There are about half-a-dozen records from my early teens that I would consider defining recordings and listening experiences, which would shape my tastes for years to come. One of those records was No Mystery by Return To Forever. I was exposed to the album when I was walking through my high school campus and walked past a group kids listening to the local soul and R&B station, KSOL. They were playing this outrageously funky track, which immediately grabbed me and held me in that spot until the baritone back announce told us that it was “Jungle Waterfall” by Return To Forever. The track and the band name was etched into my brain and on my next outing to the record store, I sought it out. When I got home I played “Jungle Waterfall” over and over again. But eventually I migrated to the outer fringes of the grooves where I experienced the fractal dissonance of jazz for the first time as Chick Corea deconstructed piano melodies while Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Al Di Meola furiously buzzed around Corea’s manic keyboard runs. That record lit my fuse for fusion and set me out on a quest to find more of the rock/jazz hybrid sound.

The personalities in RTF were ultimately greater than the sum of its parts. Di Meola was being lauded as the next great jazz guitar god, while Stanley Clarke quickly became the most influential bass player since Mingus. Lenny White had smooth jazz and soul crossover aspirations and Corea, who started RTF loeked down his territorial rights as the leader of a band of creative geniuses with wildly different agendas. First Di Meola left, then White and the essence of RTF changed irrevocably.Fast-forward 34 years and the seemingly impossible has occurred—Return To Forever are back together, touring to support a “best of” release on Concord Jazz. The original lineup is intact, yet albeit more grey than they were in the heady days of post Bitches Brew possibilities.

There’s no guarantee that this will spur more recordings and tours, so like a rare comet passing through the night sky, see them while you can and experience one of the most important contributors to the history of not just jazz but western music.

To see RTF’s tour dates, you can go to the Concord Jazz website.

by Robert Phoenix
Robert Phoenix moves freely among a vast array of realities, but tends to focus-in on music and human evolution.