Host Guitalife's NOTE:
 As a fan of guitarist John McLaughlin I've collected a few articles, over the
years, about him. This one, from 1977 including a bio to date, attempted to 
clarify the roots of his radical departure from Electric Guitar in Western 
Euro-American styles with a definite influence by Indian music, to a deeper 
immersion into the music of India, North and South, studied through an 
instrument called the Vena, but ultimately  preforming with an acoustic 
guitar. 
The writer also fathomed the personal/professional relationships of the 
individual groups of Chick Corea's Return To Forever, and McLaughlin's own 
original MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA which both reflected their leaders' creative
seachanges in re-groupings and in disbanding. The band Shakti was promoted and 
presented at a number of venues with electric groups led by other former 
collegues of McLaughlin, including Weather Report, and the Cobham/Duke Band, 
and here, Stanley Clarke.
 SHAKTI performed for about 3 years before McLaughlin strapped on the electric
guitar again. REMEMBER SHAKTI was formed in the 1990's without violinist
L. Shankar. 
 For more elaborate insight into the life of John McLaughlin , musical and 
philosophical influences on him, see his OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.johnmclaughlin.com



 Host adds, I'd like to thank the OW-l' guy who originally typed this very 
extensive piece from a photo-copy, but we aren't naming names. 
Any "Expletive deleted -#$%& " editing from here on is the work 
of me ,~ Guitalife~. No doubt.
 It is presented for learning about the "Jazz Rock Fusion 
musicians"  mentioned . 
 *My beloved late family dog is not responsible for the destruction of 
the first page of this article! I am.
 The ~Lost Trident Sessions by the Mahavishnu Orchestra are likely the 
unreleased M.O. LP referred to here.  
 Sandy Freeze January 2001

                    SHOOT-OUT AT THE JAZZ-ROCK CORRAL
By Steve Weitzman
(Reprinted from Gig magazine: 1977 )

[(Typist's note): Sandy's dog* chewed up the first section of the article, but it
looks as if the writer might have been talking about some early
 JMcL/MO history. We join the article in progress ...]


 Weitzman:  ...follow the same spiritual path and not getting 
any takers, he dissolved the unit in favor of the second 
Mahavishnu Orchestra, which featured Narada Michael Walden, also 
a Chinmoy disciple, on drums.  There were, of course, other 
underlying problems within the first Orchestra: the individual 
members grew increasingly upset that McLaughlin insisted on
writing all the group's material - and subsequently collected 
all the royalties. Billy Cobham began skipping rehearsals and 
only showed up for gigs minutes before showtime. Communication 
was at a minimum. Then, in 1975, after reforming the Orchestra 
with new members just the previous year, McLaughlin again broke 
up the band, this time because he no longer desired to follow 
the teachings of Sri Chinmoy. Was it necessary to dissolve the 
band just because he changed his religious philosophy? 
 McLaughlin: "Yes,"he says, because aesthetically, artistically, 
and spiritually, it's the same life for me."

   Talking about philosophy with John McLaughlin is where things
begin to get fuzzy. He's one of the most charming individuals 
I've ever met, but inconsistencies in some of his statements 
make conversation along these lines rather unsettling. At one 
point he will state that, "The most important thing is the art. 
Not me. I'm less important than the art. The ideal of art is the 
most important thing in the world. In most of the other groups 
I've had [he excludes only Shakti here, his present band], other
things which are inferior to art prevented art from being made" 

 Later though, he goes on to say: "Take the point of religion, 
which to me is an important point. Or philosophy. If you have a 
philosophical conflict,sooner or later it'll come out on a 
physical level. It's inevitable."  

 Which does he actually believe?

   Return To Forever seems to have suffered from some of the 
same problems Mahavishnu had. Chick Corea became a Scientologist
six years ago, was successful in recruiting Stanley Clarke to 
the faith but unsuccessful with Lenny White and Al DiMeola who 
are no longer around (more On that later).It's a touchy subject. 
Also, Stanley Clarke notes, "All the Return To Forever albums 
were all listed as being produced by Chick, but take it from me, 
they were all co-produced," though this seems not to have ever
manifested itself into a major gripe, since neither White nor 
DiMeola left on their own initiative.
   Even though both John McLaughlin and Chick Corea maintain 
that their new bands are more aesthetically satisfying than 
those with which they previously worked, there are regrets from 
both parties that, of the records available, neither the 
Mahavishnu Orchestra nor Return To Forever are represented as 
well as they could be, which obviously leads to speculation
that reconciliations are not out of the question.

   McLaughlin feels that the Orchestra was never recorded at its peak. 
 "There is a studio album that never got released which is 
really good," he explains. It would've been their third studio 
album, following "Inner Mounting Flame" and "Birds of Fire". But 
at the time the record was being made, emotion in the band was 
running so high that people could no longer see clearly.Everyone 
felt nervous about it." Why? "I don't know why." 
 And McLaughlin did not pursue it either: "When the people in 
the band told me how they felt, I respected it. I didn't ask 
them to explain why they felt it. That was enough. So we put a 
live album out ("Between Nothingness And Eternity") which was 
good, but it wasn't on the same level. But one day I'd like the 
album to come out, it's a great album.

   Along the same lines, Chick Corea possibly feels that his new
Return To Forever, with sax player Joe Farrell and singer Gayle 
Moran, might not be able to match the intensity of RTF with 
White and DiMeola, an awesome live unit that never made a live 
album. "I think that was an oversight on all of our parts," he 
says now.

   McLaughlin and Corea's statements about what they failed to 
do are precisely what's toughest to take about this whole mess. 
For basically bullshit reasons, millions of jazz-rock fans are 
now denied seeing and hearing both of these brilliant bands at 
their peaks, possibly forever. Stanley Clarke can view the 
Mahavishnu Orchestra situation objectively  - he says with 
regret, "They could've been the greatest band that ever was 
but they #$%^ed up," - but can he perceive his own situation 
with RTF with the same clear-headedness? Probably not. He did go 
on to joke that, "The Mahavishnu Orchestra only needed one 
thing." I asked him what that was as he started laughing. "Me on 
bass," he grinned "and if you print that I'll kill you."

..Now Read On

   John McLaughlin's loft in Manhattan is a luxurious, modern 
affair, with his guitars hanging from the walls like trophies.
 "I like it there," he says. pointing to one behind us as we sit 
on a puffy white couch in the living room area. "It's symbolic 
of my life. My life and the guitar are inseparable. The guitar 
has given me everything so I revere it."

   McLaughlin is no longer a disciple of Sri Chinmoy. He has 
resumed smoking cigarettes and letting his hair grow (both 
indulgences Chinmoy frowns on). Yet he still talks with the same 
spiritualness. He seems incredibly happy. He practices guitar 
every day, basically for the way it makes him feel. "When you 
play, you commune with yourself. It's like meditating. It's very 
satisfying."

   He grew up in Yorkshire, England, having moved to the U.S. in 
1969,right around the time he put the Mahavishnu Orchestra 
together. I asked him who his greatest guitar influences were 
when he was younger.

   "Muddy Waters," he says as I wrinkle up my eyebrows in 
surprise. He sees my reaction. "Muddy is one of the *greatest* 
guitar players. I would say he's the greatest blues guitarist 
ever. Have you ever heard old recordings where he's playing 
acoustic guitar? The stuff he's playing is unbelievable.Then 
when I started listening to jazz, I worshipped Django Reinhardt. 
And Tal Farlow was the last of the guitar players who influenced 
me because after that, I couldn't find a guitar player to
satisfy me. That's why I listened to John Coltrane, Miles Davis 
and other horn players. They were saying it the way I wanted to 
hear it."

   McLaughlin played in an endless succession of bands in 
England and for a while he accompanied Miles Davis. Did he feel
any of the bands were as revolutionary as the Orchestra?
 "Miles." he says quickly. "Miles is always revolutionary. But 
yeah, one band, years ago, when I was playing with Jack Bruce, 
Ginger Baker, and an organist called Graham Bond, God rest his 
soul. That was, at the time (1961-1962) quite a revolutionary 
band."

   His introduction to jazz took place at an early age. "When I 
was fifteen," he says flashing back, "I was looking around in 
the jazz racks in a record shop and I saw a Miles Davis record.
I didn't even know who Miles Davis was and a friend of mine 
said, '*Miles Davis!* He's supposed to be *great!*' And this 
was "Mars Song" (Milestones? - SF). It had John Coltrane, 
Cannonball Adderly.... Anyway, in England, you can play a 
record in the shop and so I played it. It sounded *strange* - a 
whole other kind of playing. Then I started really listening to 
Miles and Coltrane and it erased all my preconceptions about 
music. And from then, when I was just fifteen, I had this great 
desire to come to America."

   None of McLaughlin's early bands were very British sounding.
 So what did he think of the Beatles when they exploded? "I 
always liked the Beatles, I have to confess. But, for me, they  
were just another pop group. When you pit them against Coltrane, 
forget it! I mean, I wanted to hear a master play. You know - 
great discipline and great playing. It wasn't until I
heard "Revolver" that I felt that the Beatles were getting into 
something."

   The Mahavishnu Orchestra were just what McLaughlin wanted to
hear - great discipline and great playing. For added discipline,
he went to Sri Chinmoy. "He's still my guru, in fact," 
McLaughlin explains. "He recommends a way of life and the way of 
life he recommended, I followed for a number of years and I feel 
extremely grateful for guidance. It's difficult growing up 
without guidance." Concerning their drifting apart, he 
adds,  "About one and a half years ago, I felt the necessity, 
having been with Chinmoy for five or six years, to take my life 
into my own hands, which is something you surrender with a guru -
which is a great thing because it teaches you things about  
yourself, like the depth of your own ignorance - but I felt it 
necessary to assume control of my own life, so I dissolved the 
band and formed Shakti at the same time."
   What were McLaughlin's feelings about breaking up the 
Mahavishnu Orchestra? Was he saddened by it? "It's always 
disappointing to see the end of an era," he says. "But I thought 
if it had gone on any longer, we'd have overplayed it. Sure it's 
sad. But in order to build something else, something else has 
got to die and that's the painful thing in life. You put a band 
together - it's a living entity. A living being. And if you have 
to kill it, it's painful. But people don't understand that 
without death, there is no life; that to get new life, you have 
to die first."
                        gig1977 (Continued)
  
   McLaughlin talks about Shakti, his present band, as if it 
really is new life for him. His enthusiasm for the group is 
unbounding. Of course,Shakti, being composed of Indian musicians 
(whose names and the instruments they play read like 
typographical errors - T.S. Vinayakaram plays mridiangam, for 
example) playing acoustic instruments is at first, foreign to 
the ear, but McLaughlin sounds a bit foggy when he says things 
like,"This is the greatest aggregation of musicians I've ever 
played with," after fronting a new band as awesome as the 
Mahavishnu Orchestra. But he continues. "I have so much faith in 
this band, in the people in it and the music itself. If I can't 
trust my own feelings, then I don't trust anything and my 
convictions and my feelings told me to dissolve everything and 
just do this, no matter how crazy it may appear to the record 
company, managers, you know, playing with Indian musicians 
(laughs), I believe in it."
 "People don't know which way to take it until they hear it.Then 
they see what we're talking about. In the short time of one 
year, people have already redeemed the faith I had in the band. 
People are accepting it."
   Does he base that on record sales?
   "Record sale are *down!*" he laughs. "But that's *O.K.!* If 
you're not prepared to suffer for what you believe in, then, you 
know..."
   Is he suffering?
   "No. I'm not even suffering. It's just a figurative sentence. 
This is a breaking in period  for the public as well. Just give 
us a couple of years.I think Shakti will be one of the greatest 
bands in the world. It'll be acknowledged the way the Orchestra 
was. I really believe it."
   Does Shakti really get him as high as the greatest Mahavishnu 
Orchestra shows? "Oh *beyond*," he emphasizes, as if he can't 
believe my question.
 "*Way* beyond. We've had some shows that made me so high 
onstage where I've just had to laugh uncontrollably." He laughed 
quite a bit onstage with Mahavishnu, I remind him, but he says,
"Athe same time, with Mahavishnu,there was too much conflict."
   But isn't there a part of him that's saying, "Since this is a 
new  band,it's got to be better than the old one?"
   "No. Not at all." How can he be sure? "I'm brutally honest 
with myself.I *have* to be otherwise the music won't be sincere. 
And if the music is not sincere, I might as well give it up. 
Don't get me wrong. I'm not putting down the Orchestra because 
that was a great band, both of them. And we had fantastic nights 
but for me, and it doesn't seem like it to some people, Shakti 
is the most logical extension I could have done, coming out
of that band. I've got two great drummers and a great violinist -
 the two things I love most. We can function together on more 
levels than I could with Billy (Cobham) or Jerry (Goodman). And 
it's not that I don't want to play with Billy (Cobham) ever 
again, I played with him in London not to long ago, but for me, 
as a working, growing musician, with Zakir and Shankar, I can 
explore all my levels most thoroughly and experience the 
greatest harmony on those levels."
   After playing primarily electric guitar for over fifteen 
years (though there were several breaks along the way) and being 
generally acknowledged as the world's greatest (Jeff Beck said 
he can't do 25% of what McLaughlin can do on guitar) he seems to 
have hung up his rock and roll shoes in favor of the acoustic.
"I think the beauty of the guitar will always be in its acoustic 
properties," he says. "Electric guitar is beautiful too, but 
when you come down to the fine line, a guitar is just a guitar - 
a six-string acoustic guitar."
   Following Shakti's concert recently, where McLaughlin and 
Stanley Clarke(the headline act) jammed together on acoustic 
instruments for the encore,he and Stanley walked back to their 
dressing rooms arm in arm. McLaughlin was visibly moved from the 
experience and said to Clarke afterwards, "I think I'll dust off 
the electric guitar soon." Should we believe him?
   "Well, he says, as if to explain that he really didn't mean 
it, "maybe sometime next year I'll dust off the electric guitar, 
but I'll tell you,I've got a love for this band that it 
annihilates any other desires. You know what happened the other 
night? We finished the concert and I got really unhappy because 
we're not playing for two months. I was really depressed. Isn't 
that strange?"
   What's he going to do during the layoff? McLaughlin played 
acoustic guitar on Stanley Clarke's last album. Does he do 
session work? "I'm not into it too much," he says. "That's all 
I've done." Why? "Because it was Stanley."
   Would he have played electric on Clarke's album? "No," he 
says, "I  wouldn't." Clarke knew not to ask?
   "(Laughing) No, he asked me, in fact. You gotta give him 
credit for trying. He tried. But I told him. I said, 'Stanley, 
you gotta take me as I am.'"
   Ironically, that's exactly what Stanley Clarke told the 
Mahavishnu Orchestra back in 1969. Clarke relates the story:
   "You know," he says reminiscing after the show with 
McLaughlin, "I think I was the first bass player the Mahavishnu 
Orchestra ever asked to join.Jan Hammer came up to me around 
 '69 in a club and said, 'Hey man, we're putting a group 
together and we need a bass player.' And at the time I was 
playing acoustic and was a heavy be-bopper - drugs, the whole 
bit. So I said, 'The only way I'll join is if I can play 
upright.' He said they needed an electric bass player and I said 
to him, 'Ain't no @#$% way I'm going to play electric bass. 
The only way I'll join the group is if I can play upright.' Then 
I heard them in Europe a few months later and I said, 'Oh my 
god! What did I do??' But it was cool because I went off in a
different direction."
   McLaughlin was amused when he heard Clarke's story: It's 
amazing how everything turns around. Isn't that odd? It's 
laughable really.Unbelievable."
   Clarke comments in their jam together. "I'd played with John 
a lot in the studio but this was the first time we'd ever played 
before an audience and it was totally different. It was like a 
love affair up there onstage. I really felt naked. We were like 
two little kids up there. And this was a real special treat 
because it might be five years before we get a chance to
do that again."
   McLaughlin adds, "Ain't nuthin' like live! Live is it! For 
me, that's really it. Because if you're not naked out there, 
then you're covering up.Your deepest feelings are really naked. 
And *acoustic* bass, that's Stanley's *baby*. He just sings on 
that thing. Stanley, oddly enough, is the only one who for me is 
great on both acoustic and electric bass. I don't know anybody 
else who's not just good, on both of them."
  Stanley Clarke absorbed varied influences while he was starting
out on bass. "Mingus. Ron Carter. Even McCartney. I really liked 
Hendrix's music and I listened to all his bass players - Noel 
Redding, Billy Cox...I saw Hendrix once but at the time I was 
into classical music. I remember it freaked me out the first 
time I heard his music and ever saw it."
  "In the beginning," he says, "I think I had the attitude that 
a lot of classical people have, like, 'My music is pure. I play 
real music.' There's a little bit of truth there in that you 
can't get any more musical...I mean, Bach was a genius. But 
still, having that attitude and saying, 'I can't create any 
music of my own,' is a drag. So for years I viewed the electric 
bass  as an inferior instrument until I picked it up one day 
(laughs) and recognized that I couldn't play it."
   Why couldn't he play it?
  "I didn't know *how* to play it. It's totally different from 
the upright bass. You have to hold your hand in a different 
position, it's thinner and there are these frets and your 
fingers have to go in between the two frets and you can only 
play in certain places. So I didn't know what I was doing
until I practiced the instrument on my own."
   The style Clarke formulated has little to do with other 
electric bassists basically because he never really listened to 
other bass players for technique. "I listened to all the 
instruments. John Coltrane, sax players, guitar players. I 
didn't like what was happening on electric bass."
   His first gigs in Philadelphia, where he grew up, had him 
wearing suits and ties and playing with groups like the Blues 
Demonstration. He went right from the suits and ties to New York 
and sessions with Horace and Joe Henderson. It was through Joe 
Henderson that Stanley Clarke met Chick Corea. "I met Chick in 
Philadelphia," he remembers, "at the Aqualounge. Joe Henderson 
hired us separately to play with him so I met Chick there and 
we started playing together. Then after we put the band together 
(which was just called "Chick Corea") we'd have maybe one gig 
every four months. It was really rough. We'd play little jazz 
clubs for maybe $25 apiece."
   It was at this time that Chick introduced Stanley to 
Scientology. "He gave me a book called 'A New Slant On Life.' 
Did it help? "Oh yeah. I went 'clear'. Feels great. It really 
feels like you're clear. That's all I can say. It's very simple 
stuff."
  Return To Forever began to evolve musically at a tremendous 
rate. "It went through a lot of changes," Clarke notes: "All 
this Brazilian music suddenly turned into this, like, *electric* 
music." Bill Connors, a hot rock-oriented jazz guitarist, joined 
the band at a San Francisco gig in 1972, and a year later was 
replaced by 19-year-old Al DiMeola, whose roots and influences 
are undoubtedly John McLaughlin. The band practically lived
on the road, conquering audience after audience with their 
magnificent performances. Just when RTF seemed to be about to 
reap the rewards of constant touring and an impressive catalog 
of recorded music which was heading toward gold-record status - 
something no other jazz-rock band had been able to accomplish - 
the band broke up. Why?
   "Number one," Clarke says, "Chick wanted to do something 
different and he didn't want Lenny or Al in the band so...well, 
it's not that he didn't want 'em in the band, he just wanted to 
play a different kind of music. He didn't want to have a guitar 
in his band and he wanted Steve Gadd to play drums (Gadd later 
decided not to leave his own group, Stuff). And he wanted a 
vocalist in the band - his wife. His woman. And myself, I just 
wanted to stretch out. I'd been in the band for like, five or 
six years and I was yearning for something else. I mean, it was 
a great band. I loved playing with Lenny and Al and I loved the 
whole Return To Forever thing, the growth and everything. But I 
wanted to do something else."
   In the time off from Return To Forever, Clarke continued to 
work on his solo career which has now seen him release three 
extremely varied albums -from rock to jazz to R&B. The last 
one, "School Days", he laughs, "I don't think has any jazz on 
it." He also took time out to produce Roy Buchanan's new album, 
which has Jeff Beck and Buchanan trading licks. It's his first
production (other than himself) and he feels a bit odd: "I just 
go in with this title 'producer' and sometimes I feel strange 
knowing that all I'm doing is just kind of, like, giving Roy a 
kick in the ass. You know, like,'Come on, Roy...Play!' Or, 'That 
doesn't sound good.' He knows it didn't sound good. So maybe 
it's the word that bothers me.
  "The records gonna be a killer though," he says. "The
material's so great. It was written by Michael Walden, Jan 
Hammer and a little by me." 
  Based on his experience with Return To Forever, Clarke 
realizes that the toughest thing to do is, "Keeping a band 
together musically so there are no head trips. Every now and 
then, when you have a group, there will be four or five guys 
that write music and say you're making a record where you can
only put forty minutes of music on the record and let's say, 
this guy wants to write and that guy wants to write and the 
other guy wants to write, it has to be organized in such a way 
that it feels good; so everyone feels like he's giving out 
enough of himself. That's where a leader comes in. And if 
everybody respects him, it'll work. That's what Chick was in our 
band. He was the guy who would give the final say. There were 
four strong m@#$%...--rs there. I mean *real* strong. And Chick 
had a job. He had a hard time."

         (to be continued ...)

   Chick Corea is in Los Angeles rehearsing the new Return To 
Forever. Why did the old one break up? "It was time for a
change, for me first of all," he says via Bell Telephone. "I had 
always wanted to try a band like the one I have got now - two 
trumpets, two trombones, soprano saxophone, flute, a singer and 
a additional keyboard player. I wanted to try a different 
musical approach and it felt time for a change for me too, to 
more acoustic instruments in this band as well, but I had never 
really been able to work with an electric guitarist and get a 
good enough blend to feel comfortable playing all the kinds of 
ways that I liked to play."
   It seemed odd, I suggested, that the band broke up just at a 
point where it seemed like all the hard work had started to pay 
off and the next album would be gold.
    "That's a strange evaluation of success," he countered. "I 
enjoyed it an awful lot and I think probably the world at large 
interprets success in terms of dollars and cents. And fame. But 
I don't and I never have. And I don't think that any true artist 
really does. Success is ongoingly being able to create as 
beautiful as effect as you can. The success to me was how good 
all the people felt that we played for. That was my best
success, but as far as my own creation goes, in order for me to 
remain true to myself, I have to keep evolving. And that was the 
time to do it."
   "I think as Lenny and Al found their own footing, the basic 
ways that they liked to create appeared more and more different 
from the ways that I tend to do it. And I think they felt like 
it was time for a change."
   Corea's new Return To Forever, among others, features Stanley 
Clarke (again) on bass, Joe Farrell on sax, drummer Jerry Brown 
and vocalist Gayle Moran. Is it easier if his fellow musicians 
are also Scientologists?
   "Sometimes."
   Does he ever inquire about it when he is auditioning new 
members?
   "No. I look for a guy who can play his head off."
   The addition of a vocalist, especially one as fragile 
sounding as Gayle Moran, was the initial turning point in the 
direction of the band and the reason why Corea felt that Lenny 
White and Al DiMeola had to go. "If I had had more agreement 
given to me about the change and evolution from the others, I 
probably could've worked them in. But I didn't." (According to
guitarist Al DiMeola, "Lenny White and myself were never given 
the chance to let that happen with Gayle. We were just cut out 
of the picture. Chick fell in love with this Chick who said, 'I 
love the band but I can't sing in it with that loud guitar and 
crashing drums.'") 
 "I just thought of something else that's an element in change," 
Corea offers. "Ever notice how you go through life and you make 
friends and create and do things with a lot of people, but 
there's always a select group of people who, no matter what you 
evolve through, they're always there for you and you're always
there for them. They're real rare relationships, which is the 
kind of relationship, although it's been sporadic, with Joe 
Farrell. And over the past couple years, very gradually, I've 
been developing a nice, mutual relationship with Gayle. There 
are certain relationships that are really special."
   "Chick doesn't realize who his true friends are," suggests Al 
DiMeola offering a decidedly different viewpoint on the 
breakup. "His true friends are Al DiMeola and Lenny White, and 
he cut them out of the picture. I'm extremely bitter about the 
breakup of the band and I'm not afraid to tell anybody that. And 
I never left the band. Lenny White and myself were fired from 
the band which is no longer Return To Forever with the four 
members. Chick started the band, we recognized him as the leader 
at all times. I idolized the guy and I did everything for him 
and to get fired from the band for a reason which concerns a 
female really p@#$es me off."
   DiMeola came into Return To Forever through a tape Chick 
Corea heard of him playing with keyboardist Barry Miles. "It was 
agreed by all of us that the band would stay together for a long 
time - a very long time," he laughs disappointedly. Contrary to 
Corea's opinion, DiMeola feels that disbanding right when the 
group was at it's peak "was really a stupid move. The wrong
time for it to happen. He kinda just ended it real quick. Chick 
took an about-face. We all thought his heart was with this band 
to make *this* band happen. He was even doing interviews telling 
people that we'd never break up. And we'd just gotten a brand 
new contract from Columbia. I could go on and on about it but 
I'm very happy with what I'm going to do in the near future. I'm 
putting a band together and we'll be touring in late March,April 
and May. It'll have two percussionists, drums, keyboards, bass 
and guitar - a six man band with heavy percussion. My second 
solo album has just been released (titled Elegant Gypsy) and I'm 
happier with it than anything I've ever done. It's exactly what 
I've wanted to for a long, long time. Steve Gadd plays on it 
along with Lenny White, Jan Hammer, Barry Miles, Anthony 
Jackson, Mingo Lewis and an incredible flamenco player from
Spain named Paco De Lucia. Also before my tour starts, I may go 
to England to record the second "Go" album (the first "Go" album 
featured Stevie Winwood, Stomu Yamashta, Mike Shrieve, Al 
DiMeola, etc...). We did two live shows last year in Europe and 
after the shows, we realized what a powerful thing "Go" was and 
I might record with them again." (The latest word on "Go" is 
that Stevie Winwood has just left the group to be replaced,
possibly by Marty Balin.)
   Last April, when DiMeola left for Europe to participate 
in "Go", Return To Forever had just decided to break up. 
iMeola, however had been told it was a temporary breakup only 
and had to read in a newspaper when he returned home that it was 
not the case. "Chick told us that he thought we should break up 
the band, dissolve the group contract with CBS (presumably
so he could keep the name Return To Forever and dismiss whomever 
he wanted)and in a year, if we wanted to reform, we would," 
DiMeola says, and we're back on the same subject. "And I had to 
find out by reading it in Rolling Stone that he was reforming 
with different members. When I read that I didn't feel right.
   "I mean, I thought he was my friend and Lenny feels the same 
way. Why didn't he get in communication and talk about it? But 
the guy goes to California, he buys a mansion and that's it. And 
I had to go out there and ask him, 'What's going on?' You don't 
just live with a guy, play music with a guy and travel with the 
guy - it was like family for two years on the road - and then 
you break the thing up? And then don't talk to them for like 
eight months? And claim all the rights and expect to share those 
rights that we earned with new members? It's not fair.
   "It's not Return To Forever anymore. Return To Forever was 
Chick,Stanley, Lenny and Al, the way people saw it. The majority 
of our audience didn't remember Joe Farrell, Flora Purim and 
Airto (the first Return To Forever). But, what can I say? I love 
the guy. I think he's the greatest.He's my favorite musician and 
my biggest inspiration. When he broke up the band he hurt a lot 
of people and I'm not talking about just me and Lenny.
I'm talking about a lot of people who were fans and were giving 
ut all of this positive flow."
   Did Stanley ever tell him what he thought about the breakup?
   "Stanley told me he thought it was a real stupid decision on 
the part of Chick, but Stanley's no fool. He can stay with the 
thing. But Stanley's also a Scientologist and Stanley's also 
this and Stanley's also that and I won't get into what those 
other things are.
   "Chick Corea is such a powerful musician and composer, *I* 
wouldn't quit playing with the guy. It's a learning experience. 
It's school, man.It's...phew! It's incredible. I just feel bad 
that he had to wreck the group and the reason really p@#$es me 
off."
   Did Scientology have anything to do with it?
   "That's part of it. It's a sore point with Chick and myself 
because he really wanted me to become a Scientologist. I told 
him the time wasn't right for me to do that because I could be 
spending my time with what I love best, which is music, not 
Scientology. When I was with the group for two years I saw Chick 
spending the majority - like 90% - of his time off the road with 
Scientology. It's very time consuming.
   "I don't think I'll ever see a more disciplined band than 
Return To Forever," DiMeola continues. "And not because of 
Scientology, but because we all are disciplined as people. I 
mean, we don't take drugs. We don't drink. When there's music to 
learn, we learn it. It was like clockwork. The respect for the 
leader of the group, which was Chick, was always there. The
problems RTF were so minute, it was so ridiculous to break up. 
That's what's flipping me out."
   Drummer Lenny White echoes Al DiMeola's sentiments: "I told 
Chick I'd do anything he wanted me to do," he says, commenting 
on the proposed addition of Gayle Moran as a singer. "I mean, I 
went around on the road, man, for three years, busting my ass, 
devoting my time to Return To Forever, and then I'm gonna say 
after three years, that this ain't really what I wanna do? If I 
put that much allegiance into anything, I'd be an asshole not to
say, 'O.K., let's sit down and work this thing out!' That's 
ridiculous. That would be like three wasted years. I'm not 
trying to make Chick look like a liar, but these are facts and 
I'm telling the truth."
   These are facts this year, but last year Lenny White was 
interviewed for Rolling Stone and said he *didn't mind* that 
Return To Forever was breaking up.
   "Chick *told* me what to say to the press," White 
explains, "and I was so flabbergasted by the fact that Chick 
actually sat down and told me what I was supposed to say to the 
press. He told me to say that it's not a breakup due to 
Scientology and that I was happy going out to do my own thing 
and the band (RTF) needed a girl singer. This is what he felt as
though I should say to the press. I even went along with that 
but what transpired between that date and now was the ugliest 
part of the whole deal. I mean, Chick says that people judge 
success by money. But it came down to *money* in this band. He 
did not want to give Al and me what we felt we deserved. There 
was money involved in the Columbia contract that Chick did not 
want to give up and we had to go through a whole legal thing
to get that money. There were some unbelievable things done to 
me and I trusted the cat. I mean, I love Chick's music man. I 
dig him. There were just some things that happened that were 
really funky that I am not going to forget. Ever."
   At the moment, Lenny White is on tour fronting a five-piece 
band (bass,keyboards, drums, two guitars), although he says, "I 
hadn't planned on going out on my own for about another year. I 
was really into making RTF work and I was actually *forced* to 
go out because of what happened. It's not a thing where I feel 
pressured though..."
   Since it's become a reality, he's been looking forward to 
it. "Sure I am. I'm really anxious for people to hear where I'm 
at now, musically. It's totally different from Return To 
Forever."
   Lenny White's recording career started off significantly. In 
August of '69 he played sessions for Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, 
the album that many observers feel was actually the first jazz-
rock album. Two months later,that accomplishment hit him. "I 
woke up one day in October," he remembers, "and said to myself,
I recorded with Miles Davis.' It took that long to realize it 
because Miles was my idol."
   Recently, he completed work on his second solo album on 
Nemperor,titled, Big City. It features guest appearances by 
Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, Verdeen White (EW&F), 
Ray Gomez, Neil Schon and Bernie Maupin. "It's not as spacey as 
my first album, " White says. "There's one track where Herbie 
Hancock is playing piano, Verdeen White is playing bass, Ray 
Gomez plays guitar, and I'm playing drums. Now, I have jazz 
roots with emphasis in jazz-rock, Herbie has jazz roots with 
emphasis on funky playing. Verdeen has R&B roots and his 
emphasis  with Earth, Wind & Fire is with heavy, groove oriented 
music. Ray Gomez has rock and roll roots. You put all these 
people together and that's really hybrid  music.And the common 
denominator (smiles) is me."
   The conversation drifts to the fact that now, both the 
Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever (as most people knew 
it) are unfortunately, entities of the past.
  "You know," Lenny White muses, "both bands should get back 
together and do a joint tour. We'd sell out every concert. It 
should happen in a year or two. Forgetting the fact that there 
would be money involved, it's be GREAT! Can you imagine the
music that would come out of that?? It would be incredible. And 
that's what everybody tries to do. Everybody tries to play great 
music and don't make shit."
   Even considering what has transpired between the members of 
Return To Forever, White would instantly agree to forget 
everything to get back together.
   "I love playing great music," he says in summation, "and if I 
can  get together and play great music with anybody that's what 
I'd do. I'd hope that that would supercede attitudes, because 
you can't play great music with somebody if you cop an attitude. 
But I wouldn't bring my attitude in there. I would say, 'That's 
in the past man. This is a new day and I'm here.' I would do 
that, man."
   Here's hoping.

   -------"Shoot-out at the Jazz-Rock Corral"--------
         by Steve Weitzman ,Gig Magazine,1977


In Progress:

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