I came across this post on one of the Terry Kath pages I follow on FB. It was posted by Tim Jessup, who describes himself as a mix engineer working for Chicago.

I hope it's true.

"In 1970, Chicago was invited to perform during the record breaking Isle of Wight music festival in the U.K. Chicago's fiery performance and extended jams, including iconic performances by Terry Kath, Peter Cetera and Robert Lamm, were recorded by the Pye Studios remote truck, out of London. In September, I transferred that iconic 1" 8-track recording onto my Pro Tools system on behalf of Rhino Records and the Warner Music Group. After extensive restoration and nearly three months of mixing, I turned Chicago's 8-track 1" tape recording into nearly 50 isolated tracks of audio, to create an extremely detailed HD presentation of Chicago's 1970 performance. Never before released, the band's iconic performance was mastered today in Los Angeles and will be released before Christmas, as part of Rhino Record's upcoming 50th Anniversary box set of previously unreleased live Chicago recordings. The mix includes the entire 90 minute performance on two CDs. Robert Lamm has called it an "enhanced mix" as it sounds like a modern mix of a vintage concert event, with detail far beyond what was possible in 1970. You will find a new appreciation, not only for Terry Kath's amazing improvisational skills, but also for Danny Serefine's completely off-the-hook drumming, and Peter Cetera's spot on vocals. It has been an honor to work with the original Chicago line-up and to polish this recording up as they have never been heard live before. Truly a labor of love. *Also to be released on vinyl!!!"

December is in 1 week, so I'd say this isn't happening any time soon, but this news is damn awesome since Kath is my favorite guitar player!

I’m with you Pete. I love his playing. I was surprised he said it’s for Christmas but he just posted it 2 days ago.

Great news I'm in!

We can hope Santa lets us have at it (as long as it's not $100).

There are some great soundboard and radio gigs and Japanese recordings from 1969-77 from the Kath era (I have two DVDs as well), so I'm hoping we get that and more.

Definitely looking forward to this. Always thought they were at their peak from 1977 or so & before.

Having said that, I’d really love to see some release for the Chicago “Chicago at Symphony Hall” (with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). This received a limited release & was pulled quickly copies on Amazon go for $200-ish.

Yeah, I remember that. I go for that as well if reissued.

Kevin55 on the Hoffman board found this follow up post by Tim on the Terry Kath fan group FB page :

To fans of Terry: I want you to know that I went to extremes to work with Terry's guitar tone and his vocals on this upcoming release. It's not often a mix engineer gets to have tracks as precious as these in his hands. I approached them as a museum curator might prepare a Van Gogh for display. Terry has a seperate, automated 48 Bit Masssnberg EQ for each of his guitar's pick-up positions. Due to a relatively thin sounding recording, I also re-amped his entire performance through Three vintage guitar amps simultaneously, and blended them into his original track for a truly muscular sound. The Isle of Wight mix is a continuous timeline and includes the band tuning up, soundchecking and noodling on their instruments before they are introduced. Terry is also heard commenting on songs during the show, as he introduces the song "Mother" and also talks about the upcoming album, Chicago III. Ironically, Chicago was the very first rock concert I ever attended, in 1971. I was all of 14 years old then and I've always had a special reverence and awe for Terry. The Isle of Wight recording demonstrates exactly why Terry had no equal. He was not just "better than Hendrix", he was in a league entirely his own. This mix gave me an entirely new appreciation for his genius. I'd like to see Rhino Records also release the Isle of Wight recording as an HD 24 Bit/96 KHz Blu-Ray. It is easily doable, as that is the resolution of the mix.

Have a safe and joyful Holiday. I'll post when I hear a firm release date ~ TJ K found this follow up post by Tim on the Terry Kath fan group FB page :

This is a nice Thanksgiving gift. Thanks for the heads-up.

YES!!!

I hope it doesn't mean we have to buy a mega bucks box with lots of sappy post Kath pop or even repurchase Carnegie & Japan just to get this show. I obviously want the show you're talking about. I also recommend the Tangelewood 1970 concert which Wolfgang's Vault has the rights to.

I picked up both 8/17/69 shows before WV stopped selling downloads. I also have a video of the 1970 show from Tanglewood. I could listen to TK all day long!

Tanglewood is great show
Have the DVD

Hopefully Isle Of Wight is a DVD too

And when I steal this box set from you, I'll be listening to TK all day long!

A few thoughts on this project:

1.) The Isle Of Wight concert has been rumored to be released since Chicago Records 1.0 was around back in the late 90's.
2.) After watching You Tube videos of the band from their entire career, I've wondered if there wasn't some way to do a compilation of some of the various versions and line-ups across the decades. It's not clear how expansive this collection will be.
3.) Like Geff, I'm concerned about having to repurchase stuff already available. That's always a big turn-off.
4.) I wouldn't be surprised if they include the Chicago Symphony concert, which Tim Jessup did rework. By the way, I've held the new version in my hands, but it was only available as part of a gift bag when you bought a photo package with the band at this year's concerts. They wouldn't sell me CD's separately.
5.) I'd bet they will include some recent tracks featuring Jeff Coffey's vocals. He is terrific, and the band is very excited about him. Perhaps the Chicago II Soundstage performance will be part of this as well.
6.) I agree that the timing of the "announcement" and "release date" is peculiar. Rhino usually does a nice promotion and buildup for releases like this.

Jim

Now that the tech has advanced to this stage, I hope to see the same approach taken with many other classic recordings.

The first group that comes to mind, obviously, is The Bay City Rollers.

I don't think this will include anything recent especially with Coffey (he is way better than Scheff but he's not great).

There is so much from the Kath era recorded that should be the primary focus.

I have a ton of pro-shot DVDs from 1972, 76, 77, 79, 82, 84, 89, etc so they could do a lot of video, but this seems to be audio only to me which is all I want.

I wouldn't mind some Dacus era and even the Scheff era recordings.

Whether this is comprehensive or not remains a mystery.

If this is anything like the Live In '75 set it will blow chunks, but I have high hopes it's not a half-assed lie like that was.

I forgot about that one. I agree, it was mediocre.

This technology has been around for at least 5-6 years. It was used to create the stereo mix of "Good Vibrations" and other Beach Boys tracks, to name one largely available example.

This could be pretty great, if they can coax some good sound out of the tapes.

The Tanglewood I got from WGV already sounds pretty good for a 1970 live recording.