No Mystery
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| No Mystery | |||||
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| Studio album by Return to Forever | |||||
| Released | 1975 | ||||
| Recorded | January, 1975 at Record Plant Studios, N.Y. | ||||
| Genre | Jazz fusion, Jazz-funk | ||||
| Length | 42:57 | ||||
| Label | Polydor Records | ||||
| Producer | Chick Corea, Shelly Yakus | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Return to Forever chronology | |||||
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No Mystery (1975) is the fifth studio album of fusion band Return to Forever.
Return to Forever's fifth album is their most varied. While the production is close to the album's predecessor, Where Have I Known You Before, a sheer variety in compositions gives this record totally different feel. This time each member of the group have contributed as composers. A-side of the record contains funk-material by all members of the group while B-side is filled by Corea's two lengthy and epic compositions. The group won the Best Jazz Performance by a Group Grammy Award in 1975 for this album.
The album begins with Clarke's song, "Dayride", that is a kind of jazz-funk that can also heard be on his solo recordings. Next track, "Jungle Waterfall", is co-composed by Corea and Clarke. Like "Dayride", it is funky piece with a strong melody. Third song is Di Meola's first recorded composition, "Flight of the Newborn". It is a longer song that leaves room for soloing. Di Meola's solos can be taken among first examples of true shredding recorded with electric guitar though he takes this approach further on later albums. Fourth track is "Sofistifunk", White's composition. It sounds quite humorous because of its weird synthesizer patterns and silly riffs. The last song on A-side has a strange title: "Excerpt from the First Movement of Heavy Metal". This track is probably a collective jam. It does not sound much like heavy metal though Di Meola's guitar is quite heavily distorted (for standards of the day). The track begins and ends with Corea's fast piano pattern and rest of the group joins in later in energetic manner.
B-side begins with the title track which is a six minutes long Corea's acoustic composition. It has a very strong melody and features only few bars of improvisation. Slow, lyrical moments, in which Clarke plays with a bow, are followed by parts with rapid unison lines played by Corea and Di Meola. This piece is seen being among the Corea's strongest compositions. Seventh track is a short "interplay" which is an acoustic jam played by Corea and Clarke. Last 14 minutes of the album are taken by Corea's "Celebration Suite" which is a solemn composition that has a strong Spanish feel in its melody. The intro of the song features the extensive use of march snare drum and organ. The song can be seen as a predecessor of equally celebratory "Spanish Fantasy" that Corea recorded next year for his famous solo album, My Spanish Heart.
[edit] Personnel
- Chick Corea - Acoustic piano, Electric piano, Clavinet, Yamaha Organ, Synthesizers, Snare drum, Marimba, Vocal
- Stanley Clarke - Electric bass, Acoustic bass, Yamaha Organ, Synthesizer, Vocal
- Lenny White - Drums, Percussion, Congas, Marimba
- Al Di Meola - Electric guitar, Acoustic guitar
with
- Shelly Yakus - Engineer
- Tom Rabstenek - Mastering
- Bill Levy - Cover art direction
[edit] Track listing
- "Dayride" (Clarke) – 3:25
- "Jungle Waterfall" (Corea, Clarke) – 3:03
- "Flight of the Newborn" (Di Meola) – 7:23
- "Sofistifunk" (White) – 3:51
- "Excerpt from the First Movement of Heavy Metal" (Corea, Clarke, White, Di Meola) – 2:45
- "No Mystery" (Corea) – 6:10
- "Interplay" (Corea, Clarke) – 2:15
- "Celebration Suite part I" (Corea) – 8:27
- "Celebration Suite part II" (Corea) – 5:32
