Corea Clarke

Pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White have teamed up once again to revisit their common roots in the seminal fusion band Return to Forever. On June 7, 2011, Concord Jazz released Forever, a two-CD set of 18 tunes that include updated RTF classics as well as jazz trio standards. In support of the release, a tour is planned for next summer.

The first four tracks on this double live record are extended version of tunes from the group's 1982 studio album. The last two are Thelonius Monk's "I Mean You" and the standard "Here's That Rainy Day." There's some great playing from all involved, especially Joe Henderson and Chick Corea, but the recording quality leaves something to be desired.

This unique straight-ahead jazz project unites three core members of Return to Forever with post-bop horn heavyweights Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson. Stanley Clarke makes an unusual appearance on upright bass, and plays it well. Chick Corea and Lenny White round out the ensemble. The set is strictly acoustic, beginning and ending with two Lenny White tunes, the lively "L's Bop" and the somber, dramatic "Guernica," respectively. Clarke contributes the catchy, mid-tempo blues "Why Wait," while Corea gives us "October Ballade" and Hubbard dusts off his hard-bop classic "Happy Times." Corea's trio featured on Steve Swallow's "Remember" breaks things up nicely.

The legendary first lineup of Chick Corea's fusion band Return to Forever debuted on this classic album (titled after the group but credited to Corea), featuring Joe Farrell on soprano sax and flute, the Brazilian team of vocalist Flora Purim and drummer/percussionist Airto Moreira, and electric bass whiz Stanley Clarke. It wasn't actually released in the U.S. until 1975, which was why the group's second album, Light as a Feather, initially made the Return to Forever name. Nonetheless, Return to Forever is every bit as classic, using a similar blend of spacy electric-piano fusion and Brazilian and Latin rhythms. It's all very warm, light, and airy, like a soft breeze on a tropical beach – hardly the sort of firebrand approach to fusion that Miles Davis, Tony Williams, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra were exploring, and far less rooted in funk or rock.

Stanley Clarke's debut solo effort was issued when he was already a seasoned jazz veteran, and a member of Chick Corea's Return to Forever, which at the time of this recording also included Joe Farrell on soprano sax and flute, and the Brazilian team of vocalist Flora Purim and drummer/percussionist Airto Moreira. Produced by Corea, who plays Rhodes, clavinet, and acoustic piano on Children of Forever, the band included flutist Art Webb, then-new RtF drummer Lenny White, guitarist Pat Martino, and a vocal pairing in the inimitable Andy Bey and Dee Dee Bridgewater on three of the five cuts – Bey appears on four. Clarke plays both electric and acoustic bass on the set; and while it would be easy to simply look at this recording as an early fusion date, that would be a tragic mistake.