Stanley Clarke is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status.
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.
Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhunters, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is often cited as one of the core groups of the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola, came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever albums.
The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions is a four-disc box set by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis compiling recordings between August 19, 1969, and February 6, 1970—including the 1970 double album Bitches Brew in its entirety—and released on Columbia/Legacy on November 24, 1998.
Airto Guimorvan Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer, composer and percussionist. He is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the Brazilian ensemble Quarteto Novo, he moved to the United States and worked in jazz fusion with Miles Davis, Return to Forever, Weather Report and Santana.
Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy is a studio album by American jazz fusion band Return to Forever. It was released in October 1973 by Polydor. It was the first album not to feature Flora Purim, Airto and Joe Farrell, and marked a shift away from the largely acoustic fusion they created. Drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors make their first appearances with the group. Connors would leave shortly after the album's release.
No Mystery (1975) is a studio album by jazz-rock fusion band Return to Forever, and the second featuring the quartet of Chick Corea, guitarist Al Di Meola, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White.
Where Have I Known You Before is a studio album by Return to Forever, the first featuring guitarist Al Di Meola, and the second since leader Chick Corea switched to mostly electric instrumentation, playing music heavily influenced by progressive rock, funk and classical.
Romantic Warrior is a studio album by the American jazz fusion band Return to Forever, their first recorded for Columbia Records, after releasing their previous four albums on Polydor. In February 1976, the group retreated to Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado to record. It was the first album to remove the "featuring Chick Corea" credit from beside the band name on the album cover. Despite the music being more dense and avant-garde than the funkier No Mystery, it remains the band's highest selling album with over 500,000 copies sold in the US alone.
Bill Connors is an American jazz guitarist who was a member of Chick Corea's band Return to Forever. After leaving Return to Forever, he recorded three acoustic albums and then three electric albums as a leader/soloist.
Children of Forever is the debut album by jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke. It was recorded in December 1972, and was released in 1973 by Polydor Records. On the album, Clarke is joined by vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Andy Bey, flutist Arthur Webb, guitarist Pat Martino, keyboardist Chick Corea, and drummer Lenny White.
Return to the 7th Galaxy: The Anthology is a 1996 compilation of 1972-1975 recordings made by bands assembled by Chick Corea under the name Return to Forever. The collection includes tracks from the albums Light as a Feather, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before and No Mystery, together with four previously unreleased tracks.
Chick Corea (1941–2021) was an American jazz pianist and composer born on June 12, 1941, in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Corea started learning piano at age four. He recorded his first album, Tones for Joan's Bones, in 1966. Corea performed with Blue Mitchell, Willie Bobo, Cal Tjader and Herbie Mann in the mid-1960s. In the late 1960s he performed with Stan Getz and Miles Davis. The National Endowment for the Arts states, "He ranked with Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett as one of the leading piano stylists to emerge after Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and he composed such notable jazz standards as 'Spain', 'La Fiesta', and 'Windows'."
Return to Forever: The Anthology is a compilation of the "electric years" of jazz fusion band Return to Forever. The collection features newly remixed selections from Where Have I Known You Before and No Mystery, along with the entire Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy and Romantic Warrior albums. Remixing was performed by Mick Guzauski at Mad Hatter Studios, with mastering by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.
Echoes of an Era is an album by American R&B/jazz singer Chaka Khan, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, released in 1982 on Elektra Records.
Returns is a live album by American fusion band Return to Forever. Released in 2009 by Eagle Records, it is the first recording by the band after a hiatus of 32 years. Also in 2009 a video recording of the band's live performances from the "Returns" tour at Montreux, Switzerland and Clearwater, Florida was released by Eagle Rock Entertainment as Returns: Live at Montreux 2008.
In the 1970s in jazz, jazz became increasingly influenced by Latin jazz, combining rhythms from African and Latin American countries, often played on instruments such as conga, timbale, güiro, and claves, with jazz and classical harmonies played on typical jazz instruments. Artists such as Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola increasingly influenced the genre with jazz fusion, a hybrid form of jazz-rock fusion which was developed by combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments, and the highly amplified stage sound of rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix. All Music Guide states that "..until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate." However, "...as rock became more creative and its musicianship improved, and as some in the jazz world became bored with hard bop and did not want to play strictly avant-garde music, the two different idioms began to trade ideas and occasionally combine forces." On June 16, 1972, the New York Jazz Museum opened in New York City at 125 West 55th Street in a one and one-half story building. It became the most important institution for jazz in the world with a 25,000 item archive, free concerts, exhibits, film programs, etc.
The Mothership Returns is a live two CD/single DVD set by the fusion band Return to Forever. Released 18 June 2012 by Eagle Rock Entertainment, it documents music performed during the 2011 tour, for which Return to Forever was expanded to a quintet with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and new members Jean-Luc Ponty on violin and Frank Gambale on guitar. The album peaked #6 in the 2012 and 2013 Jazz Album charts.
Forever is a double CD album of live acoustic recordings recorded in California, Tokyo and Seattle in 2009 by the Return to Forever pianist Chick Corea, bass player Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White and studio rehearsals with guests Jean-Luc Ponty, Bill Connors and Chaka Khan. It was released on the Concord label I 2011.
Letizia Gambi is an Italian singer-songwriter and actress. Her music is a fusion between her Italian and Neapolitan heritage and Black-American jazz roots. Gambi performs and records in English, Italian, Neapolitan and Spanish and is best known for her work with Lenny White, Ron Carter, Gato Barbieri, Chick Corea, Wallace Roney, Patrice Rushen, Gil Goldstein, Helen Sung, Pete Levin. She has been awarded with the San Gennaro Award and was nominated for the Targa Tenco. Letizia is a Recording Academy voting member since 2010.
