''Musicmagic'' is a studio album by fusion band

Return to Forever Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhun ...

, their final work until 2008. This album contains the final line-up of the band from the 1970s, with only founders

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" ...

and

Stanley Clarke Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fus ...

returning from the previous album. This is the first album since ''

Light as a Feather ''Light as a Feather'' is the first studio album credited to jazz band Return to Forever led by keyboardist Chick Corea (credited as "Chick Corea and Return to Forever"). It features saxophonist/flautist Joe Farrell, bassist Stanley Clarke, voc ...

'' (1973) to contain vocals, featuring Stanley Clarke and Corea's wife

Gayle Moran Gayle Moran (born 1943) is an American vocalist, keyboardist, and songwriter. She is from Spring Arbor, Michigan and graduated from Spring Arbor High School (now Spring Arbor University) in 1961. She was a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra dur ...

. This album also marks the return of original member

Joe Farrell Joseph Carl Firrantello (December 16, 1937 – January 10, 1986), known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who primarily performed as a saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name o ...

on saxophone and flute, along with several new members making up a five-piece horn section. In addition to the conventional two channel

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

version the album was also released by Columbia in a four channel

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic, also called quadrasonic or by the neologism quadio ortmanteau, formed by analogy with "stereo" sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are po ...

version in 1977 as one of the last quadraphonic albums released by the label. In 2016 the album was re-issued in stereo on hybrid

Super Audio CD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the compact disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple a ...

by Audio Fidelity. It was re-issued again on SACD by

Dutton Vocalion Dutton Vocalion specialises in re-issuing on CD music recorded between the 1920s and 1970s, and in issuing albums of modern digital recordings. It was established by British recording and re-mastering engineer Michael J. Dutton. Dutton Laborator ...

in 2017 containing both the quadraphonic and stereo mixes. With the addition of trombonist Ron Moss, this lineup toured and recorded the live album ''

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film * ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film *'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...

'' (1977) which was re-issued in 1978 as a 4-LP set called ''Return to Forever Live: The Complete Concert''.

Track listing

#"The Musician" (

) – 7:12 #"Hello Again" (

) – 3:49 #"Musicmagic" (Corea,

) – 11:00 #"So Long Mickey Mouse" (Clarke) – 6:09 #"Do You Ever" (Moran) – 3:59 #"The Endless Night" (Corea, Moran) – 9:41

Personnel

–

acoustic piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an action mechanism where hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal tempe ...

, Fender Rhodes electric piano,

Hohner clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respo ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s (

ARP Odyssey The ARP Odyssey is an analog circuit, analog synthesizer introduced by ARP Instruments in 1972. History ARP developed the Odyssey as a direct competitor to the Minimoog, Moog Minimoog and an answer to the demand for more affordable, portable, a ...

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

Polymoog The Polymoog is a hybrid polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on divide-down oscillator technology similar to electronic organs and string synthesizers of the time. Histor ...

, Moog 15 modular),

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

–

Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

, Polymoog, vocals *

–

piccolo flute The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a small, high-pitched member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented in the 1840s by Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax. Built in B♭ an octave above the tenor saxophone (or rarely, slightly small ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

* James Tinsley –

piccolo trumpet The piccolo trumpet is the smallest member of the trumpet family, pitched one octave higher than the standard B trumpet. Most piccolo trumpets are built to play in either B or A, using a separate leadpipe for each key. The tubing in the B picco ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* John Thomas – trumpet,

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

* James E. Pugh –

tenor trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the air column inside the instrument to ...

* Harold Garret – tenor trombone,

bass trombone The bass trombone (, ) is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and u ...

baritone horn The baritone horn, sometimes called baritone, is 3 or 4 valved tenor-voiced brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a pist ...

–

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

Gerry Brown Gerald E. "The Gov" Brown (also known as Gerry Brown; born 1958) is a recording engineer, mixer and music producer based in Los Angeles, best known for his work with artists including Whitney Houston, John Legend, Earth, Wind & Fire, Madonna, ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Chart performance

References

External links

Return to Forever - ''Musicmagic'' (1977) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Return to Forever - ''Musicmagic'' (1977) album credits & user reviews
at ProgArchives.com {{Authority control 1977 albums Columbia Records albums Return to Forever albums