AL DI MEOLA

It was in '76 or '77 at the Paramount in PDX . . .

The live performance was 'note perfect', a blistering demonstration of technical acumen. Live yet sounding, as best as the ear can tell, Just Like The Album.

Demiola was the opening act for Weather Report -- who were having a bad day. There was a melt-down on stage from Joco.

Al Dimeola lit up the crowd and then blew us away! At the end of the evening Weather Report was -- also there...

By the time I got to the concert I had slavishly listened to the album dozens of times. I went looking for more from Al Di' after hearing Romantic Warrior from Chick Corea & Return to Forever, another you have.

The album was the first one I listened to by Al di Meola. Expecting fusion and straightforward fusion chops, it took me quite some time to get to appreciate it and to realize that fusion playing doesn't have to be rapid to remain credible. I was pleased, though, to hear a dominating electric guitar over acoustic one.

Take this as a world fusion album with more laid-back guitar, variety of rhythms and other instrument explorations and more attention to detail. There are more melodic tracks such as the first one "San Marc" that is clearly dominated by electric guitar or "Tao" We have longer tracks there that succeed in creating sunny world music atmosphere such as a great acoustic "Turquoise". We can hear Corea on piano on two compositionally non-distinctive and relatively short "Red moon" and "Cry for you". However, Corea's presence and Meola's motivated guitar lines raise the bar. Let's praise the high-quality rhythm section that marks the entire album. "Cry for you" is an acoustic duo fiddling piece, quite pleasing for ears even if not too memorable. "Tempest" is memorable for quite an intensive piano/guitar soloing. Overall, it's a good album and somewhat closer to classic fusion but more typical for late Meola's efforts.

This albums marks a return to a great shape for Meola. It contains brilliant playing on acoustic and electric guitars and what has not been always the case, an attention to detail and decent compositions. Rhythmically, the album is on top of the game; there plenty of speed changes, irregular beats and great percussion. Music is often dynamic, compositions varied and there are also quieter moments led by keyboards or percussion. Unlike some other Meola albums, there isn't only a heart and passion here but also a soul. Inspiration draws from contemporary fusion, world music (Latin and Middle East) and modern jazz. The obvious magnet for many will be the title track, a decent dynamic fusion number with a distinct motive/melody. If the album were 10 minutes shorter, I would rate it by an additional half-star.

The album starts quite lightly but the fusion high-star band with Jan Hammer on some tracks make it fly 100km/h with great guitar-Moog duets reminding of Mahavishnu. The combination with congos and intensive Latin feeling are irresistible.

Midnight is a mellower track and I like its spacy textures, acoustic piano and even a bass melody.

"Mediterranean sundance" is arguably Meola's best known composition and interestingly, on acoustic guitar. His leads the track all the way through. Next comes a heavy rhythmically driven ferocious fusion number, marvellous guitar pyrotechnics alternated with relaxed keyboard driven parts. If you think this the climax, then wait until the final suite that is more melodic and varied, also bringing back Hammer while Meola utilizes acoustic and electric guitars. A must have of guitar-driven fusion.

One of the most respected fusion guitarists all time, Al Di Meola first received fame in Chick Corea's group Return To Forever before launching his solo career in the mid-70's. His musical style is very flexible, combining elements of jazz, rock, classical and ethnic music. Doing a tribute album of The Beatles songs had been a long-time dream for him. "It simply was a search to find a way to combine my world (whatwver that is) into theirs, as I set out to do when I recorded the soöo guitar CD of Piazzolla in 2006", Di Meola writes in his liner notes in which he praises the personal and universal importance of The Beatles, his excitement to work in the Abbey Road studios and his haphazard meeting with Paul McCartney in Hampton in May 2012. The over-usage of exlamation marks in his text underlines Di Meola's sincere passion for the project!

So, this is a solo guitar work. Some tunes also feature his co-producer Hernan Romero on hand claps and chaca rhythm. The selection of 14 Lennon/McCartney songs (no George Harrison compositions included) is in my opinion fairly nice if not truly ideal. The early catchy hits are mostly absent. Sadly there aren't much from the two final Beatles albums either, only 'Because' from Abbey Road. The selection is emphasized on the c. 1965-67 era; for example four pieces from Sgt. Pepper. The originals such as 'A Day in the Life' and 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite' are are so rich and perfect sonically that a solo guitar interpretation may feel rather inferior in comparison.

That's simply the price to pay in a project like this, especially when dealing with such well-known classic stuff that many a listener has a very close relationship with. Without a doubt there are more cover recordings of The Beatles compositions than of any other band, both sung and instrumental, in every imaginable style/genre I suppose, from Baroque to smooth jazz. And it's safe to say that most of them fail to impress deeply. I think this album is easily among the most succesful artistically of those -- not so many -- I've listened to. Al Di Meola's skills on the acoustic guitar are awesome, and his arrangements are inspired and as rich as pieces for a solo instrument can possibly be. If I felt somewhat disappointed by the opening track 'In My Life' featuring the hand clapping, during the near 55-minute album I began to enjoy it more and more. A special mention for 'Eleanor Rigby'. I don't know how its arrangement was done but it sounds like there was a string section. Elsewhere it's often the ripped-down approach that brings up the song's melodic essence in a fresh way, for example the closing piece 'She's Leaving Home'.

And despite the above mentioned risk of feeling inferior to the original songs, it's a certainty that knowing the compositions helps me to enjoy this album. I mean, a regular solo guitar album of unfamiliar compositions would probably tire me on the long run.

This is a sincere labour of love by an extraordinary musician. The ideal setting for listening to this album would be with a sweetheart sharing your interest in both The Beatles and peaceful acoustic instrumental music, more or less as a background music for your cozy time together.

Okay, okay -- he's fast, he's suave, slick, and oh so technically clean. Di Meola's furious, flamenco, fandango, fusion guitar work stands alone. Very few have really ever gained exact echoes of his style. That muted percussive staccato riffage with explosive lead breaks and sudden stop-n- go colorings of tone and note texture have always been impressive. Most folks came to know "Al D" via Return To Forever. He replaced Bill Connors. This gave a RTF a very different feel guitar-wise. Al D's style seemed to mesh very naturally with Chick Corea's leanings towards that Latin American and Spanish heart of things. Others came to discover Al D upon hearing his solo releases. I will have to say that to this day, my fav will always be his debut solo effort with Land of the Midnight Sun. Al D was trying so hard early on to express his own song-writing voice and excel on his instrument. An earnest, vital effort pours through everywhere. And so this 2CD anthology begins perfectly with the best cuts from that debut. I indeed purchased all Al D's releases year by year just to see how he would progress. This anthology fortunately represents most of the strongest songs from these solo works. What has bothered me about many of Al D's tunes from album to album was a certain predictable manner in riffs, song flow, and voicings. Al D has always had this leaning towards a . . . "balladic, romantic adventure, conquering hero saga" . . . song flow with latin rhythms, smooth jazz breaks, then crunch and overdrive guitars, and then back to that late-day stroll on the veranda kind of feel. Catch my drift? When I was seeking harder fusion and jazz rock leanings, I had to endure extended world jazz and romantic guitars. But hey -- many folks flocked to this mix and how sweet it was for Al D. Most of the cuts on both CDs represent some truly fine historic jams and superb fusion interplay betwixt the likes of Phil Collins, Jaco, Jan Hammer, Simon Phillips, Alphonse Mouzon, Anthony Jackson, and Lenny White to mention a few. Both discs feature unreleased live material. Four tracks of twenty are a brand new bonus listen. I found Al D doing "Theme To The Mothership" pretty interesting. An excess of Al Di Meola collections and best of's are circulating out there but you're most likely doing a best service to your ears just grabbing this one. There is more than enough of Al D here to satisfy.

— First review of this album —

I really have no passion to review this dvd, but since I saw the trouble of borrowing it and adding it to Al Di Meola's discography, I'll finish the process. So, the American jazz /fusion /world music guitarist Al Di Meola is among those musicians I appreciate (without being a fan or true connoisseur, though). I didn't know in advance who is Leonid Agutin: he's a singer from Moscow, one of the biggest rock stars from Russia. I have nothing against his singing, his warm and slightly raspy voice is fairly good.

Their collaborative album Cosmopolitan Life (2005) undoubtedly was well noticed in certain music circles and must have increased international recognition of both artists, or at least that seems to have been the goal. Had I read the album's sole two-star review here, I probably wouldn't have bothered. The music is strongly Latin flavoured pop sung in English. I'm completely out of my homefield, but if I refer to artists such as Ricky Martin and Juanes, you may get some idea. Sure, especially Di Meola's guitar playing is fine, but the overall production is too big and calculated. The musical spirit of the songs is either very outgoing and danceable or more romantic and ballad oriented with a laid back summer holiday mood.

But the dvd itself feels like an extended promotional stuff. By the way it was not until I actually viewed the disc that I could get the contents correctly here. Very messy and misleading it was at first, relying on what's printed. The main dish is the concert at Montreux Jazz Festival, featuring six songs starring Leonid Agutin and three instrumentals highlighting Al Di Meola's talent.

The Montreux section is sandwiched between a lengthy documentary of this international collaboration -- lots of clips from various concerts across the world, bits of interviews, also some clips from music videos -- and the "Xtras" section featuring three music videos and three TV clips. The whole feels, as I said, terribly emphasized on the advertisement-like promo stuff, and very repetitive especially for the reappearance of the title track. The video of 'Cosmopolitan Life' is almost tasteless with the cliched party-party dancing girls wearing less and less. The documentary has no subtitles which is another minus. The target audience is definitely elsewhere than within listeners of prog and fusion. I would't recommend this dvd even to fans of Al Di Meola as a fusion artist. Listeners of commercially oriented Latin rock/pop might enjoy the music.

3.5 stars. A pretty big step down in my opinion from "Elegant Gypsy" an album I have in my top 50 Jazz albums of all time so my respect is huge for that one. "Casino" sure has it's moments though, I mean if Al is on your album there's going to be some majestic moments but there's a few tracks that are average for my tastes so it's one of those high and low records hence the 3.5 star rating. No Jan Hammer or Lenny White this time around and while I like Barry Miles keyboard work he's just not that audible on this album at times. I'll hear him on the electric piano for example but at times I have to really listen for him, he's not the focus. And after saying that he's the first thing you hear on the opener "Egyptian Danza" playing organ(haha). There's a couple of percussionists and Dimeola does some of that too. Anthony Jackson on bass and Steve Gadd on drums.

Dimeola is the star here of course and there's not too many guitarists as fast and as fluid as he is. I'm not big on the acoustic stuff like on the "Fantasia Suite" and the 9 1/2 minute closer was good but should have been great being it's the title track. Not into "Dark Eye Tango" but really like the song before it "Chasin' The Voodoo". My favourite is "Senor Mouse" opening with drums and percussions as the guitar rides along shotgun but he's actually shooting everything in sight. While I'm not into casinos at all I am into this record but I can't pull out that fourth star.

The American jazz/fusion guitarist and composer Al DiMeola seems to get the best PA ratings for his earliest albums from the latter half of the 70's. I'm familiar with only a small bunch of his albums, and less so with the early ones. Anyway, I quite enjoy this particular album with a rather lukewarm reception here.

The contributors pretty much vary from track to track, keyboardist Rachel Z clearly being the most consistent one. Al himself uses a great variety of instruments on this electric and accessible album entirely composed by him. 'Beyond the Mirage' is a very nice opener. There's a shadow of digitally programmed over-production in sight, but due to rich and energetic playing full of fine, fast melodies the outcome stays positive. The next, mellower piece has some world music flavour and reminds me of Pat Metheny, my fave jazz musician.

Overall there is plenty of sonic and atmospheric variety, and while some tracks out of twelve may not be so interesting, and some are perhaps slightly too long, the 67 minutes mostly go very pleasantly. Unlike another reviewer, I generally enjoy the peaceful compositions such as the romantic title track and the brief, acoustic 'Azzura'.

On the aptly titled 'Race With Devil on Turkish Highway' DiMeola gets into an el.guitar battle with Steve Vai. Things like that keep the more energy-favouring listeners awake. The cool trumpet samples on 'Valentina' are by DiMeola. Tha album closes with a vocal version of the title track, sung by Pino Daniele. My biggest complaint concerns the sound of programmed percussion which is too much present. Drummers Peter Erskine and Ernie Adams appear only on two tracks each. But despite that I warmly recommend this album to listeners of guitar oriented fusion and artists such ad Pat Metheny.

I can hardly belive that this nice treat of an album (entirely dedicated to cover Beatles songs) is going almost unnoticed, so here I am trying to be fair with it. And being fair I must also pronounce the already traditional warning: this is not progressive stuff stricto sensu, but rather a likable-for-proggers-too record, like many ones we love are.

Being this more like a candy box than a concept album, Iet's go and taste some sweeties: Important as openers are in giving the first impression, 01 Here Comes the Sun assumes the well-known accoustic charm of Harrison's original with virtuosism and innovative changes in pace and signature. Then 02 Golden Slumbers Medley goes for every proghead's throat with a tastefully symphonic rendition of a staple in every McCartney's concert. Also, if you look for improvisational skill and oriental flavor, you will find that in 04 Norwegian Wood.

Of course, there's the weak and the unnecessary too, but, who's perfect? 03 Dear Prudence misses the harmonic strangeness of Lennon's own original, and 14 Octopus's Garden is just puerile. Compensating for that, there's the outside Beatles fandom lesser-known 10 I'll Follow the Sun, a moment of pure McCartney-style nostalgia.

Well, what are you people waiting for? Go for it!