SOUND INSIGHTS: Return to Forever The Complete Columbia Albums .

After a prodigious session career in the 1960s, several solo albums that toyed with both the traditional and freer forms of love and a mercurial period of experimentation with Miles Davis between 1968 and 1972, pianist and composer Chick Corea crystalized the notion of his first "group" endeavor, to be known as Counter to Forever.

Corea recorded his design for the conception with his tremendous Return to Forever album for ECM Records in February 1972.

The album collected the talents of reed player Joe Farrell (1937-86), who featured on the pianist`s 1967 Tones For Joan`s Bones (Corea is also heard on Farrell`s first two CTI records, Joe Farrell Quartet and, brilliantly, on Outback), young up and coming electric bassist Stanley Clarke, percussionist and former Miles mate Airto Moreira and Airto`s wife, Flora Purim, on vocals and percussion. and yielded three near standards in Corea`s "Crystal Silence," "What Game Shall We Meet Now" and "La Fiesta."

The next month, Corea, Clarke and Moreira backed Stan Getz for the saxophonist`s terrific album Captain Marvel, which wasn`t issued until 1975, and so all 5 of the Return to Forever musicians collected (with others) to wax Airto`s CTI classic Free. Corea, Clarke, Farrell, Moreira and Purim finally reconvened in October 1972 to record Return to Forever`s Polydor debut, Light as a Feather, which includes Corea`s now standard "Spain."

Airto and Flora left shortly thereafter to make their own group, Fingers, as did Joe Farrell, who formed his own quartet. Guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added to the group, but Gadd`s studio duties prevented him from staying. By the sentence of the group`s second album, Hymn of the 7th Galaxy (featuring Corea`s well-known "Seor Mouse"), Corea, Connors and Clarke were linked by drummer and percussionist Lenny White.

Tired of touring and the required adherence to his electric instrument, Bill Connors left the radical and was replaced by recent Berklee School of Music alum Al Di Meola. The Corea/Di Meola/Clarke/White configuration then recorded 1974`s Where Have I Known You Before and 1975`s No Mystery for Polydor.

In 1976, Chick Corea took Return to Forever to the mighty Columbia Records label, where the group waxed only three releases in an 18-month period. One of these recordings is the group`s most significant recording and yet another represents one of the group`s best recorded performances. One is an under-appreciated gem that deserves more appreciation.

Under the management of reissue producer Richard Seidel, Sony has done a masterful job collecting Return to Forever`s three Columbia recordings on this lush six-CD box set called Return to Forever - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection.

The set is packaged in a handsome, sturdy box that fits easily on most CD shelves with each individual album packaged in replica mini LP sleeves, reproducing the master record`s exact graphics, and a 27-page booklet with complete discographical information, photos and new liner notes by Chick Corea and musician/historian/producer Bob Belden. It`s a treasure trove of music, immaculately packaged and beautifully presented, well worth reconsidering for the surprisingly timeless surplus of art it contains.

Romantic Warrior (1976): After four albums on Polydor, Chick Corea`s Return to Forever moved to Columbia Records, even though Corea the solo artist remained with Polydor for the best piece of the decade. Columbia was internal to other fusion leaders of the day like Miles Davis, Weather Report, John McLaughlin`s Mahavishnu Orchestra and Herbie Hancock. Note here that all, including Corea, were attached to the trumpeter`s electric phase. Little wonder that Columbia should have named their reissue line "Legacy." And this is simply the jazz fusion portion of Columbia`s holdings.

In February 1976, Corea and company headed to Chicago producer James Guercio`s popular and isolated Caribou Ranch in a distant portion of Colorado to wax what was to get the group`s definitive musical statement, Romantic Warrior. Without a doubt, the album is the top of the group`s creative and artistic vision. It`s a fusion classic and, coming out of 1976, surely one of the music`s final highlights. Placing their musical topography somewhere in the middle ages, RTF rethinks its strategy to be more large scale and consciously more musical; an electrically-charged Ellingtonian statement that is alike a soundtrack for a non-existent film or an electronic symphony for a post-jazz age.

With Chick Corea (piano, electric piano, clavinet, synthesizers, marimba and percussion), Al Di Meola (electric guitar, guitar, soprano guitar, hand-bells and slide-whistle), Stanley Clarke (electric bass, piccolo bass, bass, bell-tree and hand-bells) andLenny White (drums, timpani, congas, timbales, hand bells, snare drum, suspended cymbals, alarm clock) in a constitution that has since become known as "RTF 2" - the same group waxed the group`s previous Where Have I Known You Before and No Mystery - Romantic Warrior features strong originals from all principals, including Lenny White`s "Sorceress" (my suffrage for the album`s best track), Al Di Meola`s "Majestic Dance," Stanley Clarke`s "The Magician" and Chick Corea`s "Medieval Overture," "The Romantic Warrior" and "Duel of the Fool and the Tyrant."

Romantic Warrior has been rightly available in one kind or another almost consistently since its original 1976 release and, in gain to its inclusion on Return to Forever - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection, can likewise be heard in its totality on the 2008 Concord set Return to Forever - The Anthology. No matter where it appears, it`s important music well worth hearing.

Musicmagic (1977): This surprising turnabout must have surprised many Fall to Forever fans in 1977, even those Chick Corea fans willing to be the bandleader down just about any long and unyieldingly winding path. Long derided and dismissed altogether by evening the most devoted Return to Constantly fan, Musicmagic really has much musical magic to offer, even if it isn`t served up like previous RTF albums.

The strait is remarkably more orchestral than anything the group had previously done, with a large dose of vocal leads and vamps that veer dangerously near to pop territories and, most surprisingly, solos on primarily acoustic instruments. It`s as annoying as it is fascinating and belike the purpose all along.

Only Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke remain from the former version of RTF, gathering a larger-than-usual group that became known as "RTF 3" including Corea (piano, Fender Rhodes, Minimoog, Hohner clavinet, Moog 15, Polymoog, ARP Odyssey and vocals), Clarke (electric bass, piccolo bass, bass, vocals), Gerry Brown (drums), original RTF reed player Joe Farrell (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flutes, piccolo), Chick Corea`s wife Gayle Moran (Hammond B-3 organ, Polymoog, piano, vocals), John Thomas (trumpet, flugelhorn),James Tinsley (trumpet, piccolo trumpet), Jim Pugh (tenor trombone) andHarold Garrett (tenor and bass trombone, baritone horn).

Again recorded at the Caribou Ranch in Colorado in January and February 1977, Musicmagic seems to keep the perfect joy of medicine with contributions from Corea ("The Musician"), Moran (the existential jazz ballad "Do You Ever"), Corea and Moran together ("Musicmagic," and the most typically RTF-sounding piece here, "The Eternal Night") and Clarke ("Hello Again" and the album`s single greatest moment, "So Long Mickey Mouse," offering particularly great spots for Farrell`s flute and soprano, Corea`s keyboard kaleidoscope and Clarke`s entrancing bass-ics).

Adventurous and enjoyable as it is, Musicmagic seemed to indicate that the Return to Forever concept had effectively run its course. The ever restless Corea was probably bored with the whole thing at this point, either not coming right to terms with his new RTF experiment or look ahead to other challenges altogether. This particular musical model was bewitching and new in 1972, when RTF waxed its first album, Light as a Feather, but after 1976`s masterful Romantic Warrior, there was just one way left for the group.

A monumental, but little-known, live album followed and soon thereafter, Corea disbanded the group. Not too long after this, Chick Corea abandoned electric keyboards altogether. Corea reunited with Clarke, White and guitarist Al Di Meola for one song ("Compadres") on Corea`s 1983 album Touchstone.

Then, many days after in 2008, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White came back together for a RTF reunion tour and in June 2011 issued a double-disc set of acoustic studio tracks and electric live tracks (with guests, including former RTF members) on Concord called Forever under the suspiciously non-RTF moniker of "Corea, Clarke & White."

Originally issued in March 1977, Musicmagic quickly disappeared before finding its way onto a limited-run, long out-of-print CD in 1990. Its inclusion in Return to Forever - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection is the album`s first domestic CD release in over two decades and a most welcome "return" it is.

Return to Forever Live - The Complete Concert (1978): This is effectively the net Pass to Forever album released and, perhaps, one of its most significant. It was recorded live at the Pd in New York City on May 20 and 21, 1977, as division of the Musicmagic tour, which led the group to see President Jimmy Carter the next month.

The performers here more or less match those heard on Musicmagic and include Chick Corea (Minimoog, Fender Rhodes, Moog 15, Oberheim 3 Voice, Hohner Clvinet, ARP Odyssey, MXR Digital Delay, Steinway piano), Stanley Clarke (Alembic basses, piccolo bass, bass, vocals), Joe Farrell (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, piccolo), Gayle Moran (vocals, Hammond B-3 organ, Yamaha electric piano, Mellotron, Minimoog), Gerry Brown (drums), John Thomas (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet),James Tinsley (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn), Jim Pugh (tenor trombone, baritone horn), Corea`s manager at the sentence and afterwards chairman of Corea`s Stretch Records, Ron Moss (tenor trombone) andHarold Garrett (bass trombone, baritone horn, tuba).

Needless to say, there is a superfluity of fantastic playing to be heard here that RTF`s studio albums probably prohibited, with inventive interjections from about all concerned, waxing eloquently over some very long passages that are sufficiently more worthwhile than their studio counterparts.

Return to Forever Live has an unusually peculiar history, though. It was originally issued as single LP release (Columbia JC 35281) in later summer 1978, with a track featuring Picasso's "Three Musicians" and the next line up:

Side 1
1. "So Long Mickey Mouse" (Stanley Clarke) - 6:53
2. "The Musician" (Chick Corea) - 7:03
3. "Chick's Piano" (Corea) - 4:35
4. "Musicmagic" (Corea, Gayle Moran) - 6:29

Side 2
1. "The Moorish Warrior and Spanish Princess" (Clarke) - 6:39
2. "Come Rain or Come Shine" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) - 3:19
3. "The Endless Night (Part I)" (Corea, Moran) - 8:00
4. "The Endless Night (Part II)" (Corea, Moran) - 7:14

For some unknown reason, a greatly expanded edition of the album was released in October 1978 on four full LPs in a generic-looking box set as Return to Forever Live - The Complete Concert (Columbia C4X 35350), showcasing two and a half hours of music recorded over two nights. The four-disc edition of the concerts contains the totality of pieces that had been edited down for the original single LP release, many additional pieces and lengthy spoken introductions.

A two-CD edition of Return to Forever Live was issued by Columbia`s reissue imprint, Legacy, in 1990 with various strange edits to be found. Missing are 4 of the spoken introductions, while "Chick`s Piano Solo" (featured on the single LP) and "Spanish Fantasy" are rolled into one long marathon performance and, strangely, "The Musician" and "So Long Mickey Mouse" get their original single LP edits rather than a full airing - probably to fit the broadcast on to two CDs. A Japanese release over three CDs in 2000 changed the colour of the cross from red to down and restored all the music heard on the original four-LP box set. This is the translation of the recording included within The Complete Columbia Albums Collection.

While there`s little argument for including the rather lengthy spoken introductions, it is just to say thatReturn to Forever Live - The Complete Concert makes The Complete Columbia Albums Collection box set an indispensible part of any Chick Corea or Stanley Clarke collection (I would count Joe Farrell in there too) and worth every penny for the grand music and its gloriously loving presentation here.