CHICK COREA — Return to Forever (review)

CHICK COREA — Return to Forever album cover

Album · 1972 · Fusion

5/5 · 2025-05-12
FunkFreak75

During the two years after participating in the August 1969 recording sessions for Mile Davis' seminal album, Bitches Brew, Chick had participated in the recording of many diverse albums--from Miles Davis' live albums to Wayne Shorter and Larry Coryell's experimental First Wave Fusion albums Supernova and Spaces, respectively, but more, he chose to hang around his more steadfast jazz compatriots Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Eric Kloss, Joe Farrell, and Gary Burton. Return to Forever marked his own first foray into true j-R-F as a bandleader.

1. "Return to Forever" (12:06) now I know where the idea for The Northettes (and other Canterbury female vocals) came from! Flora Purim's angelic and ethereal wordless vocalese performs as if another instrument in the weave with Chick's Fender Rhodes, Stanley Clarke's fairly-untreated electric bass, Airto Moreira's classical jazz drumming, and Joe Farrell's background flutes. (24/25) 2. "Crystal Silence" (6:59) a beautiful Fender Rhodes song that features the respectful and only intermittent inputs of Joe Farrell's soprano sax and Airto Moreira's shakers and bells--a song that would be expanded upon significantly with vibraphonist Gary Burton on the album of the same name that would come out later in the same year. (14.5/15)

3. "What Games Shall We Play Today?" (4:30) a gentle Latin-bossa nova light (reminding me of Burt Bacharach/Hal David's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?") with Flora actually singing over the Fender Rhodes, Latin drums and bass lines and BOB JAMES-like keyboard and flute melodies. A light, innocuous song illustrating Chick's pop capabilities. (8.875/10)

4. "Sometime Ago / La Fiesta" (23:13) the whole of Side Two is occupied by this sprawling tune--a -part suite that starts out with Chick's vibrating Fender Rhodes being reacted to from the right side by Stanley's gentle, respectful double bass play. Eventually, in the third minute, Chick backs off to allow Stanley some solo time bowing his bass. Then Joe Farrell's flute and Airto's full drum kit get into the act for a couple minutes of more active, full-ensemble play until things begin being dismantled at the end of the seventh minute. By 7:30 a new more Latin/Brasilian motif starts up over which in the ninth minute Flora Purim begins singing (a rather simple, cheesy English lyric--which makes me wonder how beautiful this might have been had it been sung in Flora's native Portuguese tongue). Both Chick and Joe continue mirroring and creating variations on the main melody that Flora's vocal uses (rather rigidly, I might add). Both are creative but never really getting very daring--until, finally, the 12th minute when Chick and Airto seem to egg one another on--sweeping Joe up into the frenzy (with piccolo?). Overall, this light and delightful second movement lasts for about six minutes before there is a slow down and return to Chick's solo Fender Rhodes, tout seul. For the next couple of minutes he continues to gently, introspectively explore the main melody that he, Flora, and Joe had just been using before a slow down and complete stop at 15:25 signals an opportunity for the whole band to jump back in with a more percussive Latinized version of the four chord vamp they'd been using, this time with Joe playing his soprano sax up front. At 7:18 the whole key signature shifts and with it the melody line, now sounding much more aligned to a different, more Spanish theme and melody (Olé!)--but the shift was so subtle! If you weren't paying attention you might not even notice it! Joe swoops and soars covering the entire octaval capacity of his sax until the 20th minute when the band pretty much comes together to carry the melody together. Then Chick, Airto, and Stanley switch into a different kind of style while maintaining their carry of the same melody (basically), giving Joe a break for a minute. Stanley is walking all over that fretboard and Chick is really hammering and tickling his keys. Then Flora's hand percussion and Joe's sax step back in to liven up the final 90 seconds. Fun, melodic, sophisticated, though not as individually flashy as future RTF albums. (41/45)

Total Time 46:48

An album that really explored the more spacious, contemplative potential of the newly emerging wave of Jazz-Rock Fusion, Chick used his Return To Forever project as a means to exploring his curiosities with the world of electrified instruments and emerging new sound treatments--as well as some of his fire and vigor.

A/five stars; despite the feeling that these guys are just getting into their exploration and exhibition of Jazz-Rock Fusion, the music here is so melodious and the musicianship so high (though never mind-blowing as the future RTF individuals would display) this is truly a masterpiece of First or Second Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion. (First for the exploration of "uncharted territory," second for the use of forms and sounds that are already being explored by others--like Weather Report.)