Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy

A very impressive album. It launches off immediately with great musicianship and enthusiasm. I prefer their later material but this is recommended.The record arrived well packed & in good condition.

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Bought to replace my original vinyl which has mysteriously disappeared. The upside is I can now listen to it in the car.

I was lucky to see this Return to Forever lineup at Leeds University in 1974 and it remains etched on my mind unlike many later gigs of lesser bands. In those days before Pastorius really hit the scene as far as we Northern working class kids were concerned, Stanley Clarke was the bassist to watch as he stood, tall and almost motionless with his alembic bass. Lenny White was a fabulous drummer in the genre, but for me as a guitarist, Bill Connors was the man I went to see.He was obviously extremely uncomfortable on stage and could be seen wiping his hands much of the time. His solos were beautiful of course as they are on this record. I think few guitarists (Di Meola certainly couldn't) could match his combination of rock style going for it with supreme good taste and technical ability. Connors didn't last long of course and for me RTF was never the same band, becoming a bloated behemoth in comparison thanks to the narcissistic and self indulgent noodlings of DiMeola.The news came out that when Connors joined he felt honoured to be in the company of Chick Corea, not long before one of the Young Turks of jazz piano, a wonderful soloist and composer of course. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Corea tended to keep his electric and his acoustic endeavours separate; what he wanted from Connors was rock emotionality, but what Connors wanted was to explore his jazz side. For that reason alone, the lineup was bound to fail, but for the short time that it was in existence,it was a true trailblazer of a band.Connors gave up playing electric guitar for several years and took up classical. He has many solo albums to his credit, but despite his fingerstyle approach, in sound nowadays he reminds me rather of Holdsworth. I still imagine that he might resume the wonderfully poised playing of those long distant days but I don't hold out too much hope.One of the things that stuck in my mind as a 23 year old was the fact that Corea's band appealed both to the older guys who were bopping along with the rest of us. Obviously they had been listening to him for much longer than we had, but they seemed to have no difficulty accepting his crossover band. Like that gig, the songs on this album are exquisite, the musicianship and control of dynamics is sensational. This is one hell of an album- perhaps a little dated now, but nowhere near as much as many of its contemporaries. One of my Desert Island choices.

A few years ago I was writing a book on Jon Hiseman and Colosseum. I interviewed Gary Moore, as he was in Colosseum 2 and played on their three albums. We got on the subject of Return to Forever. He opined that he was very influenced by RTF but he did prefer this album to Romantic Warrior. The reason was he thought RW was too 'clean' and preferred the 'edge' to Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. By the way, Gary was a very nice and humble man.

Firstly, let me clarify that this is a million times better than most of the pap in the charts, but to me this album represents an important historical document in the development of fusion and Chick Corea's career. Compared to Romantic Warrior, considered the peak of RTF's career, there is a marked difference in style. The high gloss mixture of Corea's synthesizers, DiMeola's ultra fast licks and Clarke's Alembic basses has not appeared and instead Bill Connors's more sparse but highly tasteful guitar work, Corea's jazz-rock selection of Hammond and Rhodes and Clarke's Gibson EB-3 bass (horribly fuzzed up for some solos) contrast with the one consistent feature of both classic albums, Lenny White's busy but effective drumming style. The compositions are more jazz than fusion, with Corea adapting his latin standard 'Senor Mouse' for this more 'rock' arrangement and 'Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy' stands as the only track which anticipates the fusion feel of 'Romantic Warrior'. So, if you're looking for a post-miles and mahavishnu electric jazz album, this comes reccomended.