RETURN TO FOREVER: LIVE

This is a great jazz album. It is also a pretty good fusion album, although the fusion is oftentimes scarce. The biggest problem is that the album is branded as a Return To Forever album. And Return To Forever, despite the preceding studio album, "Music Magic", was known for exceptional fusion. So an album that is about two thirds jazz without fusion that calls itself Return To Forever is something of a disappointment.

The album was the swan song of the group, up until the recent reformation. But it contained no songs from any of the studio albums before "Music Magic". There are, however, four of the six songs from that album. Each of those songs fare better here than on the original studio versions.

It helps that Chick Corea was at the height of his keyboard prowess at the time of this concert. Both his piano and electric keyboard playing are spectacular. Stanley Clarke is a bit more subdued. Only his piccolo bass playing, substituting for guitar solos stands out. His acoustic bass solo is good, but I've seen and heard him play much better.

So, for a jazz fan, this is a very fine album. But if you are looking for the soaring fusion of RTF, I would recommend looking elsewhere.