Return to Forever
Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972.[2] The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhunters, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is often cited as one of the core groups of the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola, came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever albums.
This article is about the jazz fusion band. For the debut album by this band, see Return to Forever (Chick Corea album). For the 2015 Scorpions album, see Return to Forever (Scorpions album).
Return to Forever
New York City, United States
1972–1977, 1983, 2008, 2010–2021
After playing on Miles Davis's jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970), Corea formed an avant-garde jazz band called Circle with Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. In 1972, after converting to Scientology, Corea decided he wanted to communicate better with his audience. This meant performing a more accessible style of music than avant-garde jazz.
Return to Forever first disbanded in 1977 after five years and seven studio albums. The band never released another studio album, but occasionally reunited for live performances until Corea's death in 2021.
History[edit]
First group (1972–1973)[edit]
The first edition of Return to Forever performed primarily Latin-oriented music.[2] This initial band consisted of singer and percussionist Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira (both Brazilians) on drums and percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, and the young Stanley Clarke on bass.[2] Within this first line-up in particular, Clarke played acoustic double bass in addition to electric bass. Corea's Fender Rhodes electric piano formed the basis of this group's sound; he had yet to discover synthesizers, his trademark sound in the group's later years. Clarke and Farrell were given ample solo space themselves. While Purim's vocals lent some commercial appeal to the music, many of their compositions were also instrumental and somewhat experimental in 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 quite often Scientology-themed.
Their first album, titled simply Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972,[2] and was initially released only in Europe. This album featured Corea's now 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 (1974), which featured Corea's compositions, including some from the first and second Return to Forever albums. Their second album, Light as a Feather (1973),[2] was released by Polydor and included the song "Spain", which also became quite well known.