Having got into Chick Corea via the classic albums he made in the mid to late 70s to early 80s (Mad Hatter, Three Quartets etc) I was keen to get some Return to Forever in my collection. This is the ideal starting place. A 2cd anthology with many of the classic tracks the group recorded over many years.
So you get 500 Miles High, Light as a Feather and No Mystery to name but three. The tracks from the early albums are my favorites though I'm slowly being won over by the more frantic electric fusion tracks. Of particular interest are the 4 unreleased live tracks, 3 of which feature Steve Gadd on drums. He was originally going to be the RTF drummer when the band went electric but wouldn't commit to the touring so this never happened. However the rare live performances here with Gadd on drums, are worth hearing, especially the epic 14 minute version of Corea's Spain.
As a summary of the bands output this is a great collection to have. Unfortunately its wetted my appetite and I'm now going to have to buy the first couple of albums as well!
I have these tracks in album form, but having them in digital form will be cool also.
What can I say? prodigious jamming from one of the pillars of the Fusion movement. A raw, funky mix of Jazz, Rock, Latin & Classical that never fails to take me back to better days & better bands.
This is well worth picking up for anyone curious about RTF, especially for three tracks from a radio concert featuring the very short-lived lineup of Corea, Clarke, the great Bill Connors, Steve Gadd and Mingo Lewis (also, these tracks are mysteriously unavailable on iTunes' version of this now OOP CD). It covers the band's Polydor records period, which means that there are no tracks from "Romantic Warrior," RTF's big hit. I like the Connors version more than Al DiMeola's more gymnastic approach, though the group are all fine writers, which keeps their work from descending into wankdom. Good overview, but all of their recordings leading up to the jump-the-shark "Musicmagic" record are worth hearing as are some incendiary live shows that are out there.