RETURN TO FOREVER CHICK COREA Where Have I Known You Before Al Di Meola Fusion
RETURN TO FOREVER CHICK COREA Where Have I Known You Before Al DiMeola Fusion Archival Sleeve
Recorded at The Record Plant, N.Y., July-August 1974.
Rear of jacket states "Mastered at the Master Cutting Room by Tom Rabstenek"
Where Have I Known You Before is the fourth album by the band and the second since leader changed the line-up and moved to electric instrumentation, playing jazz fusion influenced by
One of the seminal "fusion" albums of the 70s. Awesome musicianship. The first I'd heard Al Di Meola play and nobody played as fast as he did back then, so it was a revelation for fans of the electric guitar. Lenny White's drumming is also amazing. Still love to listen to this as I did back then.
The first track is 's "Vulcan Worlds" with melodic motifs that appear on Clarke's second solo album , also released in 1974. The song shows Clarke is "one of the fastest and most facile electric bassists around". Each player except for drummer took long solos.
The next long track is Lenny White's composition "The Shadow of Lo", a piece with many changes in mood. The last track on Side A is Corea's "Beyond the Seventh Galaxy", a sequel to his "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy", the title track from the group's previous album. Side B begins with the collective jam "Earth Juice". Most of Side B was is taken up by Corea's 14-minute epic "Song to the Pharaoh Kings", a song notable for its use of the . The track has a long keyboard introduction, after which Chick Corea is joined by the full band, and an "Eastern" theme appears. Each member of the band plays a long solo.
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "", "", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and "" are widely considered . As a member of 's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of . In the 1970s he formed . Along with , and , Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost jazz pianists of the post-era.
Corea continued to collaborate frequently while exploring different musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He won 27 and was nominated more than 70 times for the award.
