SCENARIO

So little reviews ? I always thought 'Scenario' was one of the best known albums from guitarist Al Di Meola. This instrumental album was released in 1983 and you can notice that quite easily. It seems the jazz rock/fusion was mixed with cold drum machines, dry sounding keyboards and clean sequencers. The result is a restrained sound but still the Di Meola's delicate guitar offerings are extremely enjoyable in a song like "Cachaca". The emotion is spattering off the crying guitar solo's and the combination with the technical dry rhythm section is surely interesting. On the opening track "Mata Hari" there's also eastern elements included in the guitar parts. This track has a wonderful feeling of mystery. But there's also some flaws. On a track like "Island dreamer" you're wondering if you are listening to music they played in the supermarket during the eighties. The melodies are cheesy and forgettable. There's a effort to give the percussion in "African nights" an African flavour but the result is silly. Still the track has some intriguing arrangements. There's some beautiful acoustic guitar & piano parts on the title track but you definitely have to be in a very quiet mood to enjoy this and it's not an easy listen. If you're not, I would consider to call it boring. "Sequencer" has too many commercial "Miami vice" elements to please me. Here the sound is streamlined a tad too much.

The quality of the composition is improving near the end of the album. "Calliope" is one of the highlights of the album. There's a challenging duel between the organ chords and Al's guitar. There's a speeding up of the tempo several times and the melodies are brilliant. There's lots of variation in the arrangements of the closing "Scoundrel days". Here the guitar parts are clearly influenced by the rock and wave trends of the decade. Once again the main theme is a simple, almost childish melody, only this time it works out fine.

After all "Scenario" isn't that memorable as a whole album but it does contend some great tracks and a nice atmosphere throughout even if it is sounding completely out of date nowadays.