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Customer Reviews of Romantic Warrior

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. <
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>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. <
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>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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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! <
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>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. <
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>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, <
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>Production-wise, the recording is crisp and detailed, every instrument sparkles and shimmers, no complaints there! <
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>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. <
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>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. <
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>But my Al DiMeola rant notwithstanding, this is a VERY fun and energetic RTF set to feast your ears on.

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KJhsfv
This is album with no emotion, passion or sense at all!!!!!!!! It sounds like a computer midi file.