Return To Forever & Donald Brown

The years were well and truly rolled back here in Vienne last night with probably for me what was the best concert of the festival. Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola and Lenny White produced a show of epic proportions that was simply magnificent.

Having formed the band 36 years ago to great critical acclaim Corea has been through many musical phases - notably his collaboration with Gary Burton which he recently reprised and now the wheel has turned full circle and the fusion band that had such an influence in the early and mid 1970's is back on the road after a 25 year absence.

Some of the Fusion/Jazz/Rock music from this period can sound dated - this music, like that played by John McLaughlin a few nights ago, sounded fresh and vibrant, exciting and challenging.

The original compositions, (I have the records somewhere under my stairs), were simply brilliant to start with, over the years as FJR went out of fashion they have laid un-played, perhaps not forgotten - just set aside with so much music from that period.

Here in this arena of so much history the music was reborn for me, this band - this the classic line up of the RTF band, simply played magnificently. Be it Corea on keys or Clarke pulling and slapping his bass, Di Meola pulling faces as he let go with a searing riff or rock steady eddie Larry White who never broke a sweat yet kept everything tight and together - the excitement and enjoyment from the players was there to see - and how they enjoyed it!

There is a new double Cd out - Return to Forever: The Anthology which documents the best of the bands material, which will save me and probably many others the effort of hunting under the stairs for that 70's vinyl!

The opening set of this show featured Donald Brown, Bill Mobley and the space Time All stars featuring Jean Toussaint.

It's probably fair to say that the sell out 8000 audience had come to see RTF - but the band had the crowd on side right from the off with some excellent hard driving Jazz.

Led by Brown on piano, Mobley on trumpet and flugelhorn and the excellent Jean Toussaint on tenor and soprano sax. The set was well put together and Steve Nelson on vibes added a new dimension to the normal piano, sax, trumpet front line. At the back Essiet Essiet on bass and Billy Kitson on drums worked their socks off to keep it together, which they did brilliantly. They were deservedly brought back for an encore and certainly warmed the crowd up for what was to follow.