Return To Forever
Electric Ladyland Studios
New York
1975

Mastered by TheTooleMan, June, 2007
Lineage: unknown FM recording -> tape -> CD -> Sound Forge -> FLAC

1. Chick's Introduces the Band
2. Day Ride
3. Beyond the Seventh Galaxy
4. The Shadow of Lo
5. No Mystery
6. Vulcan Worlds
7. Stanley Speaks!
8. Celebration Suite

Lenny White: Drums
Stanley Clarke: Bass
Al DiMeola: Guitar
Chick Corea: Keyboards

return

Unfortunately, we don't know much about the origin of this recording. It's a great studio performance by Return to Forever, with a live audience. Songs are from their new (at the time) album "No Mystery" and their previous album "Where Have I Known You Before."

There is a version in circulation which is muddy-sounding, with too little treble and way too much bass. This version that I am offering now was cleaned up by TooleMan in Sound Forge. Levels were smoothed out. Part of "Celebration Suite" was repeated on the CD, and this was edited to remove the repetition. A little tape damage can be heard at the very end of "Celebration Suite." It only lasts a second or two, and is not a big deal. FM noise and some tape hiss are plainly audible in quiet parts of the recording, but do not present much distraction, either, and was left as-is. Noise reduction was used only in very limited amounts during talking and quiet introductory passages on this master. In one or two quiet places, tape "print-through" is faintly audible.

RTF enthusiasts and fans will appreciate this recording for a number of reasons - sound quality (after mastering), relative rarity, and a selection of songs, both "new" and "old."