Return to Forever
Chick Corea- keyboards
Al DiMeola- guitar
Stanley Clarke- bass
Lenny White- drums
Symphony Hall, Boston, Mass.
November 17, 1974
Source: 1st generation cassette
(audience recording)
Recording quality: B/B- (a bit echoey
but quite listenable, not much noise)
Performance quality: B+ (at least.
A very good performance by all 4)
runtime: 82 minutes
lineage: master cassette (unknown mikes and recorder) >
my cassette (both are TDK- AD 90 min. no dolby used) >
soundforge 4.5 > FLAC > torrent. Yup, it's another
Glasnost Radio Production certified gapless/ glitchless/
clipless 4 step torrent. My CD of this comes from the same
WAV files as the FLAC's in this torrent. No CD involved.
setlist: disc 1:
1: band introductions and tuning
2: beyond the 7th galaxy
3: the shadow of lo
4: acoustic solos and jams (spliced in middle at tape flip >
5: celebration suite
disc 2:
6: encore- space circus
Bonus surprise!
The Last 45 minutes (I think?) of Orpheum, Boston Nov. 14, 1975!!!!
including Romantic Warrior (incomplete unfortunately) and acoustic jam.
From FM broadcast of a great audience tape. (This copy is B quality)
comments: This torrent is the whole 11/17/74 performance (except a few
seconds for 1 tape flip about 43 min. into the show) from
Return to Forever at Boston's legendary Symphony Hall,
(home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra when they're not at Tanglewood)
the second album tour with Al DiMeola of "No Mystery"
(which includes the Celebration Suite and Shadow of Lo
in their studio form). The RTF concert in Boston almost a year after
this one (11/14/75) was the world premiere of Romantic Warrior
and the hottest RTF show I've ever heard (also the only one I ever
saw- no recorder unfortunately). More about that in a moment...
This wasn't too shabby either. I didn't see this one, didn't even know
about it until I met a Berklee student named Joe about 4 years later.
Only other thing I knew about him is he recorded this concert, and did
a decent job of it all things considered. I've had this recording
sitting around for almost 30 years now. I think it was the 1st live
RTF recording I heard with Al DiMeola. (There would be about 40 more to
follow.) I think only the Maha. Orch. is a hotter or tighter fusion
band in concert and this concert may help you understand why I feel
that way. The year before I met Joe, I met a far more famous (already!)
Berklee student named AL (Yes, That Al!) at Paul's Mall, he let me
record his (sizzling) Elegant Gypsy concert, but Paul's Mall staff
wouldn't so I couldn't. I did find someone else who recorded it, but by
that time DiMeola had already shown me and Downbeat and Guitar player
magazine readers that he is a monster of a guitar player with RTF, the
first group most of us heard him in. Al is a former Berklee College of
Music student, and Symphony Hall is just a couple of blocks from where
Al learned to do so much of what he does so well. That had to feel good
to him. Since this show runs about 85 minutes, and I will not time-compress
uploads to fit them on 1 disc, and I cannot wait 1 more second for someone to
hear what the fuss was all about almost a year after this show in Boston...
I only have a very partial tape of that, but what I have is apparently
the last 45 minutes of the 11/14/75 concert, including the world premiere
performance of "Romantic Warrior" (the 1st aprx. 11 min. of it only,
unfortuately!!! Can't recall if there was an encore after this, everyone was
too floored by this performance by that point to think about anything...
I've loved RTF and tried to get any good recordings of them I can find
with Al DiMeola. I've been turned on to a bunch here on the dime and several
of them fine shows, although this is Chick in his home town. My 75 tape
comes from a broadcast on WHRB (Harvard University radio) in the middle of
the night (around Glasnost Radio time, actually, but several years before that).
I didn't know about it, just stumbled onto it about 2:30 AM, probably early
76 broadcast during a spring fundraiser. They broadcasted most of it, I
missed at least half of it, probably more. This was the only time I saw
RTF, before I was recording shows, and this was one of the top 4 or 5 shows
I've ever seen (by anyone). Probably about a 2 hour concert, and it cooked
from first note to last. The pinnacle of this show (I thought) was Romantic
Warrior, and my recording does (fortunately) begin with Lenny announcing
"that was great wasn't it?" (not sure what they had just played but I'm
CERTAIN it WAS great since I was there!!) and then introducing Romantic Warrior,
as a "new piece written by Chick"... unfortunately their recording, or the
broadcast of it, fades out just when Al slams the transmission into 17th gear
for his climatic solo which lasted awhile more...!
Don't it just kick you in the groin when that happens????
It doesn't seem like a likely time for a tape flip, maybe someone at
Harvard Univ. heard this thing and had an anneurysm! It has the 1st 10
minutes and 5 scintillating seconds of it, maybe enough for a whole
Romantic Warrior on an ordinary night, but not on this night!
(Maybe enough for the first HALF of it!!!). The broadcast resumes,
after a radio ID, with Chick's piano solo, which I think did follow the
Romantic Warrior (eventually). It sounds like it's got the whole acoustic
jam set so common to RTF shows. This was a paralyzing version of Romantic
Warrior. I've never heard them do it this hot before or since! It just
builds up to a fever pace level by level and the playing is precise. I
think Chick must have told the boys,listen up, this concert's gotta be a
good one because all my friends and family are (probably) going to be there.
(and many of them were) If I could have only 1 RTF show to hear, for the
rest of my days, this would be it. Hands down. I believe this was the 1st time
RTF ever performed any of the music of "Romantic Warrior" in concert.
That's one of my top 10 favorite CD's of all time. This concert didn't hurt at ALL.
If someone has the full tape WHRB broadcasted of this (or other source)
PLEASE do the RTF community of the world a favor and let us hear it!
The recording is made from the audience, but it sounded great, next best
thing to a soundboard, apparently recorded close up with good deck. This
copy is a couple of generations, and the tape noise is noticable, because
I mastered it on reel and then transferred it to cassette since it was just
under 1 45 min. side, and with reels $8 or more each (7") I needed the reel
for broadcasts. In my opinion 11/14/75 is THE GREATEST RTF concert EVER.
It is a total burnfest from first note to last. VERY high energy playing.
Very few others I've heard come even close to this energy. My copy is
less than great, a few minor problems, but still enjoyable. Sounds like
the broadcast recording (or probably my copy of it) was a little less
clean for acoustic set than for the Romantic Warrior, which led into the
acoustic jam. That appears to be complete. The whole 75 recording I have runs
about 45 minutes and I've included it here as filler. If I had this in
37th generation I would seed it, that's how good the performance was,
since I have yet to hear any of it despite the significant RTF interest
of some dimers. The tour is coming, and I'm sure it will be very nice time.
But a musician, even if Chick/Al/Stanley/Lenny, only has a show like this
(75 one) once in a lifetime.
IF they're really lucky... AND REALLY GOOD.