Return to Forever
May 31st, 2008 . by Alexander FisherI know why the hard rock crowd loved Return to Forever in the 1970’s. They were great musicians when that still counted. I am not sure you could have the "crossover" appeal now that they had then. I doubt if you could get Chick Corea to dance in a video.
Press 
to watch "Return to Forever Tour 2008"
This was during a time when I was listening to jazz on the radio and buying jazz records. Although I listened to modern jazz, I still was mainly a hard rock fan. My interest in jazz was predominately jazz-rock fusion. I had a few Stan Getz and Dave Brubeck albums, but I was more interested in fusion bands like Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, and Phil Collin’s Brand X.
I always thought that Chick Corea was one of the best keyboard players I had ever heard. Stanley Clarke is certainly the greatest bass
guitar player I know of. Lenny White could play drums remarkably. But the member that I really felt made this lineup of Return to Forever the best, was guitarist Al Di Meola.
I read an article once about Al Di Meola, where he said that he would lock himself in a closet when he was young and play guitar for up to eight hours a day. He certainly has the fastest left-hand of any right-handed electric guitar player that I have ever seen. His pick control is just amazing. There were other great jazz-rock fusion guitar players from the 70’s like Carlos Santana and "Mahavishnu" John McLaughlin. Though I believe they were as good or better, somehow their "rockstar" status would have prevented them from meshing with the equally accomplished musicians in Return to Forever as well as the twenty-one year old Al did.
In 1976 Al released his first solo album called "Land of the Midnight Sun". That particular album will always be one of my favorites in my music collection. He was the guitarist in the most talented lineup of Return to Forever and Romantic Warrior was the the best album they recorded, in my opinion.
That same lineup is reforming for a summer 2008 tour. Above is a promotional video for that event. It contains an excellent performance from their first rehearsal.
