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Return to Forever World Tour 2008 The biggest Chick news of 2008 was the reuniting of the classic Return to Forever lineup of guitarist Al Di Meola, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White. It marked the first time they played together as a group in 25 years. Before embarking on its eagerly anticipated world tour, Concord Records released the two-CD set, Return to Forever: The Anthology, which gathered together for the first time the best of RTF’s classic albums, completely remixed and remastered.
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| Return to Forever graced the cover of DownBeat magazine and garnered the feature story, “Let Them Hear Fusion.” In the article, on the eve of the premiere reunion concert in Austin, Texas, on May 29, Chick said, “I can’t wait to see what happens. So many people—and that includes the members of the band—have waited so long for this. Playing the music again with the guys in rehearsals has been so much fun, but doing this for our fans is almost too good to be true.” |
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| The RTF tour circled the globe before concluding in August. The resulting double live album, Return to Forever: Returns, captured every bit of the band's powerful, unique brand of virtuosity. | ||||
Video: Return to Forever live at the Montreux Jazz Festival| The Five Peace Band Electro-Acoustic Alchemy with Fellow Miles Davis Alum John McLaughlin Another monumental 2008 event was the Five Peace Band group, founded with the great jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. The two are truly kindred spirits, given their individual musical histories as well as their singular virtuosity on their respective instruments. As young jazz artists, they both did stints with the legendary Miles Davis and appeared together on the groundbreaking jazz/rock/funk classic Bitches Brew
 . They then ventured out to form their own revolutionary bands: Chick’s RTF and John’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. |
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Collaborating together for the first time, Chick and John took a new musical leap, presenting highly creative music with Kenny Garrett on saxophone, Christian McBride on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta and Brian Blade on drums. On the resulting double-album Five Peace Band Live, the band offers intricate acoustic jazz, burning jazz/rock/funk, and intimate duets. |
Above: John, Chick, Christian, Kenny and Brian onstage.
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John's "Raju" and "New Blues, Old Bruise" are blues for the 21st century, and Chick's dynamic 28-minute suite "Hymn to Andromeda" is one of his most elaborate compositions to date. The album earned Chick his 16th Grammy® Award, taking home the honor for Best Jazz Instrumetal Album of 2009. |
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 Audio: Chick talks about the Five Peace Band with Russ Davis |
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Corea, Clarke & White Reinventing the Jazz Trio Inspired by working with Stanley Clarke (bass) and Lenny White (drums) on the RTF tour, Chick enlisted them to form a trio for a worldwide tour. Actually, the trio is another reunion, harking back to a weeklong stint in 1973 at the heralded San Francisco jazz venue Keystone Korner, where the three developed the electric-jazz ideas that led to the development of RTF.
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| Now that we’re playing together, there’s a flood of creativity and inspiration that could only come from making music with this group. —Chick |
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Music from 2008-2010
Albums from 2008-2010
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