RETURN TO FOREVER

TITLE: Recorded from the Audience - Boston Globe Jazz Festival, 1983

DATE: 27 March 1983, 1st of two evening sets

LOCATION: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

VENUE: Boston Opera House

RECORDING TYPE: Audience ["AR"]

NOTE FROM ONE OFFICIAL "BLIND" B80 PROJECT TEST GROUP LISTENER:

"Definitely the best sounding audience recording I have ever heard--
while listening, I keep having to remind myself it was recorded onto a
cassette tape and is not an official release. (On the other hand, it
has far too much dynamic range for an official release, which is a
good thing).

Not a particularly strong fan of RTF, I nonetheless found myself
entranced by this recording, due in no small part to its incredible
sound: rich midrange, micro-level detail, and powerful bass impact.
Balrog's original capture is already stunning: after hearing a sample
of the acoustic set from the raw master, I didn't think it even needed
any remastering. But Lestat has indeed found a way to bring out more
detail across the sonic spectrum without introducing any harshness or
tonal imbalance, and has reduced hiss without creating the artificial
sound of most noise reduction efforts.

Among the most impressive sonic highlights for me: the pounding
percussion of the intense Ommadawn-like passage toward the end of the
third untitled track; the bracing attack of the piano tones, the
richly detailed bowed bass sound, the precision of the zither-like
guitar playing on "Romantic Warrior"; and the nearly incandescent glow
of the Patrick Moraz-like synth solo toward the end of "Pharaoh
Kings." What more can I say? This is a wonderful performance by RTF
that might make fans of those who may previously have been lukewarm to
them, and the sonics make it a true audiophile experience.

Hats off to the Balrog/Lestat/Gromek team for surpassing even their
usual high standards!"

- "NorthNYMark"

We proudly present the first "Balrog-Lestat-Gromek" project for 2009,
and in some ways the best one so far.

Return To Forever's playing and reputation circa 1983 speaks for
itself but this audience capture is in a league of its own. Until now
I'd never heard one to compare, of any show or artist, even from 2008.

The sonic journey you're about to undertake may well be the best
pre-2008 RTF audience recording ever made. It certainly has to be in
the top two or three. If playback systems are not too compromised core
RTF fans are in for total ecstasy, casual ones too, and even those who
dislike the band for whatever reason will find the recording quality
something to behold.

I've been in the `casual' camp myself, but this recording's stunning
realism alone has given me a whole new perspective and appreciation
for RTF. Weeks now of listening to nothing else as mastering requires
and I haven't even begun to tire of it. Hopefully it will deliver as
much if not more joy to all of you.

-Lestat, January 2009

LINEUP:

Al Dimeola - guitars
Chick Corea - keyboards
Lenny White - percussion
Stanley Clarke - bass

SETLIST [for 80-minute and 74-minute CDR]:

[Vol. 1]

01V1 - medium untitled [The Overture]*
02V1 - short untitled [Caprice]*
03V1 - long untitled [The Phantom]*
04V1 - No Mystery

[Vol. 2]

01V2 - The Romantic Warrior
02V2 - Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant
03V2 - Song to the Pharaoh Kings

* Cited by Lenny White [?] in the recording as `untitled', but we're told these works were released with titles shown as studio recordings on band member solo albums. "Overture" by Chick Corea on GRP SUPER LIVE, "Caprice" by Lenny White on PRESENT TENSE, and "Phantom" by Al Dimeola on KISS MY AXE.

TAPER: Barry Rogoff (Balrog)

SOURCE: Sony WM-D6 (Dolby B in)/Nakamichi CM-100/CP-1's > Maxell UD
XLII-S

LINEAGE: Nak Dragon [Dolby B out] > RDL FP-UBC6 > MOTU 896 > Wave
[48KHz/24 bit] > Izotope RX/CEP 2.0/Izotope Ozone > Wave (44.1khz,16-
bits)> FLAC > Dime

REMASTER SUMMARY: All work done at the 24 bit resolution, before
downsampling. EQ work to reveal detail, as the audience heard and felt
it. No attempts to alter band-crowd-venue sound balance. If crowd
sound as real and detailed as band sound isn't desired, please pass
this by and stick to soundboards or industry releases.

No compression employed, though a second torrent may appear soon
featuring gentle compression for sake of playback systems incapable of
reproducing this recording's extremely wide dynamic range without it.
Conservative noise reduction applied to compensate for unfavorable
signal to noise ratio during quiet band moments and to further reveal
midrange frequency detail.

INDEPENDENT SOUND ANALYSIS: Several trusted 'beta testers', including
Barry, Gromek, JoeDestroyer and others

ORIGINAL ART: Gromek

SOURCE AND AUDIO WORK AT LENGTH -

Yet another top shelf pre-1990s analog AR easily rivaling many from
the post 1990 DAT era, and in fact quite simply the best sounding raw
master AR I have ever heard - analog or digital. What's more, `It's a
Sony' ;} Until now I hadn't heard a Sony [deck] capture even close to
one from a Nakamichi 550 for either warmth or spectrum-wide detail.
This one has both to spare.

Like any it nonetheless required considerable work and testing of
results by multiple listeners in a wide variety of playback systems to
give up the best it has to offer. The superb dynamic range actually
required creation of a whole new EQ paradigm involving much more
subtle settings than even Balrog's other wonderful raw captures did.
They remained needed to fully display all the recording's realism, but
particularly in high frequencies they had to be adjusted to roughly
1/10 the level of intervention even the next best one needed. The
source is that good.

Every effort was made to reveal all possible detail in each tone of
each instrument as far as it occurred in the band's PA mix, and we're
pleased with the result overall. Lower crash cymbal tones make one
important litmus, as does even audience clapping.

About the only annoyances involve considerable tape hiss, which in
cases like this make noise reduction unavoidable, a strange sound in
very quiet sections resembling NR artifact but in the raw master
transfer, and a bit of `swish/swirl' in some lower cymbal tones.

Roughly 40% of hiss came out successfully thanks to availability of
excellent tape noise samples in isolation and new restoration software
superior to its predecessors. Signal meantime remains completely
intact. When the goal is complete noise elimination, as it frequently
has been with many a remaster attempt by others, NR inevitably damages
signal and simultaneously inserts intolerable `watery' artifact. Both
are completely avoided here - at a cost of tolerating some tape hiss
but it's considerably reduced from even raw master levels.

The `swishy' property in some percussive metals will be inaudible to
many but tends to be more noticeable in cheaper and/or cross-wired
playback systems. This property is also responsible for many slowdowns
in the mastering process as it tended to `pop out' badly until the
right EQ balance was found, rendering things harsh, unnatural sounding
and `fatiguing'. It is now no worse than in the raw master and should
bother few if any listeners. It could ultimately be a Sony issue but
we'll probably never know.

- Lestat

Many thanks to RTF, then and now.

Special thanks to Gromek for artwork [as always] so perfectly
evocative of the show's energy and this effort.

Endless, endless thanks to Barry for another miraculous AR, the
expertise and bravery it required.

Please share freely but losslessly, and never, EVER even THINK of
selling for any sum anywhere. Reseed or redistribute this recording in
its complete and original form only. Should we become aware of an
incomplete reseed or distribution, we will publicly discredit the
party responsible. On that note, be also vigilant against for-profit
`boot factory' ripoffs. We've seen this done with our work already.
While flattering they'd covet it on the one hand, the dishonesty of it
and idea of anyone spending good money for what can be had freely are
both infuriating. Last time it happened Gromek's fabulous art was
dumped in favor of the usual boot factory crap, and none of the
lineage/process info provided here was included in the ripoff either.
Truly criminal - intellectually as much as legally.

NOTES FROM BARRY:

What I remember most about this show was how quiet the audience was
during the songs. I had the impression that the place was full of
students from the nearby Berklee College of Music, where Al di Meola
briefly studied during the early '70s before replacing Bill Connors in
Return to Forever. At one point, you can hear Chick Corea, who was
born in Boston's inner suburb of Chelsea, comment on the warmth he
felt from the audience.

There's another source of this show in circulation that was taped by
glasnostrd19 and appeared on Dime for a while. I hope you enjoy this
version as well.

This recording is listenable at concert volume on audiophile-quality
equipment. No constraints are placed on the dynamic range as is the
case in commercial live recordings. For this reason, the peaks may
exceed the capabilities of consumer-quality audio systems resulting in
distortion from frequencies that cannot be properly reproduced.

To obtain audiophile-quality equipment at an affordable price,
consider getting high-end headphones, a headphone amplifier, and a CD
player from eBay or other sources of pre-owned audio equipment. You
will find that it's well worth the expense.

On a personal note, my goal in taping concerts has always been to
achieve time travel. I want go back in time and relive musical
experiences that were much too important to me to allow them be heard
once and lost forever. And I want the experience to be available to
everyone who loves the music.

Anyone who has ever taped a concert knows that there's a price to pay,
not only in terms of money spent and risk taken, but in the way it
diminishes your own enjoyment of the show. You have to monitor the
mikes and the deck. If you allow yourself to get too much into the
music and forget about the equipment, you screw up. So it's sort of
being the designated driver. You can enjoy yourself, but not too much.

The reason I bring this up is to point out how much Lestat's
remastering work makes up for the enjoyment lost at the time the
recording was made. Now I can relive the experience while completely
relaxed. Other than the absence of venue ambience, it's not much
different from being there. With no equipment to worry about I can let
the music carry me to places I've never been. I sincerely hope it
provides the same enjoyment for you.

- Barry

NOTES FROM GROMEK:

I am happy to say that I was asked, yet again, to make some cover art
for this splendid recording. As to the sound - don't just take my word
for it, but wow, this really is one of the best, and possibly the best
audience recording I have ever heard, to date, it really is! The
quality is outstanding. If someone told me this recording was
available in retail stores as an official release, then I would have
gladly believed it, it sounds so good. Granted I have never heard any
album that RTF have release or recordings in the collectors circuit,
because it is not really my personal choice of music, but I did
recognize the musicianship involved and the quality of the recording.
As a fan of bands such as Yes, I can really appreciate this band and
certainly this recording. It reminds me especially of the Yes
'Relayer/Moraz" era, and also of some Steve Howe solo work. Other fans
of Yes and their like should be impressed too, and RTF fans will be
beside themselves! The sound an performance give me plenty of
inspiration for the cover art included in this release. The background
images, band image and fonts used are taken from the internet (they
are freely available), the complete cover layout design is mine.

Well, more than that I can not say, so please do sit back (or jump
around, the choice is yours) and enjoy the show and hopefully the
cover art. Lastly, I wish to thank everyone involved in this project,
and wish all of you listeners too, a very happy and health 2009!
Here's to you all.

- Gromek

NOTES FROM JOE THE DESTROYER - WRITER AND MUSICIAN:

"RTF 1983

Ever since Louis Armstrong and others brought the music of New Orleans
to the masses, "jazz" has been a music of wit and witness, covering a
wide variety of styles from Don Redman's big-band arrangements to John
Zorn blowing on duck calls. Being the conversation of well-versed
musicians, jazz comfortably embraced each season's young comers
through the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, so it was only fair game for jazz
musicians to appropriate rock music's clangorous sound, heavy rhythms,
and loud volume, and make it their own -- arguably never more so than
in Return To Forever.

RTF weren't the first to do so -- that distinction belongs to the
perpetually ground-breaking Miles Davis, and the musicians he
assembled -- but they did it better, applying the ideas of Charlie
Parker and John Coltrane to the instrumentation and sounds of bands
like Yes and even Led Zeppelin. Listen to Stanley Clarke, who stands
firmly on the ground of both Jimmy Garrison and John Entwistle and is
just as likely to quote either. Chick Corea evokes Patrick Moraz, but
is no stranger to Bud Powell. Lenny White erases any sense of
difference between Elvin Jones or Mitch Mitchell, and Al DiMeola owes
as much to McLaughlin as Jeff Beck.

Unfortunately for them, jazz was about to be faced with a challenge
that by its very nature it could not meet: punk would deny any place
for intelligence in music, taking pop music into the texture-dominated
formula of 80s synth-pop. This focus on the lowest-common-denominator
eviscerated the wit from popular music, and jazz musicians were forced
into the safely bland R&B which corporate radio dishes out as "light"
or "smooth" jazz today. While some jazz musicians do continue to push
musical horizons, it isn't widely heard and has no influence on music
in general; those who pursue it must content themselves with obscurity
or rehashing classic styles (or, more likely, both). In that sense,
jazz is now truly dead.

But we need not concern ourselves with that here: this is Return To
Forever in 1983, a band which simultaneously remembered the past while
probing the future; a band which crackled with energy and possibility.
Here they are, epitomizing this last robust expression of jazz music
in America -- a wave which had already peaked and passed -- before
most of it settled into the quiet submission of museum-like memory.
The return of RTF in 2008 at least offers some hope.

This is not jazz for the elevator. It was the last revolution of
intelligent American music. In 1983, RTF may have already lost the war
on radio, but they were still quite capable of winning the battle for
listener's ears. So sit back and enjoy Barry's wonderful live capture
of Return To Forever -- not safely contained in a multi-track studio,
but wild and on-the-prowl, the way they were meant to be heard. With
any luck, you may never hear music the same again.

Joe"