ELEGANT GYPSY

Don't really get all the gushing over this album....the era is chock full of Latin-jazz-rock fusion done with so much more imagination and depth. I shouldn't really rant - the band performances on the record are top notch, it's just that the production is all so slick and the sound so damn shiny....there are only a few points in the records where DiMeola gets fuzzy and nasty and even fewer points that are as intriguing as, say, the latter Return to Forever records featuring DiMeola. Plus, there's nothing as strong compositionally as anything on those RTF records and certainly nothing that really grooves or locks into your head. Sometimes it just seems like a demonstration of DiMeola's speed and technique....all flash and no soul. The jazz fusion genre is loaded with this kind of record - blows the mind of the musicians in the crowd and leaves the rest of us waiting for the payoff. Luckily, Lenny White/Steve Gadd, Mingo and Anthony Jackson are on board to hold the rhythms together or else some of this would start sounding like a Larry Carlton album or, have mercy, the Yellowjackets). Still, there are shining moments: love that all too short acoustic piece near the end of the album; but there's just not enough to boost it beyond 2.6 or 2.8 for me....round it off to three stars.