No Mystery - Return To Forever

May

21

No Mystery - Return To Forever

≡ Category: 1970s, Classics That I Hate, Don't Bother, Fusion, Jazz Funk, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

CLASSICS THAT I HATE

Rating:

After a brief two-album flirtation with Brazilian jazz, Return To Forever shifted to it’s most popular incarnation, a kind of swaggering but lightweight combination of funk, arena rock cliches, Chick Corea’s cheesy Latinisms, and a touch of jazz. That didn’t turn out to be such a bad thing ultimately, as it produced the classic Romantic Warrior.

Unfortunately, it also produced lesser works like No Mystery.

No Mystery is mostly pretty disposable stuff, like the glittery funk baubles Dayride and Sofistifunk. It doesn’t help that Chick Corea’s synthesizer patches are horribly dated. No, I take that back. They sounded cheesy back then, and time hasn’t helped.

My eyes were glazing over in boredom listening to tracks like Al Dimeola’s Flight Of The Newborn. It’s all empty histrionics with next to no musical content.

Relief comes in the form of the acoustic tracks like No Mystery and Interplay. For some reason, the acoustic format seems to bring out the best from Corea as a composer with this band. And frankly, Return To Forever in this incarnation was a hell of an acoustic band. Lenny White, while admittedly a good funk drummer, was perfectly capable of playing percussion. Stanley Clarke was wonderful on standup, whether plucking or bowing. Al Dimeola’s virtuosity was put to good use, either playing Corea’s beautiful lines or making his guitar sounding like a mandolin by quadrupal picking each note. Best of all, we can relish Corea’s expert touch on piano rather than having our ears assaulted by his awful synth patches.

If you’re really, really into fusion or a Chick Corea completist, you might want to pick this up. For everyone else, I recommend downloading just the tunes No Mystery and Interplay.

There is one more option. Usually, on the Return To Forever dates that feature Al Dimeola, there are one or two good acoustic tunes. You could get all of the Return To Forever dates and then cobble together a perfectly good full length CD with the best stuff.