Return to Forever

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Template:Infobox band Image:Return to Forever.jpg Image:LightAsAFeather.jpg Image:HymnoftheSeventhGalaxy.jpg Image:WhereHaveIKnownYouBefore.jpg Image:NoMystery.jpg Image:RomanticWarrior.jpg Return to Forever was a name for various jazz fusion bands that were founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea with bassist Stanley Clarke. These bands are seen, along with Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra as the core of jazz fusion music in 1970s. Also a couple of famous musicians became first known through their performances on Return to Forever's albums.

After playing on Miles Davis's famous albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Corea formed an avant-garde jazz band called Circle with Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. However in 1972, after becoming a discipline of scientology, Corea decided that he wanted to "communicate" with audience. This essentially meant that he wanted to make more commercial music since avant-garde jazz had relatively small audience.

Contents

The first line-up (1972 - 1973)

The first Return to Forever band played latin-oriented music. Young bassist, Stanley Clarke, became the permanent member of Return to Forever. Especially in this first line-up he played also double bass in addition to electric bass. Flora Purim was the singer of the group (and occasionally percussionist too). Purim's husband, Airto Moreira, was a drummer and Corea's longtime musical co-worker, Joe Farrell, played both saxophone and flute. First album, named simply Return to Forever, was cut for ECM in 1972 and was initially released only in Europe. The second album, Light as a Feather (1973), was released under Polydor.

Corea's electric piano, that he used throughout on both albums of this line-up, was the leading instrument in group's sound. Purim's vocal gave some commercial appeal for their music, but many compositions were instrumental and more or less experimental of their nature. Corea, Clarke and Farrell all has got lots of solo space on these albums. The music was composed by Corea with an expection of the title track of the second album which was written by Stanley Clarke. The first album featured Corea's famous compositions "Crystal Silence" and "La Fiesta" and second included "Spain". Some of the material was also used on Stan Getz's album Captain Marvel (1972) which also featured Corea, Purim and Clarke. Lyrics were often written by Corea's friend, Neville Porter. Lyrics were often related to scientology, though this is not necessarily easy to recognize for outsiders. Corea managed to get also Clarke involved into scientology, but Clarke left the cult in early 1980s.

Jazz-rock era (1973 - 1976)

After the second album, Purim and Moreira left the group in order to set up their own band. Also Farrell quitted and thus new musicians, guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were taken in. However, this second line-up did not release any albums. Since Gadd was not willing to go touring and leave his job as a hard working studio drummer, Lenny White, who had played with Corea in Miles Davis's band, became the band's drummer. Also Lewis left the group soon, and Return to Forever's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was rerecorded with Lenny White. The first recording that featured Gadd was never released and is said to be missing. Now the nature of the group's music had completely changed. The style of music was now "jazz-rock", being quite close to what Mahavishnu Orchestra and some progressive rock bands were doing at the same time. The music was still relatively melodic, relying on strong themes, but traditional jazz feel was almost completely gone. Distorted guitar sound had become prominent in band's new sound and Clarke played mostly electric bass. New singer had not been hired and all the songs were now instrumentals. This however, did not lead to decrease in band's commercial potential since jazz-rock albums sold better than previous ones, always finding their way to pop album charts.

The second jazz-rock album, Where Have I Known You Before, (1974) was quite similar in style as the previous album but now Corea played synthesizers and Clarke had eventually developed his famous electric bass sound and style. Since Bill Connors had wanted to concentrate on his solo career, the group had also hired a new guitarist. Earl Klugh played guitar on some group's live performances but he was soon replaced by then 19 years old guitar wizard, Al Di Meola who played guitar on Where Have I Known You Before. Just like for Clarke and Purim before, Return to Forever became also for Di Meola the road to stardom. Soon he was to release highly influential solo albums under his own name.

Next album, No Mystery (1975), was made with the same line-up as its predecessor, but now the style of music was more varied. A-side of the record consisted mostly of "jazz-funk" while B-side featured Corea's acoustic title track and long composition that borrowed partly from spanish music. On this and also the following album, each member of the group had composed at least one of the tracks. No Mystery also made the group to win the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group.

The last album by the most long lasting line-up of Return to Forever was Romantic Warrior (1976). Now group had left the Polydor and recorded for Columbia Records. The album became the best selling of all Return to Forever albums reaching eventually the gold disc figures. This album continued experiments in the realm of jazz-rock and related genres. It is also famous for its technically demanding playing.

The last album (1977)

The final version of Return to Forever featured a four piece horn section and Corea's wife Gayle singing vocals, and recorded just one studio album, Musicmagic (1977). Now the music had returned closer to the gentle feel of the music of the first line-up. However, instead of strong latin influences, the last album's sound consists of bombastic arrangements for horn section and synthesizers. Compositions remained relatively complex.

In 1983 the White/DiMeola line up returned briefly on the stage, but did not record a new album, only one track issued on Corea's Touchstone album entitled "Compadres".









Return to Forever Band Members
(1972-1973)
(1973)
(1973)
(1974)
(1974-1976)
(1977)
(1977)
(1977 - 1982)

BAND SPLIT

(1983)

Discography

Studio albums

Live releases

  • RTF Live (1977) (Corea/Clarke/Moran/Farrell/Pugh/Thomas/Tinsley/Garrett/Moss/Brown)

Collections

Notice

Albums from years 1972-1975 are often sold under Chick Corea's name.

External links

sv:Return to Forever fi:Return to Forever


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