Romantic Warrior | Return to Forever | Far beyond those of mortal men

Romantic Warrior | Return to Forever | Colorful and Fiery Mediaeval -flavored Fusion

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Romantic Warrior

	Romantic Warrior Return to Forever Sony, 2000 average customer review:based on 63 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Far beyond those of mortal men

Is what these four superman are all about. Bought this LP in 76' and wore it out. These are musical technicians personified. I had the unique priviledge of seeing RTF live in Chicago. Oh my god, what a night that was. I can't believe out of thirty five reviews (mine included) for this album, one "out of sorts" individual is going to revue this and put it down and mention things not relevent to these four masters of fusion like overindulgence. I don't consider playing your instrument fast, clean, and in unison a form of overindulgence. It's called technique, if that's what he was in reference to.

People who following RTF like myself were brought into a new realm of musicianship from a rock based upbringing. That music compostion could actually consist of more than three chords. Music to RTF was not about image, it was about ability and they certainly proved that with "Romantic Warrior".

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Colorful and Fiery Mediaeval -flavored Fusion

This was where many consider RTF to have peaked, and listening to these compositions, it's quite understandable why many think that. The Fearsome Foursome pulled out al the stops and just let it rip!

Chick definitely gets the best writing here (Mediaeval Overture, Romantic Warrior and Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant) with many colorful sections that somehow tie together very well, not to mention tons of colorful keyboard sounds! Each piece has very strong melodic material and never loses your interest.

Stanley Clarke's "The Magician" is a lot of fun with its utterly wacky and even hilarious transitions, handbells, tight ensmble play and freewheeling spirit (and even an alarm clock). Lenny White's "The Sorceress" is a smoldering and mysterious funk workout that Herbie Hancock would've been proud of, great groove and Chick gets in a smoking piano solo here. However, Al DiMeola's "Majestic Dance" doesn't fare that well compostionally compared to the others, coming off more like a riff-rock tune with some mediaeval window dressing than a fuly realized musical idea,

Production-wise, the recording is crisp and detailed, every instrument sparkles and shimmers, no complaints there!

As far as the muscianship, these guys were MONSTERS technically, but the strongest and deepest musicality clearly comes from Chick, Stanley and Lenny in that order.

To me, Al DiMeola was the weak link in the RTF chain. Yeah, he can play REEEEEEAAAALLLLYYY FAAAAASSSSSTT MMMAAAAAANNNNNNNN, but I honesly find his soloing COMPLETELY lacking in any actual ideas or flow, not to mention very one-dimensional. Basically, he's just running scales up and down at 19,000 MPH through Marshalls. Whoopee, ANYONE could do that, but it takes a very deep, thoughtful and creative soul to let off spontaneous fully-formed ideas and melodies. He does fare better in the framework of a good Corea piece far better than he did on his rather wanky solo outings. Al's best playing on here may actually be in the all acoustic "Romantic Warrior" where his excesses seem to have been toned down.

But my Al DiMeola rant notwithstanding, this is a VERY fun and energetic RTF set to feast your ears on.

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Fusion at it's best, but still dated

Back in the day, my friends and I (fusion freak teens all) used to consider this the ultimate jazz rock album, and probably still do. It was completely mind blowing in it's time, but like most fusion music, it hasn't stood the test of time all that well. When you listen to this album today, some of it sounds very dated, just pointless riffing and speed runs punctuated by disjointed ensemble parts, with very little substance in the writing. In particular, "Medieval Overture", "Majestic Dance" and "The Musician" suffer the most from this.

On the other hand, there's some really great stuff here. Lenny White's "The Sorceress" sounds amazingly fresh to me, probably because it is more flowing, has such nice funky grooves and less frenetic soloing. To me, Lenny was by far the most underrated member of this supergroup, for his writing skills as well as his incredible drumming. The acoustic title cut "Romantic Warrior" is absolutely beautiful. The closer, "The Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant", pretty much stands as the pinnacle of the 70s jazz-rock movement, with amazing soloing and instrumental interplay.

To me, fusion never got much better than this. Of course, there's still Mahavishnu, Weather Report, Brand X, etc.! But even more importantly, almost every one of these fusion albums has a "Tribute to John" or a "Miles Beyond" on it. These fusion bands wore their influences on their sleeves, and as a result, jazz rock became the bridge for us rock'n'roll guys to explore the world of classic jazz.

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GET THE 2001 JAPAN DSD REMASTER INSTEAD

"Romantic Warrior" has gone thru several audio iterations since debuting on CD. This domestic CD, which was the 2nd remaster of the album, is pretty good.

However, the benchmark disc is the 2001 Sony Japan-only DSD remaster. The DSD-processing delivered quite a bit of additional clarity, and especially much better bass, than this U.S. remaster.

The DSD was also re-pressed in 2006. Both pressings have since sold thru, but some availability does remain.

In 2008, the Warrior album was also released, in its entirety, on the 2CD RTF Anthology set. However, that version is heavily remixed, which I didn't particularly care for.

The original's recording, engineering and mastering were, for all intents and purposes, perfect to begin with. After listening to original mix for the past 30 years, I found the remix to be very jarring: The main objective seemed to be targeted in increasing the volume of the solo'd instruments (check out Clarke's bass solo at the end of "Medieval Overture" on the Anthology disc as an example).

If you're looking for the best-sounding version of the Warrior album in its original mix, my advice is to buy the DSD.

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