If extravagant excess, jazz-rock division, is your preferred sonic energy drink, the reunion of the most fantastic of the various Return To Forever lineups is the gig of the summer. Precious few bands—Emerson Lake & Palmer and the Mahavishnu Orchestra come to mind—indulged in ornate wankery with so much spunk and so little fear, and in terms of sheer technical facility, RTF arguably eclipses them all. Founding leader Chick Corea has put a notable dent in a half-dozen jazz genres; Stanley Clarke was trailblazing what it meant to be a fusion bassist as a teenager beside Corea back in the early '70s; drummer Lenny White crammed funk, jazz, and rock into the same sidecar; and guitarist Al DiMeola is one of fusion's most incandescent skywriters. Since dropping three classic records more than 30 years ago, the quartet members (especially Corea and DiMeola) have continued to grow, meaning all those mystically-titled tunes are apt to be given distinctive twists. For you young'uns unfamiliar with RTF, this was what it was like before video games—we slapped "Romantic Warrior" or "Return To the Seventh Galaxy" on the headphones and shut our eyes.
