Return to Forever
Members:Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, Steve Gadd, Al Di Meola, Flora Purim, Bill Connors, Earl Klugh, Ronn Moss, Airto Moreira, Joe Farrell, James E. Pugh, Frank Gambale, Jean-Luc Ponty, Gayle Moran Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by pianist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report 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, first came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever's albums. After playing on Miles Davis's groundbreaking jazz-fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Corea formed an avant-garde jazz band called Circle with Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton and Barry Altschul. However in 1972, after having become a disciple of Scientology, Corea decided that he wanted to better "communicate" with the audience. This essentially translated into his performing a more popularly accessible style of music, since avant-garde jazz enjoyed a relatively small audience. The first edition of Return to Forever performed primarily Latin-oriented music.
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