CHICK COREA: RETURN TO FOREVER

Now, my knowledge of music theory is somewhat limited (I have taken several years of band class, and did quite a bit of saxophone plodding after, and boy can I sure play a mean first ten seconds of Stairway to Heaven, but I am hardly an expert). I will say that a good 20% of loving fusion comes from a love of complexity and structure. Sheet music for these songs must be a veritable storm of ink and confusion. Don't take my judgment for the music here in any measure other than purely from entertainment, suffice me to say that obviously Chick and his buddies are real pros at whatever it is they're bashing out. The album is made up of four songs ? two long, two short. They packaged the shorter songs between the longer ones, which was smart of them. It's hard to listen to those mammoth songs without a pause between. The music is a very soft, ethereal blend of jamming. The title track (their personal song as it were) is of note in how the cool, flowing keyboard rhythms split apart echoing flute solos. The man's a wizard, even through the psychotic cave wailings that enter in halfway through. For the sake of sanity, they placed a couple of somber, thoughtful ballads, the first being my favorite on the record, 'Crystal Silence', which is highlighted by a husky, painful saxophone solo. 'What Games Shall We Play Today', though, is accentuated by the sweet vocals and sugary pop flutes. Finally, the album closes on the monster side-long epic 'Sometime Ago', which has a few excellent ideas, but it's predictably a little too long for my tastes. Even with all the flaws, this album presents the finest sides to fusion in short pop sensibility and extended jamming.

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