It is absolutely impossible for anybody to bring up jazz in the last fifty years and somehow neglect to mention Chick Corea. He and Return to Forever drummer, Lenny White, both appeared on the legendary Miles Davis album Bitches Brew in 1970 before Corea went of to form RTF with bass juggernaut Stanley Clarke. It's difficult to write a balanced review when the subject is such an unprecedented super-group that has also held on its roster names like Al Di Meola and Flora Purim.
One benefit of The Venue at the Horseshoe Casino is the large screens that bookend the stage. With well-placed cameras the audience is offered views of virtuosic fingers completely dismantling the expectation of what a human musician is capable of. Stanley Clarke handled an upright bass in a manner that very well might be illegal is some states. And I testify that a seventy-year-old man like Chick Corea shouldn't be allowed to play a piano with such tenacity and finesse.
They played Return to Forever compositions such as "Captain Senor Mouse" and "The Romantic Warrior" while also fitting in a Jean-Luc Ponty tune entitled "Renaissance," which featured the aforementioned mind-blowing upright solo from Clarke.
I'm not foolish enough to expect everybody to find the same amazement in the musicianship of these men, but to students of music and fans of what is truly masterful, jazz-fusion legends, such as RTF, are guaranteed to excite and inspire and astound and slay.
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