Corea, Clarke & White Release “Forever”

Pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White are back at it. The trio, who formed the core for Return to Forever decades ago, have decided to revisit the group’s origins with the release of Forever, out today.

The two-disc set includes 18 tracks. Disc one features live recordings from Return to Forever’s 2009 “RFT Unplugged” tour, with jazz standards such as “On Green Dolphin Street,” “Waltz for Debby” and “Hackensack”, a new Clarke composition entitled “La Canción de Sofia”, classic RTF pieces “Señor Mouse” and “No Mystery” and others.

Disc two is dubbed a bonus disc, with its own story.

“The sets we played were basically jam sessions of the standards we knew from the songbooks of Monk, Bill Evans, Miles and others,” says Corea. “Also included are some pieces from the Return to Forever songbook reworked in this acoustic setting.”

“This acoustic trio had not been documented up to this point,” said White. “It was important to document this because that’s how we started. On the last day of our Keystone Korner gig in 1973 in San Francisco, we had two guitarists sit in, and it became electric. But we come from playing in the jazz tradition. RTF had a real jazz rhythm section, and I think that’s what distinguishes RTF from all the other groups.”

Clarke said an electric RTF tour is being planned, to include the trio plus guitarist Bill Connors and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

“This is actually the fourth version of Return to Forever,” Clarke adds. “It’s come full circle with Bill coming back and the addition of Jean-Luc. After release, we’re doing an RTF IV tour to go out and support the new CD. It’s a total update, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Preview and download Forever:

Forever Track List:

Disc 1:

1. On Green Dolphin Street
2. Waltz For Debby
3. Bud Powell
4. La Canción de Sophia
5. Windows
6. Hackensack
7. No Mystery
8. Señor Mouse

Disc 2:

1. Captain Marvel
2. Señor Mouse
3. Crescent
4. Armando’s Rhumba
5. Renaissance
6. High Wire – The Aerialist
7. I Loves You Porgy
8. After The Cosmic Rain
9. Space Circus
10. 500 Miles High