band, Chi Town Transit Authority, channeling Jimmy nightly. His writing and playing are still an inspiration. People come to hear THEIR music we get to emulate, an honor for every member of Chi Town, especially me. My respect for Jimmy’s playing and writing is endless. I would dearly love to meet him simply to let him know how he has influenced my very long career playing and Travelling the world playing the trombone. Thank you Jimmy.

    Reply

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