Return to Your Youth

Imagine you're a teenage wanna-be musician, alone in your room with your instrument, listening to the music you love and the musicians you hope to be as good as someday. (Actually, many of you probably don't have to imagine.)

If that was you in the '70s, chances are Return to Forever was on the turntable. Even if jazz or fusion weren't your thing, you knew Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola and Lenny White were the best at what they did.

Return to Forever are now a client (they're reuniting this summer for their first tour together in 25 years), and what I learned from seeing Chick Corea and his Elektric Band play recently is that teenage wanna-bes are still a big part of their audience - and so are their parents, the teenagers of yesteryear.

During my own awkward years, I spent many hours at the piano trying to figure out how Chick did that, and it made me happy to see so many young necks craning to watch his fingers fly.

Here's a too-fuzzy clip of RTF three decades ago. Don't you love Lenny's tuxedo t-shirt?