''Live'' is the final album by

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

band

Return to Forever Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhun ...

. It was recorded live at the

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on May 20 and 21 1977 as part of the Musicmagic tour to support the album of the same name. This was the only tour to feature the '' Musicmagic'' (1977) lineup, which included original members

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, film composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jaz ...

, and

Joe Farrell Joseph Carl Firrantello (December 16, 1937 – January 10, 1986), known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who primarily performed as a saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name o ...

, along with newly added member, Chick Corea's wife,

Gayle Moran Gayle Moran (born 1943) is a vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter. She is from Spring Arbor, Michigan and graduated from Spring Arbor High School (now Spring Arbor University) in 1961. She was a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the ...

on vocals, piano and organ, and a six-piece horn section. Originally released as a single LP, the album was re-issued in 1978 as a four LP set called ''Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert'', which contained the full concert as heard by those who attended, including extended sections of dialogue and audience applause.

Release history

The original release was a single LP with a cover featuring Picasso's '' Three Musicians''. A greatly expanded version of the album was released in 1978 on four LPs as ''Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert'', showcasing the entire two-hour-and-forty-minute concert. This ''Complete Concert'' release features a plain dark blue cover with a stylized 'RTF' logo and contains the entireties of pieces that had been edited down for the original one LP release, including a version of "

Spanish Fantasy ''Spanish Fantasy'' (Spanish: ''Fantasía española'') is a 1953 Spanish comedy film directed by Javier Setó and starring Antonio Casal, Ángel de Andrés and Trini Alonso.Cebollada & Gil p.1723 Cast * Antonio Casal as Rafael * Ángel de An ...

"; the intro to which was previously released in edited form as "Chick's Piano". Also included are spoken introductions to songs by Stanley Clarke, including one in which he is

heckle A heckler is a person who harasses and tries to disconcert others with questions, challenges, or gibes. Hecklers are often known to shout encouraging comments at a performance or event, or to interrupt set-piece speeches, with the intent of di ...

d by the audience for announcing the concert's final piece. In June 2011 Columbia (

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

) released a five CD boxed set, ''Return to Forever, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection'' which includes the entire 1977 ''Live: The Complete Concert'' recording on three CDs together with 1976's ''

Romantic Warrior ''Romantic Warrior'' is the sixth studio album by the American jazz fusion band Return to Forever, released in 1976 by Columbia Records. After releasing their previous album, ''No Mystery'' (1975), their fourth for Polydor Records, the group mov ...

'' and 1977's '' Musicmagic'' studio albums. In September 2011 the three CD version ''Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert, 3-Record Set'' was released in Japan as a Blue-Spec CD limited boxset reproducing the original Japanese 1978 four LP boxset. However, this 2011 reissue features "The Endless Night" and "Musicmagic" as one track each, instead of the original splits and fades of each song.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by

, except where noted.

''Live''

''Live: The Complete Concert'' – original vinyl pressing (1978) LP

''Live: The Complete Concert'' (US, 1992) CD

''Live: The Complete Concert – 3 Record Set'' (Japan, 1993) CD

''Live: The Complete Concert – 3 Record Set'' (Japan, 2011) CD

Personnel

– Steinway grand piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano,

Hohner clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

, Yamaha electric organ,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s ( ARP Odyssey,

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

, Moog 15 modular, Oberheim 8-voice), effects MXR Digital Delay,

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

–

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

, Yamaha electric piano,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

, Synthesizer inimoog

–

piccolo flute The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

* James Tinsley – piccolo trumpet,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

* John Thomas – piccolo trumpet, trumpet, flugelhorn *

Jim Pugh Jim Pugh (born February 5, 1964) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. He grew up in Palos Verdes, California and at age 10 began taking tennis lessons from John Hillebrand. He played tennis at UCLA. He became a doubl ...

– lead

tenor trombone A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is widel ...

, baritone horn * Ron Moss – tenor trombone * Harold Garret –

bass trombone The bass trombone (german: Bassposaune, it, trombone basso) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to ...

, baritone horn,

tuba The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...

– Alembic electric bass,

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

* Gerry Brown –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Chart performance

References

Columbia 35281 (1 LP, 1978)
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

Columbia C4X 35350 (4 LPs, 1978)
at Discogs
Legacy C2K 47479 (2 CDs, 1992, USA)
at Discogs
Columbia 468923 2 (2 CDs, 1992, Europe)
at Discogs
Sony Records (J) SRCS 7142 2 (3 CDs, 1993, Japan)
at Discogs
Sony Records (J) SICP-20305~7 (3 CDs, 2011, Japan)
at Discogs

External links

Return to Forever - ''Live'' (1978) album releases & credits
at

Return to Forever - ''Live'' (1978) album credits & user reviews
at ProgArchives.com
Return to Forever - ''Live: Complete Concert'' (1978, Remastered 1992, 2CD) album review, credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Return to Forever - ''Live: Complete Concert'' (1978) album releases & credits
at

Return to Forever - ''Live: The Complete Concert'' (1978) album credits & user reviews
at ProgArchives.com
Return to Forever - ''Live: The Complete Concert'' (1978, Remastered 1992, 2CD) album to be listened
as stream on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Return to Forever - ''The Complete Columbia Albums Collection'' (2011, 5CD Box Set Compilation) album releases & credits
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Live (Return To Forever Album) Return to Forever albums Live jazz fusion albums 1978 live albums Columbia Records live albums