It was not his fault

I’m listening to Joe Farrell and I remember the
only time I’ve heard him
before was when he was part of
Chick Corea’s Return To Forever, a band
I listened to a lot once, maybe sometime in
the early 70’s. When I heard the
music again later it sounded really dated and
lightweight, tunes almost silly
and Joe Farrell was playing flute on top of
Corea's dancing piano. I didn’t like it at all.
But now when I hear Farrell from late 1985 -
actually just four months before he died
only 48 years old, I wonder what happened
he plays a strong and fierce tenor saxophone,
really good and powerful.
It was probably not his fault, this Return to Forever band;
probably it was all to blame on Mr. Corea.

Published in Chiron Review, Spring 2011