COREA signed RETURN TO FOREVER to Columbia Records, while remaining at Polydor as a solo artist. It also won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Group. It too made the Top 40, though it charted for only three months.
The band went back into the studio in January 1975 and quickly cut its fifth album, "No Mystery", which was released in February. Backed by an extensive tour that ran through December and closed at Carnegie Hall, the album reached the pop Top 40 and remained in the charts more than five months. That summer, RETURN TO FOREVER recorded its fourth album, "Where Have I Known You Before", which was released in September. The permanent replacement was 19-year-old Al DiMeola, who left the Berklee School of Music to join the band. In 1974, Connors left the group and was replaced initially by Earl Klugh, though only for a tour. The result was crossover commercial success the album spent several months in the pop charts. Here, RETURN TO FOREVER turned decisively towards progressive rock and fusion, with COREA employing an extensive set of synthesizers. They then cut a new album, but when it became apparent that Gadd, a successful session musician, wasn't interested in touring, COREA replaced him with Lenny White of the rock band AZTECA, who changed the sound sufficiently that the band went back into the studio in August 1973 and rebut the album, which was released in October under the title "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy". Moreira and Purim also left to form their own group, and COREA brought in drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis, unveiling the new lineup at the New York City nightclub the Bitter End in April. Up to this point, RETURN TO FOREVER was more notable for its Latin sound than for fusion, but when Farrell left in the spring of 1973, COREA replaced him with a rock guitarist, Bill CONNORS from SPIRAL STAIRCASE. The band toured Japan and recorded a second album, "Light as a Feather", in London, using some of the songs COREA had written and recorded with GETZ, such as "500 Miles High" and "Spain." It was released on Polydor Records. Up to this point, RETURN TO FOREVER was more notable for its Latin sound than for fusion, but when Farrell left in the spring of 1973, COREA replaced him with a rock guitarist, Founded in NYC, USA in 1972 - Disbanded in 1978 - Reformed briefly in 1983 & 2008 - Active Live since 2012 COREA, Clarke, and Moreira, all of whom had been playing with GETZ, left his band to concentrate on RETURN TO FOREVER. In February 1972, they recorded their first self-titled album, though it was not released on ECM in Europe until the following year and did not appear in the U.S. The band made its debut at the Village Vanguard nightclub in New York City in November 1971. "Return to Forever" was the name of the first tune COREA wrote for the outfit, and he then adapted it as the group's name. In addition to COREA on keyboards, the initial lineup featured Stanley CLARKE on bass, Joe Farrell on reeds, and the Brazilian husband-and-wife team of percussionist Airto Moreira and singer Flora Purim. COREA formed RETURN TO FOREVER in the fall of 1971 while he was working in STAN GETZ's band, and the two groups shared some members. A later re-orientation of the band gave it more of a big band style before COREA folded the unit, retaining the RETURN TO FOREVER name for occasional other projects.
RETURN TO FOREVER started out as more of a Latin-tinged jazz ensemble, but COREA, influenced by the MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA of John McLaughlin and some of the progressive rock bands coming out of Great Britain, notably YES and EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, moved the group more toward rock, achieving considerable commercial success.
At the time, this was seen as a means of creativity, a new direction for jazz, and as a way of attracting the kinds of large audiences enjoyed by rock musicians. Like WEATHER REPORT and the MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, it was a group formed by an alumnus of Miles Davis' late-'60s bands with the intention of furthering the jazz-rock hybrid Davis had explored on albums like Bitches Brew. RETURN TO FOREVER was jazz keyboard player Chick COREA's jazz-rock fusion band of the 1970s. Founded in NYC, USA in 1972 - Disbanded in 1978 - Reformed briefly in 1983 & 2008 - Active Live since 2012
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