Return to Forever

Return to Forever has been setting high standards for jazz rock fusion music since Chick
Corea and Stanley Clarke first formed it in 1972. RTF I was a Braziliantinged group, as well it
might have been since Chick and Stan shared the spotlight with drummer Airto and vocalist
Flora Purim. RTF II, of which the present band is a lineal descendant, was much more in the
hard rock mainstream. Corea, who was one of the most distinctive keyboard pla... More >

Right on schedule, two or three years behind John McLaughlin, Chick Corea tries to eat the fusion cyclotron. Where McLaughlin fell for a few silly orchestral trappings, Corea essays pompous, ersatz-classical compositions--while continuing to display Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White in all their dazzling vacuity. Jazz-rock's answer to Emerson, Lake & Palmer--the worst of both worlds. (Grade: D+)