RETURNS

A short statement before starting this review: I'm a true Chick Corea fan and admirer, know and own quite a lot of his creation, especially from the 70's up to the middle 80's, but not much acquainted with his work with Return to forever, especially the late line-up. I'll try to concentrate at the show itself, with very few resembles to studio albums.

The show as it represented on this double disk album, and I assume that the tracks order is quite similar to the actual shows, is divided into 3 parts: The first part hold some strong RTF tracks, with collaboration between all players, solos, improvisations, and other extravaganzas, in an electrified environment. It takes about an hour. The second part got more acoustic, jazzy feeling in it. This is the part which I like the most. It takes about half an hour. The last part is dedicated to the 'Romantic Warrior' album, the tour the force of this band. It holds an expanded version of the track 'Romantic Warrior', with two very long solos (10 minuets each) from Stanley Clark on Bass, and Lenny White on Drums. The last track is an excellent performance to 'Dual for Jester and Tyrant', which close the show very nicely.

From the 'playing' point of view, it is a bit less than I thought and hoped it would be. Al Demiola's playing on the acoustic guitar is problematic for me here and not sound well enough in my opinion. I expected more from Stanley Clark, according to what I've heard from him in other collaboration with Chick Corea. Still, he sounds really good. Lenny White drumming style was never my cup of tea, but sounds alright here, and he does some nice and interesting things. And Chick Corea on piano and keys, is almost great as always, sound just a bit less brilliant than his studio albums, but still fantastic. However this overall criticism about each member playing does not concern to their excellent musicianship and collaboration.

Overall, it's a very nice and enjoyable performance. I just expected for more. I'm not sure that this is an essential album, but on the other hand, it's a great chance to listen to RTF live show, recorded on today standards and without any vinyl limitation on the tracks length. As a result we get a good representation of many solos and improvisations by the band, and as a jazz band (after all), it is a very important issue - Albeit this un-limited tracks could lead to some too-long tracks. (And this might happen here on some tracks). In summary, for the band fans or even just Corea fans (such as me), this is not something to be missed. For others, maybe this album would not stand on first priority among the band's discography.