If it sounds familiar it's because it's a reworking of Sister Sledge's 1979 single "Got To Love Somebody". Nile used a recently found outtake as the basis for the new song "I'll Be There". The new song features CHIC's current vocalists Kimberly Davis and Folami along with Luci Martin, Alfa Anderson, and Fonzi Thornton from the '70s/'80s crew. This photo was taken late 2014 in the recording studio.

[Edited 3/22/15 15:06pm]

This makes me smile!

Nice! I'm excited for this project

I like the way that sounds, so far. New music Fridays now!

TeeeeHaaaaHoooo said:

The new song features CHIC's current vocalists Kimberly Davis and Folami along with Luci Martin, Alfa Anderson, and Fonzi Thornton from the '70s/'80s crew. This photo was taken late 2014 in the recording studio.

It's nice to see Nile working with original Chic vocalists Luci and Alfa again There was some drama in the past...so glad that they worked everything out.

Yay! I'm so glad they will churn out another one! I really loved "Your Love" and other songs from Chic-ism, back in 1992 when it came out. It was the last album of new material. I sure hope this one is a success... It's time to dance again!

[Edited 3/1/15 8:51am]

So, do we know if this 'new' Chic album is based around previously unreleased stuff featuring Bernard Edwards, or is it basically a Nile Rodgers album with a few old Chic vocalists in the mix?

Hate to sound oldskool, but to me, it ain't Chic without Bernard .

Edit - Just noticed the 'Nard intro' at top of this thread, so I assume this means Bernard is featured at the beginning at least.

[Edited 3/2/15 12:45pm]

Hi Miles - I follow Nile on social media and he has stated that this will feature some vault material and some re-working of unreleased material as well. Should be fun!!

^^

No, we don't know. The new single, however, does feature all of CHIC's departed brethren (Bernard Edwards, Tony Thompson, Raymond Jones, and even Luther Vandross).

Not "certain" on all the details, but i think Miles' hopes are likely.

Nile had come out recently (this was a few months back) and said that he'd been enjoying revisting some of the old vault stuff (I recall talk of "unfinished musical ideas".....snipits....riffs.....that kinda thang).

Hearing that first teaser (and the pic...where they clearly look to be havin a great time)....this project sounds like a cool drink-o-water to me (even if Tony & Nard are only there on tape). I'm in.

SoulAlive said:

I'm in too.A new Chic album is long overdue and it is exactly what the world needs right now.

I'll certainly keep my eye out for the single and whenever they're released.

Thanks for the info, guys . Should be 'good times' for Chic fans ahead .

TeeeeHaaaaHoooo said:

[img:$uid]http://scontent-2.22773.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/s480x480/1546239_412551625562797_2793487722469059755_n.jpg?oh=e1f1d1d451833ab029280b5ca5bd69c8&oe=557D64DA[/img:$uid]

Fonzi Thornton!!!

Cinny said:

TeeeeHaaaaHoooo said:

Fonzi Thornton!!!

LOL. That's what I said when I saw that. "FONZI! Still lookin good!". It IS cool that Nile has apparently gotten some of the ole "Chic Family" back in the house for this.

FormerlyKnownAs said:

Critically maligned in its heyday, a vindicated Chic is poised to make the world dance, dance, dance (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself) again. I just can't wait to hear the new album.

Groovy

Identity said:

Critically maligned in its heyday, a vindicated Chic is poised to make the world dance, dance, dance (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself) again. I just can't wait to hear the new album.

really excited about this project.There are many artists doing the retro-disco thing these days,but it'll be interesting to hear new music from some of the originators of those sounds.

I hope he gets Simon LeBon on this album, I'd love to hear Simon front an original Chic track.

.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-31923237

.

Nile Rodgers: It's About Time

By Sarah Jane GriffithsEntertainment reporter

As a producer he's worked with artists as diverse as David Bowie, Disclosure, Madonna and Daft Punk, but now Chic's Nile Rodgers has his sights set on another hit record of his own.

Chic were responsible for some of Disco's most enduring hits: Le Freak, Everybody Dance, We Are Family and Good Times to name but a few.

And Nile Rodgers is confident he can recreate the dancefloor magic with the band's new track I'll Be There, their first single in 23 years.

"This is real disco," Rodgers tells the BBC. "This is our form of disco, which never sounded like Giorgio Moroder, never sounded like the Village People, never sounded like anyone else. Chic's disco was uniquely ours."

I'll Be There is the first track from the band's forthcoming album, It's About Time, which Rodgers is currently piecing together from a box of "lost Chic tapes" - featuring the original members of the band, of whom Rodgers is the only surviving member.

"I'm rather proud of it," says the musician. "It's music that no one's ever heard before. I wanted to make sure that the music we used was all original stuff, even though there was a riff that we had played before, I just wrote a song on top of it."

The single is a tribute to Rodgers' producing and song-writing partner, Bernard Edwards, who died in 1996 shortly after Chic came off stage from a gig in Japan.

In fact, the whole album is written as if he was "having a conversation with Bernard".

"Trying to explain that 'life has gone on and you woke up 20 years later and this is what the world is like,'" says Rodgers. "'So you have to view it through my lens and I have to view it through your lens.'"

'Deep hidden meaning'

Rodgers says writing the album was "emotional", but also "refreshing".

"I was purging, I was cleansing and I was having dialogue."

Unsurprisingly, given its title It's About Time, the album's "deep hidden meaning that every Chic song has" - is the passing of the years.

"Every song is about time. And time-travelling. Time defines everything - the quality of our relationships, the style of music that we're doing," says Rodgers.

And the 62-year-old is only too aware of how precious time can be. Back in 2010 he was told he had "extremely aggressive cancer" and, while he is now in remission, he has vowed to devote as much of the time he has left as possible to making music.

There's been no shortage of artists queuing up to share the studio with him. Having helped Daft Punk create one of 2013's biggest tracks, the Grammy Award-winning Get Lucky, he's since teamed up with artists including Disclosure, Sam Smith and Avicii.

He says he's assembled a ...owing team to record the vocals on a four-part harmony song called Queen. Elton John, Miley Cyrus, Chaka Khan and Janelle Monae will feature on the "pretty lullaby", which we can expect to sound "like Crosby, Stills and Nash meets Chic".

The guest list includes some lesser-known names, too.

Rodgers has just written a track with Dutch producer Nicky Romero and Nervo - an Australian DJ and songwriting duo who are twin sisters - which is "absurd! So good it's crazy".

He calls another new song, with Irish-born, Manchester-based DJ and producer Krystal Klear and Steely Dan's Michael McDonald, 63, "ridiculous".

"With any composer, it's the stuff that you're working on right now that you like the most," admits the musician.

"I'm really proud of those tracks. And in the scope of [the album] it makes sense. You have a track that I wrote with Krystal Klear - Declan [Lennon] was like 20 years old - and Michael is probably older than me, but you hear it and it all makes sense."

Scheduled for a July release, the album should also feature "some stuff recorded in Sweden at Abba's studio Polar", which shut its doors in 2004 but counts Chic as "the official last band" to have graced its mixing desk.

'I'll be there'

Having produced stars from Sister Sledge to Duran Duran and been a regular at legendary New York club Studio 54, Rodgers is rarely short of an anecdote, but with such fascinating stories the name-dropping never feels ungracious.

There's the time he dreamt up the Diana Ross hit I'm Coming Out, after coming face-to face-with several transvestites dressed as the star in a nightclub toilet.

Or when he turned Bowie's Let's Dance from a folk song into the classic 1980s chart-topper.

He also revels in telling the story of how Elton John booked Chic for his annual Oscars party last month, then joined them on stage.

"Elton is awesome. I've played with Elton 20 times but I've never played with him in Chic - he was killing it. It was like, 'you should be in my band forever!' He was perfect."

The story that accompanies Rodgers' new single I'll Be There is tinged with sadness though.

"I have a lyric that says, 'I don't want to live in the past but it's a nice place to visit, and if you come along, I'll be there.'

"I'll be there are the first words that I said to Bernard when I actually realised that he was dead. My brain wouldn't accept the reality. I was screaming at him, I was shaking him.

"At that moment I broke down crying and said: 'Okay, I'll be there for you in death, the way you were there for me in life.'

"Now that's not to sound like this is a morbid dark song," he laughs. "This is a disco song and it's real happy."

Because of the track's "deep hidden meaning" Rodgers wanted to be sure he did something special to mark its release. As a self-confessed "science guy", he picked this Friday, 20 March, as the release date - coinciding with the vernal equinox, when we're set to have a partial solar eclipse.

The release even has its own hashtag, #CHIClipse. That night the band will also kick off their tour with the first of two dates at London's Roundhouse.

"I don't know what day any of my records came out, ever, but I'll remember this one for the rest of my life. Because people on their way to work in the morning, all of a sudden it's going to get dark! It's like, 'woah! What's going on?'.

"I wanted to do something that's memorable."

The new video for "I'll Be There" (featuring Kate Moss Karlie Kloss).

[Edited 3/20/15 11:24am]

I like it

That's not Kate Moss. Karlie Kloss is the model's name.

Thanks for the correction.

They've slightly overdone the whole 'get a hot young woman to gyrate her hips in the camera' thing. It's not as if the music needs it.

.

Go Peter go! I love this song. The video is aight for what it is haha.

CHIC featuring Nile Rodgers concert streaming live from London:

https://screen.yahoo.com/live-nation/chic-featuring-nile-rogers-live-140000947.html

They just played the new single for the first time along with "Why" (Carly Simon), "Happy Man", and "My Feet Keep Dancing".