Robben Ford Discussion

AndyR · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 8:19 am Post subject: RTF2

For those who are interested, the original Return To Forever are back together and touring:

http://www.return2forever.com/index.cfm

Andy

telefunk1 · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:02 am Post subject:

Some friends of mine saw them in Austin recently and said they were outstanding. But not cheap - tix were over 100 buck a pop. ouch.

Red Suede · Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 12:27 pm Post subject:

I saw this a couple of weeks ago. They all played really well, especially Chick who was phenomenal. You could see that they were a little bored playing 30 year old material. I read somewhere that this tour is for the fans that wanted to hear the old material, cause the last time they toured they played new material and the fans were ticked. They will do this tour and next year write a new record. Can't wait for that. I can understand if they were bored, cause I used to practice that material when I was 18-19 years old and i'm 50 now, so imagine how they must feel. Anyway Al's tone was really good and I think he was using a Fuchs head for the most part. A friend of mine works for Boogie and he said they got him into the same head (Lone Star) that Andy Timmons uses, but I don't know if he was using it or not. He sure sounded good though.

AndyR · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:17 am Post subject:

Thanks for the review, Red Suede!

Now I'm ambivalent about going to see them. Mad

I was a pretty die-hard RTF fan back in the day, too.

My high-school band teacher took a few of us to see RTF with Bill Connors on guitar in '74.

In '76, I remember seeing Al DiMeola playing his first tour with RTF, he was reading the charts on-stage (I think was 18 years old.)

I don't think I want to see them if they're bored playing the music.

I don't want them to become a fusion version of the Eagles!!! Laughing

Andy

AlChuck · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

Just wanted to mention that this was not the original Return to Forever lineup. The first lineup was Chick and Stanley with Joe Farrell on sax and flute, Flora Purim on vocals, and Airto Moreira on drums and percussion. Chick played acoustic and electric piano, Stanley played upright. They had two albums, Return to Forever on ECM and Light As a Feather on Polydor. The music was very Latin-flavored and was much more of a jazz group, no rock feel at all.

Then came the second lineup, which was when the direction changed to electric guitar-driven fusion with electric bass and a heavy rock feel. This was Chick, Stanley, Lenny White, with Bill Connors on guitar. They recorded Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy on Polydor.

Then came the third lineup, where the musical approach stayed the same but Bill Connors was replaced by Al DiMeola. This lineup recorded three albums: Where Have I Known You Before and No Mystery on Polydor, and finally, Romantic Warrior on Columbia.

After this group broke up Corea and Clarke recorded one more album under the group name of Return to Forever, but it was very different - the fourth lineup featuring Corea's wife Gayle Moran on vocals (she had also been in the second lineup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra along with Jean-Luc Ponty, Narada Michael Walden, and a string section) and a four-piece horn section. They recorded Musicmagic for Columbia.

Red Suede · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:18 am Post subject:

Well, when I talk about Return To Forever, i'm talking about the quartets with guitar (Bill for the one record and then Al), even though I know a lot of the stuff off "Light As A Feather". I generally won't listen to music for too long if my instrument isn't represented, Chick, Michael Brecker, Miles, Jaco, and Joe Zawinul notwithstanding. Great composers hold my attention usually, so if it's great composition (to me) without guitar I can hang in there usually.