Return To Forever: Romantic Warrior

After four albums on Polydor, Chick Corea's Return to Forever moved to Columbia Records, although Corea remained with Polydor as a solo artist for most of the decade. In February 1976, Corea and company went to Chicago producer James Guercio's popular and secluded Caribou Ranch in a remote part of Colorado to record Romantic Warrior. It is a fusion classic and, coming from 1976, certainly one of the last highlights of this music. Setting their musical topography somewhere in the Middle Ages, RTF rethinks their strategy to be more large-scale and deliberately musical; an electrically charged Ellingtonian statement that seems like a soundtrack for a nonexistent movie or an electronic symphony for a post-Jazz age. The same group that recorded the previous Where Have I Known You Before and No Mystery is featured here - Romantic Warrior contains strong original compositions by all the main players, including Lenny White's "Sorceress," Al Di Meola's "Majestic Dance," Stanley Clarke's "The Magician," and Chick Corea's "Medieval Overture," "The Romantic Warrior," and "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant."