Monday, May 16, 2011

Return to Forever, Zappa Plays Zappa to perform Thursday, August 25 at the Fox Theatre

This just in: A new lineup of the seminal fusion band Return to Forever (pictured) will hit the road for 32 dates in the USA this summer, including a performance on Thursday, August 25 at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis.

Zappa Plays Zappa, the Frank Zappa repertory ensemble headed by the late guitarist and composer's son Dweezil, will serve as the support act for the entire tour.

The new RTF lineup includes Chick Corea on keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums, along with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, who's played with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa, and guitarist Frank Gambale, who's previously worked with Corea, Clarke and Ponty on various projects of theirs.

This version of the band already has toured Australia, performing "an amalgam of Return To Forever classics, highlights from each member’s solo repertoire, and brand-new compositions written for the RTF IV lineup." You can see setlists and photos from those shows here and read some selected reviews here. To hear the new RTF lineup playing "Senor Mouse," click on the embedded audio player below.

Return to Forever last played in St. Louis in 2008 at the Fox, while Zappa Plays Zappa has performed here at The Pageant several times in the past five years, most recently in December 2010.

Tickets for the 2011 Return to Forever/Zappa Plays Zappa tour will go on sale this Saturday, May 21 Friday, May 20. Ticketing for the Fox Theatre usually is handled locally by Metrotix, but there also will be VIP packages presold through the Return to Forever website beginning Thursday, May 19.

UPDATE, 5:30 p.m., 5/18/11: Tickets for the concert are priced from $30 to $60. The Fox and Metrotix will offer an online pre-sale of tickets for the Return to Forever/Zappa Plays Zappa show beginning from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 19. To access the offer, use promo code CLARKE.

2 comments:

Rheayes said...

Thank you for giving the password for the presale. We got our tickets!

Dean Minderman said...

You're welcome, and I hope you enjoy the show - it should be a good one!