Product Description

Return To Forever were at the forefront of jazz/rock fusion in the seventies and like their contemporaries Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra were formed by a former Miles Davis sideman, in this case the great Chick Corea. Return To Forever hit their commercial and artistic peak with a string of albums in the mid-seventies featuring the line-up of Chick Corea on keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass, Al Di Meola on guitar and Lenny White on drums. In 2008 this classic line-up reunited for their first tour in 25 years and proved that their musicianship and the chemistry within the band were as strong as ever. This concert was filmed at Montreux in July 2008 with the bonus tracks being filmed in Clearwater, Florida later the same month.

TRACK LISTING
Main Show - Montreux 2008
1) Introduction 2) Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy 3) Vulcan Worlds 4) Sorceress 5) Song To The Pharaoh Kings 6) Al's Solo 7) No Mystery 8) Chick's Solo 9) Romantic Warrior 10) El Bayo de Negro (Stanley's Solo) 11) Lineage (Lenny's Solo) 12) Romantic Warrior (conclusion)

Bonus Tracks - Clearwater 2008
1) Lineage (Lenny's Solo) 2) Al's Solo 3) Friendship (Chick's Solo) 4) El Bayo de Negro (Stanley's Solo) 5) Duel Of The Jester And The Tyrant

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10511 in DVD
• Brand: Uni
• Released on: 2009-05-12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Live
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 149 minutes

Customer Reviews

Their Return is Forever awesome!
The Show: I don't know how to describe these guys. Their musicianship is just beyond excellent. If you're a fan of Return to Forever or just any one individual, you must have this show. Their performance blows me away. I saw their concert in St. Louis (USA) and I'm so happy to have one of their shows on Blu-Ray. The Montreux portion is not the entire show, but close to it. The disc contains the first electric set (minus the "Opening Prayer" tune, the only new RTF song of the tour written by Chick Corea) and most of the second acoustic set (minus the two encores). It's running time is 1 hour, 49 minutes and 16 seconds.

Video Quality: Phenomenal! It's just ridiculously sharp and clear. In some ways, watching this on Blu-Ray is better than actually being there. The Blu-Ray has a 1080i MPEG-4 AVC @ 26 Mbps encoding on a 50GB dual layer disc.

Audio Quality: Again, Phenomenal! The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (24bit/48kHz) track is just so crisp, clear and enveloping. The Linear PCM 2.0 track (24bit/48kHz) is also phenomenal when I want to enjoy straight stereo. The Dolby 5.1 track (16bit/48kHz/640kbps)....I don't plan on listening to that one.

Extras: So this made me mad. The 5 bonus tracks that we get from the July 31, 2008 Clearwater, Florida show are nice to have, but the entire time they placed different angles of video in a box pattern on the screen with some unnecessary visual effects in between. It doesn't even fill in the entire screen either. It's very annoying in my opinion. Nothing like the experience you get from the Montreux portion of the disc. The video and audio attributes are identical to the Montreux set. It's running time is 41 minutes and 36 seconds.

Final Thoughts: This is a must-have Blu-Ray. Unreal quality all around. I gave 4 stars, but I would have easily given 5 if not for the bonus tracks being like they are.

Return To Forever shines brightly on "RTF Returns" !
For lovers of RTF and jazz/rock fusion this is the real deal !
For reference, my playback system is comprised of a 61" HD monitor, KEF 5.1 playback system with a Marantz SR6003 receiver, and blu-ray player.
This Blu-Ray disc shines when played back using the lossless uncompressed DTS HD Master audio option.
The bass is tight and deep and the instrument placement in the mix is "spot on" to the show I saw them do in NY last year.
The camera work is excellent and affords the viewer a great view of each player with great close-up view during their solo segments.
Also of note, the bonus tracks filmed on the US leg of this tour offer an interesting drum solo from Lenny White and "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant" which is not included on the main program, is a a high speed musical gem.
Highly recommended for lovers of this musical genre !

The waiting is over...
Ive been anticipating this release on Blu-ray since I saw the concert in June 2008 and heard they were doing video.

Stanleys solo is different than I remember which is my only complaint. Other than that the picture if beautiful and the sound is amazing. I dont have the same comments as some other reviewers regading Al's placement in the mix. My systems stage image is nearly perfect.

The bonus material is multiple angle and interesting to me.