Although 25 years had passed since he had played with the pioneering jazz-fusion group Return to Forever, bass virtuoso Stanley Clarke had only one fleeting moment of doubt about reuniting.
“I usually don't think too much about, 'Wow, is this music going to work?' “ Clarke says of the reunion tour that brings him, co-founder Chick Corea and Return to Forever to Phoenix on Saturday.
“But I will say one thing: About 10 minutes before we played (the first rehearsal), there was this thought that ran across my head. I said, 'Man, what if this sounds like (expletive). What the hell are we going to do then?'
“But as soon as I thought that, Chick was counting off a tune, and off we went. It was as if we had just played our last concert a couple months ago."
For many music fans who grew up on rock in the '60s and '70s, groups like Return to Forever, Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra helped bridge the gap to the world of jazz, albeit the progressive variety.
While straddling the two genres, Return to Forever placed five consecutive albums on pop's Top 40 charts and sold hundreds of thousands of records.
Clarke and keyboardist Corea and similar musicians also helped to legitimize the use of electric instruments, frowned upon by traditionalists, in jazz-related recordings.
A mid-'70s concert by Return to Forever had an impact on Ted Sistrunk when he was a young bass player barely out of high school in Kansas.
“An important moment for me was when I got to see Return to Forever doing the Romantic Warrior Tour (named for the classic 1976 album). That had a big influence on me," says Sistrunk, a longtime Valley bassist who plays in the progressive Phoenix Jazz Workshop and the improvisational group Jiggle.
“I usually don't think too much about, 'Wow, is this music going to work?' “ Clarke says of the reunion tour that brings him, co-founder Chick Corea and Return to Forever to Phoenix on Saturday.
“But I will say one thing: About 10 minutes before we played (the first rehearsal), there was this thought that ran across my head. I said, 'Man, what if this sounds like (expletive). What the hell are we going to do then?'
“But as soon as I thought that, Chick was counting off a tune, and off we went. It was as if we had just played our last concert a couple months ago."
For many music fans who grew up on rock in the '60s and '70s, groups like Return to Forever, Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra helped bridge the gap to the world of jazz, albeit the progressive variety.
While straddling the two genres, Return to Forever placed five consecutive albums on pop's Top 40 charts and sold hundreds of thousands of records.
Clarke and keyboardist Corea and similar musicians also helped to legitimize the use of electric instruments, frowned upon by traditionalists, in jazz-related recordings.
A mid-'70s concert by Return to Forever had an impact on Ted Sistrunk when he was a young bass player barely out of high school in Kansas.
“An important moment for me was when I got to see Return to Forever doing the Romantic Warrior Tour (named for the classic 1976 album). That had a big influence on me," says Sistrunk, a longtime Valley bassist who plays in the progressive Phoenix Jazz Workshop and the improvisational group Jiggle.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
