Return to Forever

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For the album, see Return to Forever (album).
Return to Forever

Return to Forever in Rochester, New York, 1976
Background information
Also known as Chick Corea
Origin New York City, USA
Genres Jazz fusion
Years active 1972–1977, 1983, 2008
Website http://www.return2forever.com
Former members
Chick Corea
Stanley Clarke
Al Di Meola
Lenny White
Bill Connors
Flora Purim
Airto Moreira
Joe Farrell (deceased)
Steve Gadd
Mingo Lewis
Earl Klugh
Gayle Moran
Gerry Brown
James E. Pugh
John Thomas
James Tinsley
Harold Garrett
Ronn Moss

Return to Forever was a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is often cited as one of the core groups of the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola, first came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever's albums.

After playing on Miles Davis's groundbreaking jazz-fusion 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 having become a disciple of Scientology, Corea decided that he wanted to better "communicate" with the audience. This essentially translated into his performing a more popularly accessible style of music, since avant-garde jazz enjoyed a relatively small audience.

Contents

[edit] The First Group (1972 - 1973)

The first edition of Return to Forever played primarily latin-oriented music. This initial band consisted of singer (and occasional percussionist) Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, and the young Stanley Clarke on bass. With this first line-up in particular, Clarke played acoustic double bass in addition to electric bass. Corea's electric piano formed the basis of this group's sound, but Clarke and Farrell were given ample solo space themselves. While Purim's vocals lent some commercial appeal to the music, many of their compositions were also instrumental and somewhat experimental in nature. The music was composed by Corea with the exception of the title track of the second album which was written by Stanley Clarke. Lyrics were often written by Corea's friend Neville Potter, and were quite often scientology themed- though this is not readily apparent to those not involved in Scientology itself. Clarke himself became involved in Scientology through Corea, but eventually left the sect in the early 1980s.

Their first album, titled simply Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972 and was initially released only in Europe. This album featured Corea's now famous compositions Crystal Silence and La Fiesta. Shortly afterwards, Corea, Airto, Clarke and Tony Williams formed the band for Stan Getz's album Captain Marvel (1972), which featured Corea's compositions- including some from the first and second Return to Forever albums. Their second album, Light as a Feather (1973), was released by Polydor and included the song, Spain, which also became quite well-known.

[edit] The Jazz-Rock Era (1973 - 1976)

After the second album, Farrell, Purim and Moreira left the group to form their own band, and guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added. However, Gadd was unwilling to tour with the band and sacrifice his job as an in-demand session drummer. Lenny White (who had played with Corea in Miles Davis's band) replaced Gadd and Lewis on drums and percussion, and the group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was then rerecorded (the first recording, featuring Gadd on drums, was never released and is apparently missing).

The nature of the group's music had now completely changed to "jazz-rock", and had evolved into quite a similar vein as to that the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, and some progressive rock bands were also performing at the time. Their music was still relatively melodic, relying on strong themes, but the traditional jazz element was now almost entirely absent- replaced by a more direct, rock-oriented approach. Distorted guitar had also become prominent in the band's new sound, and Clarke had by then switched almost completely to electric bass. A replacement on vocals was not hired, and all the songs were now instrumentals. This change, however, did not lead to a decrease in the band's commercial fortunes - Return to Forever's jazz-rock albums instead found their way onto US pop album charts.

Their second jazz-rock album, Where Have I Known You Before, (1974) was similar in style to their previous album, but Corea played synthesizers in addition to electric piano, and Clarke's playing had by then matured into his now distinctive electric bass sound and style. After Bill Connors left the band (prefering to concentrate on his solo career), the group also hired new guitarists. Although Earl Klugh played guitar for some of the group's live performances, he was soon replaced by the then 19-year-old guitar wizard Al Di Meola, who had also played on the album.

Their following album, No Mystery (1975), was recorded with the same line-up as its predecessor, but the style of music had become more varied. The first side of the record consisted primarily of jazz-funk, while the second side featured Corea's acoustic title track and a long composition with a strong Spanish influence. On this and the following album, each member of the group composed at least one of the tracks. No Mystery won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group.

The final album by this longest-lasting lineup of the group was Romantic Warrior (1976). By this time the group had left Polydor for Columbia Records. The album became the best selling of all Return to Forever albums, eventually reaching gold disc status. This album continued their experiments in the realms of jazz-rock and related genres, and is highly regarded for both its technically demanding compositions and its accomplished musicianship.

After the release of "Romantic Warrior" and their subsequent tour, and after having also signed a multi-million dollar contract with CBS, Corea surprised Clarke by deciding to change the lineup of the group and not include either White or Di Meola.[1]

[edit] The Final Album (1977)

The final incarnation of Return to Forever featured a four piece horn section and Corea's wife Gayle singing vocals, but recorded only one studio album, Musicmagic (1977). The music took a gentler direction- closer to that of the group's first edition. However, instead of the strong Latin influences, this last album's instrumentation instead features bombastic arrangements for horns and synthesizers, while the compositions themselves are more complex in comparison.

After Musicmagic, Chick Corea officially disbanded the group. While the reasons for his doing so are speculative, Stanley Clarke's having left the Church of Scientology is believed to have been a major factor. Years following the breakup, Al Di Meola commented on the complications of reuniting the Corea/Clarke/Di Meola/White lineup, stating "I think we have a Scientology problem to deal with, possibly due to Stanley leaving Scientology. That doesn't sit very well with Chick."[1]

In 1983 this lineup did, in fact, return briefly to the stage, but did not record a new album, and rather recorded only one track that was issued on Corea's Touchstone album entitled "Compadres".

[edit] Reunion (2008)

The classic Return to Forever line-up of Corea, Clarke, White, and Di Meola reunited for a tour of the United States that began in the summer of 2008, and continued with a tour of Europe in 2009. A special Return to Forever anthology box-set, featuring remixed and digitally remastered tracks from the albums Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, and Romantic Warrior, was released to coincide with the tour.[2] To date, no new material from the group has been announced.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Live releases

[edit] Collections

[edit] Personnel

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

BAND SPLIT
(1983)
(1984 - 2007)

BAND SPLIT
(2008)
(2008 - present)

BAND SPLIT

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b [1] Chick Corea left the group Return to Forever because of Scientology
  2. ^ Return to Forever reunites for 2008 trek

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Forever"