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Return to Forever: Light as a Feather

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Polydor Records
Released: 1973
Time:
 45:28
Category: Jazz Fusion
Producer(s): Chick Corea
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.return2forever.com
Appears with: Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] You're Everything (Ch.Corea/N.Potter) - 5:11
[2] Light as a Feather (S.Clarke/F.Purim) - 10:57
[3] Captain Marvel (Ch.Corea/N.Potter) - 4:53
[4] 500 Miles High (Ch.Corea/N.Potter) - 9:07
[4] Children's Song (Ch.Corea/N.Potter) - 2:47
[5] Spain (Ch.Corea/N.Potter) - 9:51

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Flora Purim - Vocals, Percussion
Joe Farrell - Tenor Saxophone, Flute
Chick Corea - Electric Piano, Engineer, Keyboards, Producer
Stanley Clarke - Double Bass
Airto Moreira - Drums, Percussion, Vocals

Richard Seidel - Executive Producer
Suzanne White - Production Manager
Hugh Jones - Engineer
Richard Manwaring - Engineer
Patricia Lie - Art Direction
Hat Nguyen - Art Direction
Cynthia Sesso - Photo Research
Ben Young - Liner Notes, Research, Supervisor

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded on 8 October and 15 October 1972 at I.B.C. Sound Recording Studios, London, England.



Always tied to a confusing time line, the first released recording from the original configuration of Return to Forever was actually their second session. An initial studio date from the ECM label done in February of 1972 wasn't issued until after the band had changed in 1975. The Polydor/Verve recording from October of 1972 is indeed this 1973 release, featuring the same band with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira, Joe Farrell, and Flora Purim. There's no need splitting hairs, as both are five-star albums, showcasing many of the keyboardist's long enduring, immediately recognizable, and highly melodic compositions. Farrell's happy flute, Purim's in-the-clouds wordless vocals, the electrifying percussion of Airto, and Clarke's deft and loping electric bass guitar lines are all wrapped in a stew of Brazilian samba and Corea's Fender Rhodes electric piano, certainly setting a tone and the highest bar for the music of peer groups to follow. "Captain Marvel" - the seed for the band sans Farrell and Purim that was expanded into a full concept album with Stan Getz - is here as a steamy fusion samba with Corea dancing on the keys. By now the beautiful "500 Miles High" has become Purim's signature song with Neville Potter's lyrics and Corea's stabbing chords, and unfortunately became a hippie drug anthem. Perhaps Corea's definitive song of all time, and covered ad infinitum by professional and school bands, "Spain" retains the quirky melody, handclapped interlude, up-and-down dynamics, exciting jam section, and variation in time, tempo, and colorations that always command interest despite a running time of near ten minutes. "You're Everything" is a romantic classic that surely has been heard at many weddings, with another lyric by Potter sung in heaven by Purim, while the title track is Purim's lyric in a looser musical framework with Clarke's chart coalescing with Corea and Farrell's pungent flute work. As much as the others have become icons, the extraordinary sound of Farrell on this date should never be trivialized or underestimated. The final track, "Children's Song," was a springboard for several of Corea's full-length album projects, and is heard here for the first time via a trio setting in a slow, birthlike motif. The expanded version of this recording includes many alternate takes of four of these selections, but also includes "Matrix," which was not on any RTF albums, and there are four versions of "What Game Shall We Play Today?," which was only available on the ECM release. From a historical perspective, this is the most important effort of Corea's career, quite different than his prior previous progressive or improvising efforts, and the pivotal beginning of his career as the most popular contemporary jazz keyboardist in history.

Michael G. Nastos - All Music Guide



Featherweight Fusion

Light as a Feather joined jazz pianist Chick Corea and the then husband-and-wife team of vocalist Flora Purim and percussionist Airto in a clash of potentially opposing ideologies. Corea, a veteran of Miles Davis's electric bands, was known for his squabbling, extroverted virtuosity, particularly on the electric piano. The Brazilians, meanwhile, approached everything with characteristic serenity and deep understatement.

What could have been a catastrophic mess became one of the shining moments of jazz fusion, an aptly titled work of gentle breezes and free spirits soaring over hidden (or at least partially obscured) compositional complexities. Everyone involved is in pursuit of lightness: Corea's "You're Everything" moves at an almost jittery samba clip yet never feels hurried. The title track, written by Purim and bassist Stanley Clarke, requires this alert band to transition between several tempos, and they do so casually, without thinking, as though sauntering between rooms at a party.

The peak expression from the first of three completely different Return to Forever bands, Light as a Feather had immediate impact on jazz. It triggered interest among musicians in Brazilian forms beyond bossa nova and foreshadowed the more cerebral European jazz of the later 1970s. Its Corea originals "Spain" and "500 Miles High" became standards, the rare jazz pieces with ethereal lyrics well matched to the sounds. Most important, its uncluttered atmospheres took listeners out of a conventional jazz headspace and lifted them to that lofty stratosphere above the tree line, where it's possible to get some perspective on things.

© 2008-2015 Workman Publishin



Light as a Feather (1973) is the second studio album of fusion band Return to Forever, led by pianist Chick Corea.

The first track is Corea's song, "You're Everything". Corea has stated that this is his favorite among the vocal songs he has written. The track begins with Flora Purim singing verses slowly, the rest of the band joining in later to create a light groove. The short solo is played by Joe Farrell on flute. The second track is the title track, Stanley Clarke's first major composition and the only track on the album not written by Corea. "Captain Marvel", a fast Latin piece, that provided the name for Stan Getz's album released in the same year. Airto Moreira plays percussion and Purim sings without words during the song's main riff.

The B-side begins with a song called "500 Miles High". Corea has stated that the title of the song does not refer to drug experience but to a "spirit flying high". The track is followed by "Children's Song", one of many "Children's Songs" Corea has written. They are all short pieces with minimalistic melody. The percussion plays a tick-tock pattern that resembles the sound of a clock.

The album ends with Corea's famous jazz standard, "Spain", which was inspired by, and whose introduction was literally taken from, Joaquín Rodrigo's famous Concierto de Aranjuez.

The second and last album by the first line-up of Return to Forever was recorded in the same year as their first album Return to Forever (1972) but eight months later. The style of the music remains mostly the same though vocal tracks have now a bit larger role than on the first album. This album has equal classic status among the listeners of electric jazz music as the first album. This time the recording company is Polydor (under which most of later Return to Forever albums are released) and Corea himself has produced the album - though this has not led in any essential change in sound. To point out some minor changes, it is notable that this time Stanley Clarke plays only an acoustic bass. Since the debut album was not released in the USA before 1975, this was the first Return to Forever album for many listeners.

Light as a Feather won the 1972 Playboy Jazz Album of the year and has been selected by many magazines and polls as one of the greatest jazz records ever recorded. For many years this record has been listed on the magazine Harry Pearson-The Absolute Sound super disc list and also listed for years on the Stereophile Magazine list of "Records to Die For." It is also featured in Tom Moon's 1,000 Albums to Hear Before You Die.

Wikipedia.org
 

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