Return to Forever
(Eagle)
Reunions of aging rock bands usually receive some amount of skepticism in large part because the power and, to some degree, the message of their songs are inextricably linked to youth. Jazz musicians, on the other hand, earn greater respect for both their ability to survive and continually evolve as musicians. Return to Forever became one of the most commercially successful and revered bands of ‘70s fusion, but they also paved the way for excessive showmanship in music on a level equalled by few rock bands. In large part that's due to the fact they could play the pants off any of their hard rock contemporaries. Their 2008 reunion ranks on a scale somewhere between both musical poles, feared by some listeners and while others might consider it more monumental than a Beatles reunion.
Return to Forever went through several incarnations but the best known one featured Chick Corea (keyboards), Stanley Clarke (bass), Al Di Meola (guitar) and Lenny White (drums). Returns collects two discs of music from a few concerts on last year's tour. After the new "Opening Prayer," a brief rubato statement similar to "In a Silent Way" the band dispels any notions that time has mellowed them. In fact "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy" shreds. These guys are dangerous. Jazz-like melodies fly by at a blistering tempo with variations on funky beats pushing them along. "Vulcan Worlds" continues the power. Corea recreates the sound of a clavinet, the keyboard that was even slicker than the Fender Rhodes. It makes the mind wonder if fusion was misunderstood all these years.
Nine minutes into the track, the opinion starts to change. At that point, Clarke solos and starts pummeling the ears with some ridiculously fast flurry of notes. And he's not satisfied showing off his chops once. He keeps doing it. Di Meola gets into the act later in the 27-minute version of "Song to the Pharoah Kings" when the guitarist shows how fast he can play. And then it becomes less about the melody and all about the execution. Towards the end of disc two, Clarke is doing some trick on his bass that might be inhumanly fast but it sounds like nothing more than blowing raspberries in sixteenth notes. Throughout, Corea pulls out the moist, cheesy keyboards. And when White gets his solo turn, it sounds less like a jazz drum solo and more like the ones heard in arenas during RTF's heyday - the ones that made drum solos such a joke.
Granted, Returns isn't all excessive. Corea has some lyrical moments in his acoustic solo, "Friendship." Di Meola also pulls back in a few places. But the sheer number of blistering leads and showboating guitar-and-synth tradeoffs can scare off all but the tech heads, who probably don't care what critics think of their gods anyway.
Standout Tracks: "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy," "Vulcan Worlds" MIKE SHANLEY
