Live (Return to Forever album)

Live
Live album by Return to Forever
Recorded	21 May 1977
Genre	Jazz-rock
Length	49:12 (LP) 168.11 (4LP/3CD) 151:46 (2CD)
Label	Columbia
Producer	Return to Forever
Return to Forever chronology
Musicmagic (1977) Live (1977) Best of Return to Forever (1980)
Alternative covers
Live 2-CD cover (1992, US).
Live: The Complete Concert 2-CD cover (2000, US).
The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (2011) 5-CD boxed set cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Return to Forever Live (and Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert) is the final album by fusion band Return to Forever. It was recorded live at the Palladium in New York City on May 20 and 21 1977 as part of the Musicmagic tour to support the album of the same name. This was the only tour to feature the Musicmagic lineup, which included original members Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Joe Farrell, along with newly added member Gayle Moran on piano and a six-piece horn section.

Release history

The original release was a single LP with a cover featuring Picasso's Three Musicians. A greatly expanded version of the album was released in 1978 on 4 LPs as Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert, 4-Record Set, showcasing the entire 2.5+ hour concert. This ...Complete Concert... release features a plain dark blue cover with a stylized "RTF" logo and contains the entireties of pieces that had been edited down for the original one LP release, including a version of "Spanish Fantasy"; the intro to which was released as "Chick's Piano" originally. Also included are spoken introductions to songs by Clarke, including one in which he is heckled by the audience for announcing the concert's final piece.

Different versions of ...The Complete Concert... have been re-issued on CD - in both 2 CD and 3 CD sets. An early Japanese 3 CD version, Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert, 3-Record Set, contains the complete recording exactly as found on the original 4 LP version, even keeping "The Endless Night" and "Musicmagic" as two separate parts each. Corea's introduction of the musicians is appended to the end of "The Endless Night (part 2)". The first US (2) CD version was released by Columbia Legacy (C2K 47479) in 1992 with the stylized RTF logo on a red background titled simply, Return to Forever Live, and was subsequently reissued with a blue cover in 2000 (468923 2) titled, Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert. Both of these US CD releases contain the edited versions of "The Musician" and "So Long Mickey Mouse" that were on the original single LP, while removing both the four-minute introduction of the musicians by Corea after "The Endless Night" and several extended passages of audience noise. "Chick's Piano Solo" and "Spanish Fantasy" are combined into one track, as are the two parts of "The Endless Night" and "Musicmagic". The 1992 edition has Corea's introductions at the start of each track whereas the 2000 version has them at the end of the previous track. Both versions have been digitally remastered directly from the original master tapes to restore the low frequencies which were rolled off on the vinyl version to minimise tracking problems.^{[citation needed]}

In June, 2011, Columbia (Sony) released a 5-CD boxed set, Return to Forever, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection which includes the entire 1977 Live, The Complete Concert recording on 3 CDs together with 1976's Romantic Warrior and 1977's Musicmagic.^[2]

Track listing

Live

LP side one

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 two

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

Live: The Complete Concert - 4 Record Set

LP side one

1. "Opening '77" (Corea) – 7:07
2. "The Endless Night" (Part 1) (Corea, Moran) – 12:14

Side two

1. "The Endless Night" (Part 2) – 8:19
2. "Introduction of Musicians" – 3:44
3. "The Musician" (Corea) – 14:03

Side three

1. "Introduction / Hello Again" (Clarke) – 7:41
2. "So Long Mickey Mouse" (Clarke) – 11:01
3. "Musicmagic (Part 1)" (Corea, Moran) – 3:46

Side four

1. "Musicmagic (Part 2) / Applause" (Corea) – 23:45

Side five

1. "Introduction / Come Rain or Come Shine / Fine and Dandy" (Mercer, Arlen; Kay Swift, James Warburg) – 3:55
2. "Serenade" (Corea) – 15:01

Side six

1. "The Moorish Warrior And Spanish Princess" (Clarke) – 19:30

Side seven

1. "Introduction / Chick's Piano Solo" (Corea) – 17:05

Side eight

1. "Spanish Fantasy" (Corea) – 11:20
2. "On Green Dolphin Street" (Bronisław Kaper, Ned Washington) – 9:21

Live: The Complete Concert - 3 Record Set (Japan)

CD disc one

1. "Opening '77" (Corea) – 7:08
2. "The Endless Night (part 1)" (Corea, Moran) – 12:15
3. "The Endless Night (part 2) / Introduction of Musicians" (Corea, Moran) – 12:02
4. "The Musician" (Corea) – 14:06

Disc two

1. "Hello Again" (Clarke) – 7:42
2. "So Long Mickey Mouse" (Clarke) – 10:53
3. "Musicmagic, part 1" (Corea, Moran) – 3:47
4. "Musicmagic, part 2 / Applause" (Corea, Moran) – 23:50

Disc three

1. "Introduction / "Come Rain or Come Shine" / "Fine and Dandy" (Mercer, Arlen / Swift, Warburg) – 3:56
2. "Serenade" (Corea) – 15:03
3. "The Moorish Warrior and Spanish Princess" (Clarke) – 19:39
4. "Introduction / Chick's Piano Solo" (Corea) – 17:08
5. "Spanish Fantasy" (Corea) – 11:53
6. "On Green Dolphin Street" (Kaper, Washington) – 8:49

Live: The Complete Concert (US)

(track times 1992 / 2000)

CD disc one

1. "Opening '77" (Corea) – 7:10 / 7:10
2. "The Endless Night" (Corea, Moran) – 20:23 / 20:23
3. "The Musician" (Corea) – 6:58 / 7:03
4. "Stanley's Introduction" (Corea) – 1:24 / 1:17
5. "Hello Again" (Clarke) – 6:02 / 6:02
6. "So Long Mickey Mouse" (Clarke) – 6:43 / 6:42
7. "Musicmagic" (Corea, Moran) – 27:26 / 27:26

CD disc two

1. "Come Rain or Come Shine" (Arlen, Mercer) – 3:55 / 4:53
2. "Serenade" (Corea) – 14:53 / 15:00
3. "The Moorish Warrior and Spanish Princess" (Clarke) – 19:20 / 18:54
4. "Stanley's Introduction" (Corea) – 2:02 / 1:21
5. "Spanish Fantasy" (Corea) – 24:46 / 24:46
6. "Chick's Closing Introductions" (Corea) – 1:09 / 1:47
7. "On Green Dolphin Street" (Kaper, Washington) – 9:35 / 8:58

Personnel

• Chick Corea – keyboards, vocals
• Stanley Clarke – Electric bass, Acoustic bass, vocals
• Joe Farrell – tenor and soprano saxophone, flute
• Gayle Moran – vocals, piano, organ
• John Thomas – trumpet, flugelhorn
• James Tinsley – trumpet, piccolo
• Harold Garret – trombone
• Jim Pugh – trombone
• Ron Moss – trombone
• Gerry Brown – drums

Chart performance

References

• Columbia 35281 (1 LP)
• Columbia C4X 35350 (4 LPs)
• Columbia/Legacy C2K 47479 (2 CDs)
• Columbia 468923 2 (2 CDs)
• Sony Records (J) SRCS 7142 2