ELEGANT GYPSY

Items ordered by ending time | Showing all 14 items

Visit eBay search:'prog rock' for items
Sell your AL DI MEOLA items on eBay !

Best selling order

Visit Amazon tag:'Progressive Rock' for more prog rock

It is short, but it is easily my favourite jazz-fusion record and the best guitar driven solo effort. I give it five stars not only because it is a masterpiece, but also because it would really appeal to prog fans. Why? Because of the musicianship!!!!! All the musicians in this record are at least excellent (pay close attention to the drummers), and Al Dimeola is a guitar God. Most of the songs are in fast tempos and have plenty of solos.There is also an epic,althrough a bit short, to satisfy fans of long duration songs. I couldn't believe this was sitting on the shelf until I listened to it on August. (my father dislikes this album (and jazz- fusion in general) I just couldn't believe my ears when I heard it for the first time!

Note : This album is instrumental.

1. Flight Over Rio : Probably the best song in the album. I say probably because the album itself has this amazing quality of musicianship, technique, and songwriting. The song begins with a slow guitar riff, builds up in a jazz-fusion rhythms, and explodes in an accelerated musical nirvana in which a synthesizer and a guitar duel each other. Do you remember Wakeman and Steve dueling on the 2004 Yes tour? That's nothing compared to this!!! The song continues in a latin rhythm with latin percussions (kind of Santana-like) and finishes in the same way it started. 10/10

2. Midnight Tango : This is another song with latin touches in its percussion and rhythm. However, it is fusioned to jazz with amazing results. The guitar is absolutely phenomenal here and the keyboard behind that guitar (jazzy) gives what the song needs to sound with perfection. There is also a distorted guitar (or bass) riff that really shines. After some great soloing, another fabolous riff melts you, gives you a thousand goosebumps, and floors you. I just can't believe how powerful the music in this CD really is! The song ends with a good drum duet which wasn't really necessary (but it does not really hurt the quality of the song) 9.5/10

3. Mediterranean Sundance : This is a song in which guitar virtuoso Paco De Lucia harmonizes his acoustic guitar with Meola's one. The song sounds almost like flamenco with its extremely fast acoustic guitar playing style. This is one of my father's favourite songs of all times and I see why : try to find an accelerated acoustic song with this quality. It is a flawless showcase of Meola's talents. 10/10

4. Race With Devil On Spanish Highway : The song begins with a fast bass riff riff played with latin percussions and is sometimes interfered with lighting speed guitar runs. After that section is over, the music is more relaxing and is led by a guitar solo. The bass playing in here is pretty good and loud. The next sections involved in extremely fast drumming and riffing until a beautiful leaping guitar lick begins what is known as a masterful guitar solo. After that is over, the song takes yet another shift with similar riffs and themes but in different rhythms and continues to shift back and forth with noticeable differences and more guitar soloing until it ends with a fadeout. This has to be the most dynamic and unpredictable song on the record and a beautiful one, even if it is not a highlight of the album. 9/10

5. Lady Of Rome Sister Of Brazil : An acoustic track that lets you room to breath before you get to the epic (The most challenging song of the album). This little piece is outstanding and is as good (if not better) as Horizons from Genesis. 9/10

6. Elegant Gypsy Suite : This song may be prog rock/jazz because of the creativity, strangeness, length, style, and technique. The beginning of the track is majestic a bit playful, and obviously very complex. The riffs are very weird and interesting here, as well as the guitar sounds produced with whatever pedals he had used. After a riff repeated a big number of times, the song transform into an atmospheric section in which an amazing (and extremely strange) synthesizer solo dominates for over a minute and leave you surprised a synthesizer can sound so GOOD! The song later gets very jazzy and continues with more unusual riffing that sound very good and interesting after repeated listens. I especially love that muted guitar riff that occurs after a heavy riff somewhere close to the end of the song. The song ends very unexpectedly, but it is a good ending. 10/10

Stop reading and get this album!!

My Grade : A

This follow-up album which was released one year after the successful debut "Land of The Midnight Sun" is another masterpiece album. Meola brought in other talented musicians to record this album: Paco De Lucia (acoustic guitar), Jan Hammer who used to play with Jeff Beck, great bass guitar player Anthony Jackson and his Return To Forever colleague Mr. Lenny White (drums). What a great line-up. The music is still in the same vein with the debut album but this time he even put more diverse in style by exploring more acoustic guitar work. What you can hear is the excellent combination of electric as well as acoustic guitar work throughout the album. I love all tracks presented in this album and my best favorite track is "Race With Devil On Spanish Highway" and "Elegant Gypsy Suite". The music is tightly composed with many tempo changes; dominated with guitar and percussive work.

Highly recommended!

Al Di Meola's second album is ultimately my favorite album of his and is one of the best jazz rock albums available. All the elements of total success are here, stellar musicianship, creative songwriting, and fun and imaginative variances in the music. From heavy hitting power riffing to soft spoken acoustic guitar interludes, it is all here. From the very first second of Flight Over Rio to the pulsating closing seconds of Elegant Gypsy Suite, one thing is clear, this is an album that will be remembered for many many years to come. Like I said with my review for Casino, this album will surely be up the alley of any fan of guitar oriented music and any fan of high velocity Spanish influenced jazz rock.

Flight Over Rio opens the album with some intuitive bass riffing from Anthony Jackson and some very smooth keyboards from Jan Hammer. There's a definite mellow mood during this introduction, but once Di Meola enters everything slowly changes. The track becomes more fast paced and high energy, with some stellar ascending riffs from Di Meola and great and precise percussion from Mingo Lewis, as well as a great keyboard/guitar duel between Di Meola and Hammer. It opens the album brilliantly, and the quality of the songs never really goes down. Midnight Tango has a very mellow atmopshere in comparison to Flight Over Rio, with some intuitive soloing from Di Meola over a steady rhythm section and some great wavy piano lines. Slowly the pace increases, although not to the pace of the first track. The well timed chord based bass guitar work is also really well conceived. Mediterranean Sundance begins with a nice drum/percussion duet between Mingo Lewis and Lenny White, but soon becomes an exceedingly complicated piece with some great acoustic work from Di Meola and Paco de Lucia. The interplay between these two (and later along with John McLaughlin on Friday Night in San Francisco) is incredible and shows some stellar abilities for both musicians who take turns hammering out the main beat while another solos on top of it, eventually becoming a duel solo movement.

Race With Devil on Spanish Highway is probably my favorite song on this album. Beginning with a strong percussive rhythm and a cool bass line, the song soon evolves into an all out shred piece with riff after riff of powerful guitar lines that intertwine and spell out brilliance. There's a riff in this song that the group Liquid Tension Experiment would also quote in their song Acid Rain (or so I believe, they are very very similar). But besides that, there's nothing to dislike about this song, it's just high energy and very inspiring to listen to. Lady of Rome, Sister of Brazil is a short interlude before the finale of the album, Elegant Gypsy Suite. It is a little acoustic ditty that has some very somber playing on the part of both Di Meola and Paco de Lucia, who create a very mellow and light atmosphere with this piece. The album ends with the song Elegant Gypsy Suite, which begins with some acoustic work from Paco de Lucia before becoming a nicely flowing piece, with a great bassline from Anthony Jackson and some great underlying percussion from Mingo Lewis. As with all the tracks on the album, Di Meola is nothing short of brilliant, who really creates some gentle yet rough riffs on this piece, as well as gentle and incredibly complicated leads that utilize a nice wah/phaser effect. Throughout the 9 minutes of the track, there is a great sense of evolution and progression, and I never really tire of this stellar piece.

In the end, Elegant Gypsy is right up there with Bill Bruford's One of a Kind as one of my favorite records in the jazz rock genre. There's a lot of excellent musicianship, killer songs, great arrangements, and an overall spectacular feel I get from this album. As I said in my opening paragraph, fans of guitar oriented music and highly technical jazz rock will probably be right at home with this album. I can't call this album anything less than a masterpiece and I am very impressed with this album. You probably won't be either. 5/5.

It's a masterpiece. Another latin fusion masterpiece.

"Flight over Rio" sets the album off with it's bombastic bridge of guitar/keyboard interplay, followed by the part-mellow-part-heavy "Midnight Tango", with it's great percussive ending featuring steel drums and congas. "Mediterranean Sundance" gives the album it's rightful title with a sort of "rumba flamenca", starring also the one and only Paco De Lucia with his usual flamenco magic. And what about the quasimetal "Race with the Devil On Spanish Highway"?... not bad latin metal fusion, and though not exactly my favourite song it fits well. An awfully short bossa "Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil" follows (which could had gone a bit longer) and then the title track suite ends the album in style.

I would also like to give high praise to the musicians that appeared on this album, particularly bassist Anthony Jackson who reminds a lot to Stanley Clarke at times with the power chords.

I'll give 5 stars to this one, and I'm pretty sure it's not the only one I'd be giving to this superb musician's discography.

Man, this guy is so fast and yet so smooth! "Flight Over Rio" is my favourite from this record,especially the 90 second intro where Jan Hammer's synth work is incredible.There is some scorching guitar 3 minutes in,and check out DiMeola and Hammer trading solos!The song ends as it began.Nice."Midnight Tango" is a change of pace, as it is a jazzy tune with some great percussion towards the end."Mediterranean Sundance" has a Spanish flavour to Al's guitar playing that is fast and intricate.Some great leads!"Race with devil on Spanish highway" features some light speed guitar playing from DiMeola that is contrasted with his almost soaring melodies.Great tune!"Lady of Rome Sister of Brazil" is a short acoustic song."Elegant Gypsy Suite" features some cool percussion and great bass playing,while the guitar melodies 5 minutes in shine. Easily 4 stars.Again,i'm so impressed at how smooth DiMeola's playing is when he's playing so fast.It's like he has the ability to slow it all down in his mind,it seems so effortless on his part.Amazing!And he has surrounded himself with some very talented musicians.Highly recommended.

Al DiMeola is what so many shred metal guitarists wish they could be. He can play a ridiculous number of notes per second yet he plays with a musicality seldom rivalled by the genre he helped to inspire. Elegant Gypsy shows Al in his prime, with an intractable lineup featuring flamenco god Paco De Lucia and Mahavishnu organ grinder Jan Hammer. The result is a blazing set of fusion that is over far too soon.

"Flight Over Rio" starts off with guitar and keyboard interplay that sets teh foundation for the boys in Dream Theater to pick up a decade later. "Midnight Tango" eases off the throttle brings an island vibe with steel drums and congas. This song shows the elegant side of the gypsy. "Mediterranean Sundance" features Paco keeping pace with Al as the two play lighting-fast flamenco. "Race With the Devil on tehSpanish Highway" is the highlight of the album with a great bass part, latin rhythms and mind-blowing performances from DiMeola. "Lady Of Rome Sister Of Brazil" is an interlude that leads up to the fianle, "Elegant Gypsy Suite." Think that the album so far has been challenging? You've heard nothing yet. De Lucia and DiMeola lay down impossibly complex riffs using God knows how many effects, and Jan Hammer's solo is one of his finest performances. This epic track alone is worth the price of the album, which is nicely quite cheap.

If you are a fan of prog, fusion, or even just the guitar, get this album. Al seamlessly fuses jazz, latin music, and guitar-based rock into one of the three best fusion albums of all time (the other two being Mahavishnu's Birds of Fire and Bruford's One of a Kind). Al Di Meola is one of those rare guitarists who can both inspire players and discourage them, as the talent he displays can shame 99% of the world's guitarists.

Grade: A

3.5 stars really!!

Second solo album by the Italian-origined American guitarist who had a strong Spanish desire, Elegant Gypsy is usually regarded as his best solo album, even if this writer begs to differ! Indeed, EG draws on the same kind of fusion jazz-rock of Return To Forever, crossed with Santana's better moments (from Caravanserai to Borboletta) and Mahavishnu Orchestra's first period. Graced with a typical tasteless romantic late 70's artwork (the disastrous and XXX fantasy of Gypsy women portrayed by Carmen the group), Stevie Nicks, the Wilson sisters of Heart and more), this album is nevertheless a real strong outing, although a bit too close to the previous Midnight Sun.

Flight over Rio cannot escape comparison with Santana, mostly due to the Latin-fusion percussions, but ADM's guitar tone is a bit too resembling also. Midnight Tango starts out well enough, but by mid-track it can't escape a cheesy fondue moments (although it could please some progheads) that lasts the rest of the track, until an atrocious (well ill-advised) pzercussion solo, that's been done better elsewhere. Mediterranean Sundance is a Flamenco piece, where ADM tries to impress (he gets by), but obviously is nowhere Paco DeLucia. I'm not sure this type of choice is judicious to ADM's career.

On the flipside, Race With the Devil is another Santana-inflicted track that seems to be what ADM does best. A fairly insignificant acoustic guitar short piece follows, then the album plunges into the title track suite, which is need the album's highlight with Flight Over Rio. On this track, we approach the perfection of the debut album's title track. Definitely not quite as interesting as the Midnight Sun debut album, EG is still an interesting and worthy JR/F album that should easily find its place on your shelves, but it should remain a lesser work of the genre.

Thank you ProgArchives for this album, which I would not have found without you! Rare is the album that I enjoy EVERY time it comes on: this is great Latin and jazz rock, perfect if you are concentrating on something else and simply want something to keep up your spirits, or excellent if you want to listen closely and hear as tight a group of musicians as you can find. Great job, Al di Meola and company for this spectacular collection of music.

Flight Over Rio. Bookended by a great funky groove, the middle is dominated by wonderful synth and guitar interplay. Not to be forgotten is the percussion--liveliness and originality without detracting from the other elements.

Midnight Tango. From the title and opening melody, you may think this is the mellow tune of the album. Not so! The whole song is highlighted by stately and captivating bass tones, with a great guitar harmony to close things out. I really don't know what the percussion deal at the end is for, but I don't mind it. Possibly the album's one flaw.

Mediterranean Sundance. A mesmerizing duet between Meola and Paco De Lucia, this tune is very repetitive and wears thin over time with repeated listens, but you can't deny that awesome melody and astounding playing.

Race With Devil on Spanish Highway. Here the band is tight as they can be: fast, furious, slow, and all the while foot-tapping and memorable. An odd song structure, but memorable all the way through.

Elegant Gypsy Suite. The boys saved the best for last. This seems a bit aimless, but even though it's not necessarily building to a grand finale, the process of getting there is wonderful. Staccato guitar and keyboard sometimes, and tasteful sustains and vibrato in others, with perfectly effective percussion throughout, this is an absolute gem.

If you have any inclinations for great guitar that is well-integrated into the music played by talented musicians, you simply need this album. Ditto if you enjoy jazz or Latin-influenced rock.

Amazing prog infused jazz fusion.

Elegant Gypsy is a fantastic record featuring some of the best songs of Di Meola's career. First you'd struggle to find a better collection musicians,Di Meola absolutely shreds - tastefully of course, the drums are first rate, particularly the percussion and the keys take turns shredding with the guitar, a very skilled bunch of musicians.

As far as highlights go there are a great deal of them, the opening song 'Flight Over Rio' starts off fairly before kicking into overdrive with some latin fusion shred driven by some fantastic percussion with some extraordinary guitar work from Di Meola complimented by the keyboards perfectly with some tag team soloing. Midnight Tango is also a great song it's really quite progressive, I thought it was several different songs on my first listen. Mediterranean Sundance is undoubtedly Di Meola's most well known song featuring finger picking acoustic virtuoso Paco De Lucia (who would later feature in Di Meola's guitar trio along with John McLaughlin - their live version of the song is something else.) Mediterranean Sundance is probably one of the best songs ever written for acoustic guitar, Di Meola and De Lucia are in perfect harmony and pretty well take their turns melting the fretboard with their emotionally charged fusion shred. The closing track 'Elegant Gypsy Suite' is easily the best song on the album, truly a progressive song, covering many different emotional and musical territories, it's a fantastic song and a crowning achievement on the album.

Overall Elegant Gypsy is a fine jazz fusion record, it could be a bit longer and it does lose a lot of it's zest after the first few songs but it's an essential part of any jazz fusion fan's collection.

Second solo album by the Italian-origined American guitarist who had a strong latin desire, Elegant Gypsy is usually regarded as his best solo album, and in fact it is, and to me is among the best jazz albums ever recorded. Maybe sometime is kinda same with what he was doing in Return to Forever, musicaly speaking but this is very Ok to my taste. Album starts with Flight over Rio a typical DiMeola latin fusin music with a lot of percussions played by Mingo Lewis, this is the first track to remember. The second piece that worth investigate is the best from here , Race With the Devil - Al Dimeola at his best, nothing more.The drums are absolute stunning and very sophisticated sometimes, and sometimes very smooth. The rest of the tracks are also good jazz fusion latin flamenco orientated that must plesed every prog fan, not only jazz lovers. In the end 5 stars for this one. One of my fav albums from jazz no doubt, and deserve to be on your shelves, because worth every second. Essential album.

I don't need to give much of an input here. This is a widely renowned album by a widely renowned guitarist. It is his finest work, and it is probably the greatest solo album by a guitarist ever made. The compositions are flawless and they are very much like songs. A problem with your typical guitarist album is that the music is mediocre; it's only selling point is awesome solos. That is never enough. These songs are truly brilliant compositions overall.

Escape Velocity Latino Jazz Fusion

Even though DiMeola won various awards for the jazz guitarist category by Guitar Player Magazine for five years running during the latter half of the seventies more mainstream exponents of jazz wrote his playing off as being too fast and mechanical. On Elegant Gypsy, Di Meolas second solo work, that assessment more or less holds true and for the most part comes off as a go nuts Al album. By this time his mentors John McLaughlin and Larry Coryell had both overcome their musical juevenescence and Coryell would even remark that guitar playing was getting too fast with every new guy wanting to be the new boy guitar wonder. What saves the day for Al here though is the formidable abilities of his more experienced sidemen which include Anthony Jackson, Steve Gadd and Jan Hammer as well as the tutelage he recieved from Chick Corea while playing with Return To Forever between `74 and `77.

When considering the bashing he recieved from the purists one must also remember that at the time of the release of Elegant Gypsy DiMeola was only 23 years old and still in an overwhelming situation. Much like sonny who gets the keys to dad`s car for the first time and wants to discover how fast it will go, DiMeola still had that sense with the guitar as he freely admits. Incendiary as the album is, there are redeemable moments which foreshadow DiMeola`s evolution into a more rounded artist. His use of octaves for colouring as well as the variety of tones he could coax out of his Gibson Les Paul Special are notable. Flameco Maestro Paco De Lucia also drops in for an acoustic duo on Mediterranean Sundance and we also get an all too short acoustic solo in the form of Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil which only clocks in at about one minute plus. Even when conjuring up some of the heavier passages on Race With Devil On Spanish Highway , laced with scales and motifs, Di Meolas fingers dance gracefully and flawlessly over the fretboard creating lustful auras, a testimony to the 12 hours-a day practice regime he subjected himself to.

Elegant Gypsy which was unquestionably a defining album in Di Meola`s career and a 70s fusion classic it firmly established him as a masterful technician. Much to Di Meolas`s bewilderment his playing on this album has also influenced countless metal guitarists including Ywinge Malmsteen. While there are plenty of explosions of speed, the electric possibilities of latino styles explored here are more than interesting. An early masterwork from one of the true masters of the guitar.

I´ve listened a lot to the nineties albums from Al Di Meola like Orange and Blue, Heart of the Immigrants, Di Meola plays Piazzolla, Infinite Desire and his World Sinfonia albums, but never heard any of his seventies albums. Allthough this album is in the same spanish style jazz/ fusion genre as most of this nineties albums it´s a bit more intense and generally faster paced. It´s something I think suits Al Di Meola very well as some of this nineties songs tend to be a little too easy listening like ( incredibly complex easy listening).

The sound quality which is really great and the incredible musicianship on this album makes this an excellent experience. Prog heads not into jazz/ Fusion should take a listen here as this might convert some of you.

Tracks like Flight Over Rio, Mediterranean Sundance and Race With Devil On Spanish Highway ( which are my favorite tracks) are fantastic songs, exstremely well written and performed. There is not a dull moment in these wonderful songs. Try and listen to some of Al Di Meola´s soloes in Flight Over Rio or in Race With Devil On Spanish Highway. He is so incredibly fast and yet it sounds great and not forced. This is not speed for speeds sake, it just fits in the songs so well. The acoustic piece Mediterranean Sundance were Paco De Lucia guests is also outstanding and very beautiful.

The rest of the songs are not as good as the ones I have already mentioned, (even though they are very good) and of course this means that I don´t think this is a complete masterpiece even though it comes close. So this is a 4 star album for me, but a very big one. I can´t wait to hear more from Al Di Meola´s early years.

With Elegant Gipsy and its acclaimed follower you'll be carried into intense musical experience. A fabulous journey to the lands of acoustic and electric guitars immersed in the southern europe seas. A strong mediterranean flavour (also latin in the sense of latin american) is all around the six compositions as the songs' titles emphasize.

Al Di Meola offers you all his capabilities he had already showed during the collaboration time with the jazz- rock glory RETURN TO FOREVER. Now all is mainly based on guitars (even tasteful mandolin when it's up to Italy imagery) but you will find also excellent keyboards' parts thanks to a certain JAN HAMMER on electric piano and minimoog.

The general mood of the album is a perfect balance between rational technicality and sincere passion, compeltely instrumental and enjoyable since the very first listening. Even in the quieter parts you will feel excited due to the meticulous work of Di Meola. Race with Devil on Spanish Highway is a personal favourite of mine and truly terrific! Above all a wonderful sound's production, very sharp and very clear. No doubt it has been voted the best guitars' based album for 1977.

Maybe it's not a prog masterpiece strictu sensu but along with Casino is certainly one of the most inspired records I've ever listened to. Far from being pretentious as many other so called classics tend to.

Worthy of special mention the collaboration with PACO DE LUCIA on ... acoustic guitar (what else?).

4.5 stars: highly recommended, an essential record in your discography.

It's a draw between this one and Return To Forever's Romantic Warrior. These two albums are similar in several ways. The most obvious similarity is, of course, the amazing guitar work of Di Meola himself. Another similarity is that the keyboards, drums and basses are all played with enormous skill and feeling. And they are both completely instrumental albums.

Many people will inevitably think that this music is too technical and is only a way for the musicians to show off. That might be true of many albums in the Jazz-Rock/Fusion genre and perhaps some of Di Meola's other albums, but I don't think it applies to Elegant Gypsy. The music is often complex yet somehow melodic and accessible.

A difference between Romantic Warrior and Elegant Gypsy is that there are more acoustic guitars on Elegant Gypsy. Mediterranean Sundance is a Flamenco inspired piece with awe-inspiring guitar play. I'm not at all an expert on Jazz-Rock/Fusion and I haven't (yet) heard very much that I like from this genre. But I immediately liked both Romantic Warrior and Elegant Gypsy. The problem I usually have with Jazz- Rock/Fusion music is that it leans too close to Jazz and contains too little Rock influences. Elegant Gypsy is not just Jazz played with rock instruments, it is rather a true Fusion of Jazz, Rock, Flamenco and Latin influences. This album leans more towards Latin music than Jazz, I would say.

Elegant Gypsy is a great companion to Romantic Warrior and these two are my favourite Jazz-Rock/Fusion albums.

Recommended!

If one is looking some genuine jazz/rock virtuoso than they need look no further than here; Di Meola's celebrated release cooks with lightning dexterity and a '70's camp that oozes style and panache. More than any fusion album I've heard, Elegant Gypsy delivers crowd-pleasing jams that listeners across genres will be able to groove to.

Highlights abound throughout this album, which features lots and lots of Di Meola's guitar (obviously)-- be it in a sensual legato or blistering flamenco. Songs here have a Latin feel to them, and we're given plenty of variety in tempo and composition, constantly keeping things interesting. His sound is very unique and instantly enjoyable, more so than some of the "other" fusion guys who favor experimentation over thrills (McLaughlin-- looking in your direction). Di Meola comes across as a showman, happy to dazzle the listener with energetic displays of proficiency, such as in the all-acoustic "Mediterranean Sundance". Support players give standup performances as well-- especially Jan Hammer's keyboards.

One thing about this album which I think deserves special mention is its entirely dated production and super-slick feel-- which positively screams 1977. Listening to Elegant Gypsy is like stepping into a time machine... and it's great! The campiness contrasts with the musicianship so well that its hard to imagine Di Meola's performances without them. Most would probably find his hyper-fast noodling pretentious if not set against this rich palette of 1970's cheese.

A must for fans seeking some energetic, exciting fusion-- on par and perhaps surpassing some of the best.

Due to the frequent Al Di Meola review activity here I couldn't resist revisiting a few of my fusion albums that had been gathering dust for like 20 years!

Elegant Gypsy stands as a fan favourite here and it's no mystery to see why. In a baffling 37 minute short album, Al Di Meola gets more balls rolling then most bands would in an entire career.

Flight Over Rio kicks off with a meditative eastern flavour before turning into a surging jazz rock attack that any fan off the genre will instantly devour. The battle between Hammer's dashing keyboards and Al Di Meola's virtuosity is absolutely stunning. After the astounding opener, the album continues through 4 equally pleasing extended pieces. It covers all fusion ground you can think off: jazz rock, flamenco, tango, salsa. The lot.

The most amazing aspect of it all is how classy this is all done. For music of this intensive virtuosity, things are never overcooked. You won't hear any 20-notes a second wizardry unless it has to be there; fast sections are balanced against more laid back parts; heavy rock merges with nearly cheesy mellowness. But it never crosses the line where sophistication becomes kitsch.

Rarely does an album both have this kind of virtuosity and elegance. Hearing this back after so many years I really wonder how I could neglect this album for so long. It's not that I was tired of fusion, I must just have completely forgotten about it. Shame on me!