Return To Forever: Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola & Lenny White

(US)
jazz-rock fusion

Lately, after decades of being banned, fusion or jazz-rock, if you like, has shown signs of coming back. For

fans of the volume and virtuoso friendly genre, the absolute sensation of the year is the second coming of

Return To Forever’s classic quartet.

After more than 25 years keyboardist-leader Chick Corea, the original bass- player Stanley Clarke, and

drummer Lenny White and guitarist Al Di Meola, who joined them when RTF went electric, plan to seriously kick

ass.

“We’re gonna pick everybody’s favourite songs from our 70’s albums, like Where Have I

Known You Before, No Mystery and Romantic Warrior, and play them like they’ve never before been played. I

think, it’s going to be a blast”, Corea says on the band’s homepage and goes on: “All

through the years our fans have been asking for this, and a couple of times it’s been very close to

happening. Now we all felt that it really is the time to do it.”

Scheduling hasn’t been easy, when all four lead their own bands, on top of which White also produces

bands while Clarke scores movies. Corea and White first got the taste for fusion when they played on Miles

Davis’ Bitches Brew album. Soon after in RTF they, with Di Meola and Clarke, sketched out the guide lines

for the genre as much as Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. There is a new RTF antology out now with

remastered and remixed versions of original 70’s tracs.