had a lot of respect for Chick, but eventually I just felt screwed around. In the end, my only power was to quit." After Return to Forever In 1974, Connors left Return to Forever, and began to explore the New York jazz and session scene, performing with guitarist John Abercrombie and keyboardist Jan Hammer, and recording with former Return to Forever bandmate Stanley Clarke. "It was great," he stated in a 1985 interview, "because it wasn't this contrived thing in order to communicate to the audience. We were *playing* again and *learning* again, and it felt real good." During this period, recording with vocalist Gene McDaniels and Stanley Clarke kept the guitarist's creative impulses occupied with a variety of challenges—but not for long. "Around 1975, I'd decided to become a classical guitar player", he muses. "I did my first solo album in 1974, and just decided on the spur of the moment to do it all on acoustic. That was just such a contrast from blowing people's ears off with my 200-watt Marshall that it really started to capture me." A further impetus came with Connors' discovery of classical artist Julian Bream. "I was sitting with his album 20th Century Guitar—a real classic—and it has this piece by [German composer] Henze that I really loved. It was just getting to me, so I sat down for a couple of days and transcribed it—on my steel-string guitar, with my funny pick-and-finger technique [laughs]. When I got it, it gave me so much pleasure that I said, 'Okay, I'm going to be a classical guitar player.' And that's what happened." Connors recorded his solo album Theme to the Gaurdian (ECM) in 1974, making the switch from electric to acoustic guitar. Simultaneously he began to study classical guitarists. Two more albums on acoustic guitar followed: Of Mist and Melting (1978, ECM) with saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Jack DeJohnette and Swimming with a Hole in My Body (1980, ECM). During 1976 and 1977, Connors recorded with Lee Konitz, Paul Bley, and Jimmy Giuffre in New York City. He toured Europe, performing with Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian. He returned to electric guitar, performing and recording with Garbarek on Places (1978) and Photo with Blue Sky, White Cloud, Wires, Windows and a Red Roof (1979) and with Tom van der Geld and Richard Jannotta on Path (ECM) in 1979. In 1984,