Chick Corea: Return To Forever (1972)

Return To Forever

Chick Corea, Stanley Clark, Flora Purim, Joe Farrell, Airto Moreira

This album was the first to arise from the Return To Forever project. I discovered this album in amongst my music collection, and was very attracted to it’s sound and feel. I had been listening to Return To Forever albums in the past, such as “Light As A Feather”, and “Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy”, and I really enjoyed the music. I like this album because it sums up what the project, Return To Forever was all about in a single 46 minute album. It gives the listener a taste of the type of music that was going to be released in later albums.

“Return To Forever” (track 1) , the opening track to the album sets the feel, mood, and a standard for the rest of the album. A high standard. I would argue that the first track is the most important one on an album. It’s the first thing that the listener hears, and remembers. Depending on how the listener felt about it, determines their feelings towards the rest of the album. I believe Corea (electric piano) was aware of this when the track listing was set. The song opens with a spooky, quiet, and gentle keyboard and vocal (Purim) line. From there, it builds. More and more is added, and the intensity in the music develops. It grows and grows; builds and builds, until it reaches an anti-climax and dies away, back to the original spooky melody. The song builds again, but with a different feel and melody, redeveloping the intensity. As it is building for the second time, the music begins to take on chaotic aspects, rather than adhering to strictly musical, melodic or harmonic rules. Once again, the intensity dies away, and the spooky phrase closes off the song. A 12 minute epic, and a great way to open this debut album.

“Crystal Silence” (track 2): I listen to music a lot. One of the things I do is listen to CD’s while I sleep (That’s how addicted I am to music!). I remember listening to this tune, not knowing it’s title, and soaking up it’s soft, gentle feel as I slept. I recently looked at the track list for the album and recognized the title from some other Chick Corea album I had been actively listening to. Funnily enough, the album was called “Crystal Silence”. This song is 7 minutes of mellow saxophone (Farrell) brilliance. Farrell and Corea take turns playing simple, melodic phrases without crowding the air. I love this tune because it is gentle and soft, but far from boring. Each musician finds some way to contribute to the sound. The drums are void in this piece, but the sounds of percussion are occasionally present. Listening to it, I couldn’t name all the different types of percussion used by Moreira. He produces sounds that you might find in nature, or at least outside, using various shakers and the like. Another reason why I love this tune, is because no single member dominates it. No-one is playing for the sake of playing, or being musically egotistical.

“What Game Shall We Play Today?” (track 3), is one their more radio-friendly tunes. At 4:29, it is a nice change from the more lengthy introductory tracks. This tune is definitely more structured than the songs on the rest of the album. I see this tune as a mainstream pop song, but funked and jazzed up. I see it as a pop song with an instrumental edge. The first verse, sung beautifully by Purim is followed up by a short instrumental section leading back into the second verse. What I believe makes this song so catchy and enjoyable, is how the melody is shared between the musicians. It is first played by the flute (Farrell) during the instrumental introduction. The flute really makes this tune. It would be very different if Farrell were to switch over to the saxophone for instance. Since the flute is a much quieter instrument, it contributes more musical possibilities in terms of harmony and phrasing. Flora then takes the front stage, contributing the lyrical feel of the song. Corea also plays small phrases of the melody, but not as much as the others. Tunes such as this one are stylistically Return To Forever. Many of their tunes are straight forward, simple songs that are so melodic and memorable. It stays in your head for days.

“Sometime Ago – La Fiesta” (track 4): This is an epic piece of musical brilliance. It expresses a deep sincerity to musical movement, style, and space. You can hear jazz, mainstream and even Mexican musics in this tune. The concept of leaving space in music, to allow for suspense and feel is a very big part of this tune. It is a very mood oriented piece, that embraces several different ways of approaching music and sound. This piece explores ways in which a sound can be achieved in simple, complex, and bizarre ways. La Fiesta is an experimentation of musical forms, and a mockery to traditional song structure. This song presents to the listener a representation of what Return To Forever music is all about. The listener cannot come up with, or pin-point any single musical style that this tune would fit under. It’s a big “melting-pot” of ideas, styles and sounds. Stanley Clark (bass) rips it up on his bass solo at the beginning of the piece. He closes off his solo with a very hard plucked bottom E. I love the upright bass, and I enjoy the sound of the rattle when hard notes are plucked. I cannot explain this note that he played, you just have to hear it. After eight minutes, the vocals (Flora) come in with the melody. All the instrumentation prior to this was purely expressive, and seemingly unrelated to the vocal feel of the song. The musicians manage to transition smoothly from the free playing section, to the vocal section. There’s not much more that I can say about this tune, it’s just too amazing to sugarcoat with any more words. Check it out.

I can honestly say that there was no part of this album that I didn’t like. It’s clear to me that when this album was written, a lot of thought went into the pieces. Corea wanted to get the most out of every musical section, and create vocal melodies that were as melodic as possible. Enough said, go get this album. I know you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

I gave this album, overall, an 8½ out of 10.

That’s all for now. If you have any questions about this album, or music general, please feel free to contact me. I hope this has been an inspiring read! Thanks as always.

Talk to you soon,

Jared