Return to Forever has been setting high standards for jazz rock fusion music since Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke first formed it in 1972. RTF I was a Braziliantinged group, as well it might have been since Chick and Stan shared the spotlight with drummer Airto and vocalist Flora Purim. RTF II, of which the present band is a lineal descendant, was much more in the hard rock mainstream. Corea, who...

Back before the turn of the decade, at some point during Cream's "Farewell Tour" with the last shards of Clapton's lengthy and embittered guitar solipsisms still crawling out of their ears, every major rock critic-to-be turned to his colleagues and said, in a rare instance of universal cognitive response, "Well, that should be enough lead guitar for at least the next 30 years."

Since that magic...

Does fusion music eat its young? Or, to put it differently, will success spoil jazz-rock musicians? These recent recordings by the four ex-members of Return to Forever suggest the dangers that lurk when a popular "supergroup" attempts to subdivide itself into autonomous superstars.

Drummer Lenny White and bassist Stanley Clarke have, for the moment, fallen flat on their faces. Lenny White Presents...