Return To Forever-Musicmagic (1977)

1977 saw the release of Return to Forever's final jazz-rock album, a work recorded after the departure of guitarist Al Di Meola and drummer Lenny White, leaving only Chick Corea (keyboards) and Stanley Clarke (bass) as the band's founding members. For this album, the duo enlisted drummer Gary Brown and keyboardist/vocalist Gayle Moran, along with a large horn section. At the time, the album had its share of detractors for lacking RTF's usual jazz-rock punch, but despite the absence of a prominent guitarist, it still contains some good moments leaning towards jazz fusion. From the very beginning, the general feeling is that they are returning to the Latin jazz fusion of their early work, but as the minutes pass, that feeling gradually fades into the more conventional sounds of jazz fusion. Although the music here is also less ambitious, tracks like "The Endless Night", "The Musician" and "So Long Mickey Mouse" keep the creative bar quite high, even though this is undoubtedly one of RTF's least distinguished and appreciated releases by jazz rock/fusion fans.