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Return to Forever - Musicmagic (1977) [Audio Fidelity, Remastered 2016]

Posted By: Designol

Date: 20 May 2025 15:08:13

Return to Forever - Musicmagic (1977) [Audio Fidelity, Remastered 2016]

Musicmagic is Return to Forever's seventh and final studio album and one of the best jazz recordings released in the fusion genre. The album contains the final line-up of the band with only founders Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke returning from the previous recordings. This 1977 release was the first Return to Forever album in five years to contain vocals, performed here by Corea's future wife Gayle Moran and the surprisingly enjoyable Stanley Clarke. This album also marked the return of original member Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, along with several new members making up a killer five-piece horn section.

The sound is remarkably more orchestral than anything the group had previously done, a cross between fusion, jazz vocals, big band and grassroots acoustic jazz. Musicmagic celebrates the pure joy of music with contributions from Corea (“The Musician”), Moran (the existential jazz ballad “Do You Ever”), Corea and Moran together (“Musicmagic” and “The Endless Night”) and Clarke (“Hello Again” and the album’s single greatest moment, “So Long Mickey Mouse,” offering particularly great spots for Farrell’s flute and soprano, Corea’s keyboard kaleidoscope and Clarke’s entrancing bass).

The music of this new Return to Forever band overwhelms you with a great sense of accomplishment. The album reached #4 on the Billboard Jazz chart and doesn't lose a beat when compared to previous works by the band.

Return to Forever was one of the most commercially and artistically successful jazz/rock bands of the '70s. Albums like Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy and Where Have I Known You Before are filled with the band's chemistry and deft mix of genres. This 1977 effort marks the departure of founding member, drummer Lenny White and guitarist Al DiMeola. White is replaced here with Gerry Brown. A five-piece horn section is added, which includes the returning Joe Farrell. Gayle Moran also is added as a vocalist and on keyboards. Those expecting a continuation of what the group was working on during the great Romantic Warrior will be disappointed. Musicmagic features none of the exciting and challenging playing that typified their best work. The first track, "The Musician," starts off strongly with a great intro then meanders, a trait that often marred Corea's best work of this era. "Hello Again," a duet with Clarke and Moran, is skilled but a little mawkish. The title track plays to this incarnation's strengths with the horn section providing punchy support as Corea has a harder-edged Fender Rhodes solo. Unfortunately, Musicmagic is more often than not filled with bombast and melodrama typified on "So Long Mickey Mouse" and "Do You Ever." The last track, the melodically compelling "The Endless Night," also has the vocals of Clarke and Moran blending particularly well on the song. Despite the best intentions, Musicmagic lacks the swagger and confidence of the group's best work.

Review by Jason Elias, Allmusic.com

Return to Forever at Allmusic
Return to Forever at Wiki

Chick Corea - keyboards
Stanley Clarke - electric bass, acoustic bass, vocals
Gayle Moran - vocals, piano, organ
Joe Farrell - saxophone, flute
James Tinsley - trumpet, piccolo
John Thomas - trumpet, flugelhorn
Harold Garret, James E. Pugh - trombone
Gerry Brown - drums

Tracklist:

01. The Musician (7:12)
02. Hello Again (3:49)
03. Musicmagic (11:05)
04. So Long Mickey Mouse (6:09)
05. Do You Ever (4:00)
06. The Endless Night (9:43)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 21. July 2017, 18:17

Return to Forever / Musicmagic (2016 AF)

Used drive : PLEXTOR CD-R PREMIUM Adapter: 1 ID: 1

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 30
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -e -p -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 7:11.66 | 0 | 32390
2 | 7:11.66 | 3:48.65 | 32391 | 49555
3 | 11:00.56 | 11:04.61 | 49556 | 99416
4 | 22:05.42 | 6:08.68 | 99417 | 127084
5 | 28:14.35 | 3:59.50 | 127085 | 145059
6 | 32:14.10 | 9:42.49 | 145060 | 188758

Track 1

Filename C:\tmp\00_RIPS\01 - The Musician.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 87.5 %
Extraction speed 9.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C9622275
Copy CRC C9622275
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [3C01463E] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\tmp\00_RIPS\02 - Hello Again.wav

Peak level 87.4 %
Extraction speed 10.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 3D6C3DC2
Copy CRC 3D6C3DC2
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [2DE69C67] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\tmp\00_RIPS\03 - Musicmagic.wav

Peak level 86.9 %
Extraction speed 11.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0351EF34
Copy CRC 0351EF34
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [A24FE987] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\tmp\00_RIPS\04 - So Long Mickey Mouse.wav

Peak level 85.0 %
Extraction speed 12.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC EF3DB313
Copy CRC EF3DB313
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [0EAA6198] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\tmp\00_RIPS\05 - Do You Ever.wav

Peak level 91.2 %
Extraction speed 11.2 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC BF6854B9
Copy CRC BF6854B9
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [9F1DCD20] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\tmp\00_RIPS\06 - The Endless Night.wav

Peak level 85.6 %
Extraction speed 12.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 36F6F56E
Copy CRC 36F6F56E
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [D1A3AC4F] (AR v2)
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: HwD_wTz5_sl4STw5InvdckPWn9A-] found
Submit result: HwD_wTz5_sl4STw5InvdckPWn9A- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (7/7) Accurately ripped
2 | (7/7) Accurately ripped
3 | (7/7) Accurately ripped
4 | (7/7) Accurately ripped
5 | (7/7) Accurately ripped
6 | (7/7) Accurately ripped

==== Log checksum 8A504908DE61CE92BA8C12061A086DA13BFF696BBDC8C6FF1C218E3F88512518 ====

DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2017-07-25 19:17:05

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Return to Forever / Musicmagic
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR11 -1.16 dB -16.22 dB 7:12 01-The Musician
DR11 -1.17 dB -16.27 dB 3:49 02-Hello Again
DR12 -1.21 dB -16.21 dB 11:05 03-Musicmagic
DR10 -1.41 dB -15.87 dB 6:09 04-So Long Mickey Mouse
DR12 -0.80 dB -17.63 dB 4:00 05-Do You Ever
DR10 -1.34 dB -15.47 dB 9:43 06-The Endless Night
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 6
Official DR value: DR11

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 809 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser

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