Chick Corea / Return to Forever - Return to Forever (1972)
- Return to Forever" – 12:06
- Crystal Silence" – 6:59
- What Game Shall We Play Today" – 4:30
- Sometime Ago - La Fiesta" – 23:13
Listen : Spotify
Introduction :
Chick Corea is a famous jazz pianist and fusionist with several grammy awards behind him. In the 60s, he became a member of Miles Davis' Band and contributed on several of Miles Davis' later albums like Bitches Brew and On the Corner.
Return to Forever (band) is one of the big 70s jazz fusion group alongside contemporaries like Weather Report and Mahavishnu orchestra. Chick founded the band after becoming a scientologist in 1972 whereupon he decided he wanted to communicate more with the audience and felt the avant-garde jazz he was then dabbling with wasn't listener-friendly enough. However you feel about scientology (I'm not a fan), Chick has claimed to get a lot of inspiration from Mr. Hubbard's teachings and Return to Forever's discography is a treasure trove of jazz fusion riches where basically every album is a safe bet.
Return to Forever's debut is credited both to the band, serving as their debut, and as a Chick Corea album. It is widely regarded as an electric jazz classic.
Song for Song Review :
The first song by Return to Forever on their debut Return to Forever is the song named
Return to Forever. It opens softly and carefully with a haunting melody played by Chick Corea on electric piano. Singer Flora Purim and flute joins in for quite a ghostly mood that my girlfriend complained is too creepy. However, it doesn't last long before it breaks up and we're thrown into the next part of the song where a steady, filling drum rythmn provides a foundation on which an airy piano and flute jam and improvise over. There are a couple of simple hooks that are real earwigs. Much to the listener's delight, we get a return to the spooky theme - which I find so gods-damned enjoyable even if it's only there for a few seconds - until we're thrown into another jam with a driving rhythmn and some simple hooks that seem to come and go. The music almost has a mysterious trance-like quality that makes it quite a laid-back listening experience despite it's fast rhythmn and occasional screams towards the end. Before it's over, we get one final return to the ghostly theme. As we say in Norway, all good things come in threes (don't ask me why) .. And this track is marvellous!
Crystal Silence is a bit of noodling about by Chick before he's joined by Joe Farrell on saxophone. That might sound a bit boring, but it's a thoroughly delicious and warm listening experience, completely laid-back and enjoyable. Laying down on a couch listening to this with your eyes closed might be the best way to enjoy this, but the comfort might put you to sleep.
If the album has a spooky opening,
What Game Shall We Play Today is completely the opposite which is a feel-good slightly poppy jazz piece with sung lyrics by miss Flora Plurim. Aside from Flora's vocal performance, the song is dominated by Chick's piano and Farrell on flute. It gives me associations to fun, sun, green grass and flowers .. and its yet another earwig!
The last track can actually be split in three. It starts off with a bass and electric piano improv that goes on for quite a while before flute makes it's appearance followed by actual structure a little later, turning it into
Sometime Ago. It's another laid-backy feel-good song with singing by Flora. Jams with a lot of flute and electric piano alternate with the poppy theme until the song slows down during a transition, the flute is traded for a sax, and the song turns into
La Fiesta which is one of Corea's standards. There are no sung lyrics this time, but parts of it has a clear melody line played on the saxophone. Castanets and a somewhat more intense energy gives the song a sometimes flamencoish feel and of course the song is ripe with jams and solos. Excelente!
Review Summary :
Aside from a bit of noodling at the start of the last track, there's not really much negative to say about this album. The sound is relatively simple - you usually have dense (but not heavy) drumming forming a foundation with electric piano and flute or electric piano and sax playing and jamming on top, giving the music a very light feel. The bass is also excellent, sometimes predictable and other times unpredictable, either joining in with the flute and piano or siding more with the drums. It's clear that these are excellent musicians, yet for all their instrumental mastery, this is not a flashy record. Compared to later Return to Forever albums like f.ex Romantic Warrior (which is also excellent), the music is often less melody driven and the focus seems to be more about sounds and what they evoke in us, perhaps especially on the title track which is my favourite of the bunch. There's still a fair share of earwigs on this album and all hooks are relatively simple and effective.
On the whole, the album comes across as very improvisational and quite laidback, despite often fast tempos and wild solos. All the songs have a relaxing softness about them and they're just the thing to listen to when I'm at work, counting bugs.
At the moment of writing, this is my favourite jazz fusion album and I just don't seem to tire of it. I would recommend it to anyone who could enjoy jazz or jazz fusion and I think it's an easy album to like. Much of it's attraction is appearant, but even more is subtle and my tip to those who wanna try this one out is to just put it on while you're posting here or doing something else. Don't expect it to grab a hold of you instantly, but give it a spin and see where it takes you. I'm sure you'll like it!
Toretorden's Treasure Trove score : 6/6
Favourite tracks : All of them!
Many thanks to Anteater for getting me into these guys
