Memories in Wax #2 – Return To Forever – Where Have I Known You Before

All my memories won’t be about jazz records, but this one is one I wanted to jot down before I forget. I took a jazz class my freshmen year fall semester of college. The class was called the History of Jazz and it was ran by Professor PJ. PJ is an incredible professor and is definitely passionate about jazz. A guitar player himself, he carried us through each generation of jazz and really cemented a wide variety of historically important artists and musicians into my brain. From Louis Armstrong and Willie “The Lion” Smith, to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, to John Scofield and Chick Corea, he covered the gamut of jazz greats. In my senior year, I took a course called Black Experience Music that covered Black Negro Spirituals, as well as jazz and early rock and roll. I took that class with my roommate Rob, and it was due to this class that I decided to buy tickets to go to a jazz concert. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I bought tickets for Rob and I to see Chick Corea and his group Return To Forever.

There was only one slight issue; I’d never heard any of his or their music. This was roughly in May of 2016. In July, I went into New York city with my at the time girlfriend, and we ended up at a flea market/community street sale where they were selling clothes, jewelry, and of course, records. She knew I’d move absolutely no where from this vendor, so while she meandered about, I dug for records. I eventually stumbled upon this one. I bought it off the strength of the album title, and hoped for the best.

What I ended up grabbing was one of my all time favorite jazz fusion albums. From the every first track, Chick takes you on this luscious journey and the band is just stellar. Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and Al Di Meola are all incredible artists and strike an incredible balance between accenting Chick’s explorative playing while also flaunting their capabilities as musicians themselves.

Vulcan Words and The Shadow of Lo are two standout tracks that I thoroughly recommend anyone check out. This album really put me on to jazz Fusion and really showed me just how far jazz progressed from ragtime and stride piano playing that preceded it by forty years. While I’m sure there are other jazz fusion albums out there that sound incredible, I’d easily put this up against any other in the sub-genre like “Heavy Weather” or “HeadHunters”.