Review: Return to Forever
by Luciana Lopez, The Oregonian
Sunday June 08, 2008, 2:16 PM
What's one part rock, two parts jazz, and one part aerobics class? That would be Return to Forever's show on Friday night at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, where the audience gave more standing ovations than, say, the total goals scored in a typical (or even atypical) soccer game.
If the ovations were a tad, ahem, over-enthusiastic, they were at least understandable: The jazz fusion quartet rose to fame in the '70s, with several seminal recordings that marked the collision of jazz and rock, but have been absent for 25 years, leaving behind fans who've remained hungry for more of the band's pioneering music.
But even considering the high expectations -- Chick Corea on piano and keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass, Al Di Meola on guitar and Lenny White on drums, have all had important careers since Return to Forever -- the band was simply outstanding. This is no besmirching-the-legacy-so-called-comeback tour with cashing in as the main object; they are, instead, cementing their place in the jazz pantheon for a whole new generation, many of whom have never heard the band live. One fan, leaving the concert hall, mentioned that he'd often listened to the band in his car. "But I never thought I'd see them live," he gushed.
Corea, who founded the band, was jocular between songs and playful during them, coaxing emotional depth from even his electronic instruments. Di Meola was a laid-back figure with a touch so light that his blazing guitar work felt organic rather than forced. Clarke was both the figurative and literal center of the band, standing in the middle of the stage and shaping the music from both his acoustic and electric basses with a broad vision for his instruments, capable of both laying down a groove and jaw-dropping solos. And White played his drums with a cheekiness that only enhanced his ear for rhythm.
The band fuses the improvisations and rhythmic fearlessness of jazz with the electric passion of rock. During their almost three-hour show, they played the first half of the show plugged in, but went acoustic for most of the second half. They played two encores, in between which audience members stood at the front of the stage, begging to shake hands with band members or score autographs. (Mental note: Add crowd frenzy to their list of rock attributes.)
To repurpose a saying about Brazil: Jazz is the music of the future, and always will be - or at least jazz fusion is. From the 21st century perspective, there's something almost retro about Return to Forever's vision of the future. Their fusion is the future as it existed in the minds of the 1970s, a gleaming landscape of electronics and moon bases and jet packs. The romance is redeemed by the sharpness of the execution, by the band's brilliance. And while remnants of the '70s remain in their music, the band's improvisations refresh the music constantly, keeping, perhaps, something that is still futuristic within.
