THE RTF STORY

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RETURN TO FOREVER WHEN JAZZ BECAME ROCK

Miles Davis’ electric bands in the late ‘60s (featured on such classic albums as In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew) served as the incubator for several pioneering jazz fusion bands, including Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter’s Weather Report and Chick Corea’s legendary Return to Forever, whose lifespan stretched from 1972 to 1977 with three different versions of the band.

After a touring absence of more than 25 years, the potent jazz-rock flagship quartet edition of Return to Forever returns in 2008. This highly anticipated reunion will see the group’s classic lineup—Corea on keyboards, Al Di Meola on guitar, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums—embark on an expansive summer tour with dates in Europe and the United States.

A special Return to Forever anthology featuring remixed and remastered tracks from the classic albums Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known Before, No Mystery and Romantic Warrior will also be released to coincide with the tour. And a concert DVD could well be released, featuring the band revisiting the material from their years together.

After Corea left Miles’ employ, he helped found the avant-garde acoustic quartet Circle with saxophonist Anthony Braxton, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Barry Altschul. The band worked from 1970-’71, but Corea sought a new, less-esoteric direction where he could express his music to larger audiences—in a band committed to communicating the purity of sound, the challenge of improvising on complex compositions and the exploration of melding the jazz tradition with rock music. The time was ripe for what followed.

Return to Forever launched in 1972 with its self-titled debut featuring a quintet that Corea assembled, comprising Joe Farrell on flute and saxophone, Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, Flora Purim on vocals, and Stanley Clarke on bass—the only RTF member who served in all three editions of the band. With a Brazilian tinge imbued in the fusion, the first album featured such noteworthy tracks as “Sometime Ago,” “Crystal Silence” and “La Fiesta.” Later that year, the same RTF lineup delivered its follow-up, Light As a Feather, renowned as one of the band’s best recordings. Tunes included such Corea classics as “Spain,” “500 Miles High” and “Captain Marvel.”

In 1973, when Airto and Flora left RTF to start their own band and Farrell also took his leave, Corea enlisted a new lineup to explore a harder-edged rock-jazz fusion. The electric guitar was added, and placed front and center along with Corea on electric keyboards. The guitarist for the first of the four quartet albums, Hymn of Seventh Galaxy (1973), was Bill Connors, who soon left the band to pursue his solo career. He was replaced in 1974 by 19-year-old, fresh-from-college, hard-rocking Al Di Meola, who cut his eyeteeth in the band. He was featured on the remaining three quartet albums and proved to be an integral member of the band.

While drummer Steve Gadd was originally pegged to be in RTF, he opted out because he was unwilling to tour, and was replaced by funk-fueled Lenny White, who Corea knew from the Bitches Brew sessions. Clarke remained the bassist, developing during this time his singular electric bass style. This lineup is considered to be the golden RTF group, which recorded three popular crossover albums: 1974’s Where Have I Known Before (Di Meola’s debut), 1975’s Grammy-winning No Mystery and 1976’s studio finale, Romantic Warrior, which became the best selling of all RTF recordings.

For the third and final version of RTF, Clarke remained, Farrell returned, and drummer Gerry Brown and vocalist Gayle Moran were enlisted. In addition, Corea brought aboard a four-piece brass section. That group recorded the 1977 Musicmagic album and toured throughout the year, documented by the album R.T.F. Live.

It was RIP for RTF in 1977, but the group was resurrected once for a quartet concert in 1983, and is now fully returning in this year’s exciting reunion.

Source: http://www.return2forever.com/index.cfm/pk/content/pid/400296

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Return to Forever was the name of a jazz fusion band founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. The band cycled through many members, with only consistent band mate of Corea's bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is often seen as the core of jazz fusion music in the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola first became well-known through their performances on Return to Forever's albums.

After playing on Miles Davis's 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 disciple of Scientology, Corea decided that he wanted to "communicate" with the audience. This essentially meant that he wanted to make more commercial music, since avant-garde jazz had a relatively small audience.

The first line-up (1972 - 1973)

The first Return to Forever band played latin-oriented music. The initial band consisted of singer (and occasional percussionist) Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira on drums and other percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, and the young bassist Stanley Clarke. Especially in this first line-up, Clarke played double bass in addition to electric bass. Corea's electric piano was the leading instrument in this group's sound, but Clarke and Farrell were also given plenty of solo space. Purim's vocal gave some commercial appeal for their music, but many compositions were instrumental and more or less experimental in their 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 often related to scientology, though this is not necessarily easy to recognize for outsiders. Clarke was involved in Scientology through Corea, but left the church in the early 1980s.

The first album, named simply Return to Forever, was cut for ECM Records in 1972 and was initially released only in Europe. This album featured Corea's 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. The second album, Light as a Feather (1973), was released by Polydor and included the famous song, Spain.

The jazz-rock era (1973 - 1976)

After the second album, Farrell, Purim and Moreira left the group in order to set up their own band. Guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were taken on. However, 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) replaced Gadd and Lewis, and the group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973), was rerecorded. The first recording featuring Gadd was never released and is said to be missing.

The nature of the group's music had now completely changed to "jazz-rock", similar to what The 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 had become prominent in the band's new sound, and Clarke played mostly electric bass. A new singer had not been hired, and all the songs were now instrumentals. This however, did not lead to a decrease in the band's commercial success - Return to Forever's jazz-rock albums always found their way to US pop album charts.

The second jazz-rock album, Where Have I Known You Before, (1974) was similar in style to the previous album, but Corea played synthesizers in addition to electric piano, and Clarke had 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 the 19 year old guitar wizard Al Di Meola, who played guitar on the album.

The next album, No Mystery (1975), was made with the same line-up as its predecessor, but the style of music was more varied. The first side of the record consisted mostly of jazz-funk, while the second side featured Corea's acoustic title track and a long composition that borrowed partly from Spanish music. 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 last album by the most long-lasting lineup of Return to Forever 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 experiments in the realm of jazz-rock and related genres, and is also famous for its technically demanding playing.

After "Romantic Warrior" and its subsequent tour, after signing a multi-million dollar contract with CBS and to the surprise of the rest of the band, Chick Corea decided to change the lineup of the group without White and di Meola.

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). 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 features bombastic arrangements for horn section and synthesizers. Compositions remained relatively complex.

After Musicmagic, Chick Corea officially disbanded the group. Reasons are speculative, but Stanley Clarke's leaving the Church of Scientology is believed to be a factor. In the years following the breakup, Al di Meola commented on the complications of reuniting the di Meola/White lineup "I think we have a Scientology problem to deal with, possibly due to Stanley leaving Scientology. That doesn't sit very well with Chick."

In 1983 the White/Di Meola 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".

Reunion (2008)

Return to Forever reunited for a tour of the United States starting in summer 2008, and Europe in 2009. A special Return to Forever anthology set, featuring remixed and remastered tracks from the albums Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, and Romantic Warrior, was be released to coincide with the tour.

Discography

Studio albums

Return to Forever (1972, ECM)
Light as a Feather (1972, Polydor)
Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973, Polydor)
Where Have I Known You Before (1974, Polydor)
No Mystery (1975, Polydor)
Romantic Warrior (1976, Columbia)
Musicmagic (1977, Columbia)

Live releases

Live (1977; later re-released in 1999 as Live: The Complete Concert)

Collections

Best of Return to Forever (1980)
Return to the Seventh Galaxy: The Anthology (1996, covers years 1972-1975)
This Is Jazz, Vol. 12 (1996, covers only last two albums)
Return to Forever: The Anthology (2008)

Personnel

Return to Forever Band Members(1972-1973) Chick Corea - keyboards
Flora Purim - vocals
Joe Farrell - saxophone
Stanley Clarke - bass
Airto Moreira - percussion
(1973) Chick Corea - keyboards
Bill Connors - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Steve Gadd - drums
Mingo Lewis - percussion
(1973) Chick Corea - keyboards
Bill Connors - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Lenny White - drums
(1974) Chick Corea - keyboards
Earl Klugh - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Lenny White - drums
(1974-1976) Chick Corea - keyboards
Al Di Meola - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Lenny White - drums
(1977) Chick Corea - keyboards
Gayle Moran - vocals, keyboards
Joe Farrell - saxophone
John Thomas - trumpet
James Tinsley - trumpet
Jim Pugh - trombone
Harold Garrett - trombone
Stanley Clarke - bass
Gerry Brown - drums
(1977) Chick Corea - keyboards
Gayle Moran - vocals, keyboards
Joe Farrell - saxophone
John Thomas - trumpet
James Tinsley - trumpet
Jim Pugh - trombone
Harold Garrett - trombone
Ron Moss - trombone
Stanley Clarke - bass
Gerry Brown - drums
(1977 - 1982) 
BAND SPLIT
(1983) Chick Corea - keyboards
Al Di Meola - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Lenny White - drums
(1984 - 2007) 
BAND SPLIT
(2008) Chick Corea - keyboards
Al Di Meola - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Lenny White - drums

References

a b Chick Corea left the group Return to Forever because of Scientology
Return to Forever reunites for 2008 trek