Fusion
I’m currently travelling through the deep seas of Jazz and Fusion. Some months ago, I took contact with the beauty of “Return to Forever” (1972-1977,1982-1983), one of Chick Corea’s projects, where names like Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, Flora Purim and Airto Moreira took part. After experimenting the demoniac rock-centered sound of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, I decided to seek something more calm and gentle. Well, fortunately it seems that I have found it. One of Corea’s trademark compositions is “Spain”, maybe the best example of what they call “latin jazz”. “Spain” was first released as part of Return to Forever’s “Light as Feather” album, and at this time is probably Corea’s greatest hit, and one of the most covered songs in the world.
The first works of “Return to Forever” include the brazilian female singer Flora Purim in the vocals (I noticed she was brazilian since the first time I listened to her, although she sings in an almost perfect english… brazilian english accent doesn’t fool anyone…). Her voice sounds just perfect along with Corea’s “Fender Rhodes” Piano. Only the (few) lyrics could be better. As it seems, most of them were written by some Corea’s pal who he knew through scientology (”scientology? Chick Corea believes that crap?”, you must be asking yourself). So, the lyrics are pretty mystical… Well, it seems a recurrent problem in Jazz Fusion, if you listen to the whole discography of the Mahavishnu Orchestra… These fusion guys look as if they have a great need of spiritual philosophies… the “fusion < -> new age” relationship seems pretty intimate…