| Al Di Meola | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Birth Name: | Albert Laurence Di Meola |
| Birth Date: | 22 July 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Instrument: | Guitar |
| Years Active: | 1974 – present |
| Discography: | Al Di Meola discography |
Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his work in jazz fusion and world music, his breakthrough came through joining Chick Corea's Return to Forever group in 1974. He launched, from 1976 afterwards, a successful and critically acclaimed solo career, noted for his technical mastery, complex compositions and explorations of Latin music. Some highlights of his work are Elegant Gypsy, his Friday Night in San Francisco collaboration and the World Sinfonia trilogy.[1] [2]
An alumnus of Berklee College of Music and a Grammy Award winner, Di Meola's successful career includes high-profile collaborations such as Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Larry Coryell, Steve Winwood, Jaco Pastorius, Paco de Lucia, Bill Bruford, John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Vai and others.
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey,[3] into an Italian family with roots in Cerreto Sannita, a small town northeast of Benevento, Di Meola grew up in Bergenfield, where he attended Bergenfield High School.[4] [5] He has been a resident of Old Tappan, New Jersey.[6]
When Di Meola was eight years old, his discovery of Elvis Presley and the Ventures inspired him to start playing guitar. Hearing The Beatles for the first time, though, was what that truly cemented his desire to become a musician. His older sister introduced them to Al on the family's 1963 Christmas, through their Meet the Beatles! LP. "Listening to that album really changed my life", said Di Meola. Watching their string of appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, two months later, further strengthened his drive. Di Meola started his classes with guitar teacher Robert "Bob" Aslanian, who directed him toward jazz standards. He was also trained in theory, reading and other useful skills. "He was my biggest influence", he said of his first teacher.[7] [8] As a teenager, Di Meola practiced guitar eight to ten hours per day.[9]
By the late 1960s, Di Meola became keenly aware of the rock explosion. Aside from British Invasion acts such as The Rolling Stones and The Who, he was particularly fond of the stateside acts coming from California. He was a fan of country rock acts such as The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills and Nash, as well as the Bay Area psychedelic rock scene, namely Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. "I loved all those bands", he said.
One particular music group from San Francisco, said Al Di Meola, that had a definite "influence on me growing up" was Santana.[10]
Although he went on to appreciate the "whole package" of late 1960s and early 1970s rock icons such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Carlos Santana, he never saw them as role models. "I never thought of the rock players as having good technique", he said. Alternatively, Di Meola was inspired by jazz guitarists George Benson, Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell, and country guitarists such as Clarence White and Doc Watson. His musical direction solidified when exposed to jazz rock pioneers Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin.[7] [8] [11] Di Meola elaborates on Coryell's influence, acknowledging that his "unique approach" gave him the "confidence to continue in my direction." Seeing Coryell and other jazz musicians live in NYC not only was "a real thrill", but also a "turning point."[12] Of McLaughlin, he praised him as "the first guitarist I heard to combine tremendous amount of emotion with incredible technique."[13]
He attended Berklee College of Music in 1971.[3] There, he practiced up to eight hours a day. At nineteen, he was hired by Chick Corea to replace Bill Connors in the pioneering jazz fusion band Return to Forever with Stanley Clarke and Lenny White.[3] Of joining the group, he said:
Al Di Meola then compared Corea's band to John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, the group that inspired Chick Corea to take Return to Forever into a rockier, high-octane direction.[14] He argued:
His short, two-year period with Return to Forever proved to be the group's career peak. He recorded three albums with the quartet, helping them earn its greatest commercial success as all three albums cracked the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard pop albums chart.[1]
No Mysterys title track won a Grammy for the Best Jazz Performance By A Group, but the band didn't show up for the event because they firmly believed they wouldn't win. Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald presented the prize.[15]
Al Di Meola recorded with Larry Coryell on Lenny White's solo debut album, Venusian Summer (1975). Di Meola and Coryell traded solos on "Prince of the Sea", the album's last track. The pairing caused a stir in the fusion community, with fans wondering who played what solo. Coryell reveals this was the only time he and Di Meola played together with electric guitars.[16]
In early 1976, Return to Forever released an album Romantic Warrior. Debuting at #170, it peaked at #35 in May, spending three weeks on the Billboard Top 40 and a total of 15 weeks on Billboard 200.[17] Fourteen years later it won a gold RIAA certification for selling an excess of 500,000 copies.[18] [19] The album, as a whole, has been considered Chick Corea's answer to Rick Wakeman's successful The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975), either by its medieval themes or its prog rock leanings.[20]
At the height of Return to Forever's popularity, Chick Corea decided to break up the group. The main reason for its sudden demise was the other band members' involvement in side-projects; White, Clarke and Di Meola were already investing in their solo works, with their labels and management backing up their new career moves, which may have hampered the progress of the main band.[21]
Chick Corea's deep involvement with Scientology might also have played a part in the end of Return to Forever's classic lineup. When asked, band members avoided the issue, although Clarke leaving Scientology at the time could have influenced the turn of events.[21] [22]
As Return to Forever was disbanding around 1976, Di Meola recorded his first solo album, Land of the Midnight Sun (1976). Former members of Return to Forever, and newcomer bassist Jaco Pastorius notably collaborated with the recording. Early on, Di Meola was noted for his technical mastery and extremely fast, complex guitar solos and compositions, and his exploration of Mediterranean cultures and acoustic genres like flamenco and the classical guitar repertoire.[23]
To market his sophomore album, Elegant Gypsy (1977), Di Meola did an American tour with Weather Report, when Jaco Pastorius had joined the band. Both his and Weather Report's Heavy Weather album came out the same week on Columbia Records. Heavily promoted by the label, the tour was a success, with sold-out shows across the country.[24] Elegant Gypsy eventually went gold.[25]
From 1976 to 1978 he played with Stomu Yamashta in the supergroup Go on three records.
Years after the Elegant Gypsy sessions, Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia were approached to do a tour with Leo Kottke. Weeks later, a better proposition turned up: a 2-month European tour with John McLaughlin. Di Meola became friendly with Paco, yet he never became quite close to McLaughlin. Di Meola revealed that the British guitarist was fiercely competitive, wary of being replaced as fusion's premiere guitarist. "It was like going into a boxing match and he's out to kill you", said Di Meola of McLaughlin's ruthless attitude. That fueled a six-stringed rivalry that largely benefited the audience.[26]
In 1980, Al Di Meola recorded the best-selling Friday Night in San Francisco live album with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. Still a popular album, it went on to sell seven million copies worldwide.[1] [27] [28] [29]
The trio reconvened in 1982 to record a studio album, Passion, Grace & Fire (1983). In the Spanish remaster of the album, flamenco scholars José Manuel Gamboa and Faustino Nuñez weigh in their impressions on the liner notes. Though somewhat lacking the "warmth" of the live setting of their debut, Passion, Grace & Fire is a more balanced effort. The three performers contributed with two compositions each.[30]
1982 was also the year the Al Di Meola released his first live album, Tour De Force. It notably featured former Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboard player Jan Hammer on the line-up, with sidemen Anthony Jackson on bass, Mingo Lewis handling the percussion and Steve Gadd on drums.[31] Along with music from preceding albums, it featured a previously unreleased Di Meola track ("Nena"[32]) and two Hammer compositions, "Advantage" and "Cruisin'" from Electric Rendezvous. The studio version was marketed as a single.[33]
Al Di Meola produced Magic Touch (1985), Stanley Jordan's Blue Note debut.[34] The record spent 51 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's jazz chart,[35] and went gold almost 20 years after its release.[36] It garnered Grammy nominations in two categories: Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist and Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental.[37] Di Meola granted Stanley Jordan had a "phenomenal" approach to guitar tapping, taking it "into another dimension."[38]
The latter half of the 1980s came with noticeable shifts in Di Meola's music. He now incorporated vocals,[39] the Synclavier guitar synthesizer, weaving these it into his compositions. Also, since playing with McLaughlin and Paco de Lúcia, he rethought "agressive" and "loud" sets. Di Meola seemed to have left fusion definately behind after the subdued, all-acoustic Cielo e Terra (1985).[40] That was the start of a "Brazilian" phase of sorts. Already a long-time MPB enthusiast, Di Meola name-checked Egberto Gismonti and Milton Nascimento on interviews. In Cielo e Terra, he collaborated with drummer and percussionist Airto Moreira. By then, Moreira had a stellar track record in jazz fusion, having recorded and performed with Miles Davis and Chick Corea.[41] [42]
Tirami Su (1987) continued Di Meola's infatuation with MPB. This time around Airto Moreira wasn't available, which led the guitarist to a fruitful collaboration with singer and songwriter Zé Renato. The Brazilian composer spent one month in New York City jamming and recording, doing mostly non-lyrical vocalizations to the music. Zé Renato then toured with the Al Di Meola Project across Europe and the USA. Tirami Su also featured guest singer Clara Sandroni, whom Di Meola discovered through Milton Nascimento's Encontros e Despedidas (1985).[43] [44]
Al Di Meola was one of the select invitees to Les Paul's 72nd birthday celebration on June 8, 1987, at NYC's Hard Rock Cafe. He was invited to an impromtu jam with Les Paul and Jimmy Page, who earlier played over a 12-bar blues progression with Les Pauls' sidemen, playing riffs in the vein of Willie Dixon's "I Can't Quit You Baby". Other atendees included Bo Diddley, John Sebastian, Rick Derringer, Robby Krieger, Jeff Beck, Nile Rodgers and Elliot Easton.[45] The party generated a buzz that reached mainstream press, and it became a newsworthy topic for weeks to come. Les Paul's birthday helped him became a household name once again.[46]
Except for the occasional electric guitar foray on albums such as 1991's Kiss My Axe, he spent most of the next fifteen years both exploring acoustic and world music. Di Meola stated that part ("more than 50 percent") of the reason for stepping away from the electric guitar is due to hearing damage from years of playing at excessive volumes.[47] [48]
In the mid-1990s Al Di Meola, Stanley Clarke and Jean-Luc Ponty worked for five weeks on what became the The Rite of Strings album. Their world tour included a South American leg, starting at Argentinan capital Buenos Aires, where they played for 7,000-strong crowd at the Luna Park stadium. They proceeded to visit Brazil for five dates: two on São Paulo and one each in Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Porto Alegre.[49] [50]
The "fearsome threesome" of Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin reunited for a final time for The Guitar Trio (1996). Although the record and it's tour were a successful endeavour, frequent personality clashes ensued due to musical differences. The process was especially challenging for Di Meola for he lost his mother, Theresa, in the summer of 1996. They eventually grew used to one another again, and developed a healthy competitiveness that made "life on the road" possible.[51]
Al Di Meola continued his successful streak in Germany, being awarded yet another gold album for World Sinfonía III – The Grande Passion (2000).[52]
Super Guitar Trio and Friends (TDK, 2001).
Al Di Meola rediscovered his love of the electric guitar in 2006,[53] and the DVD of his concert at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival 2006 is subtitled Return to Electric Guitar.[54]
On September 23, 2008, PRS Guitars unveiled their Al DiMeola signature model: the Al Di Meola Prism. It was the first PRS to have such a rich color scheme. The Prism was designed after the original Modern Eagle guitar, a cutting-edge midway between a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster. It features a 25" neck, a tremolo bridge and 1957/2008 humbucker pickups, similar to vintage PAF pickups. The guitarist went on the 2008 Return to Forever reunion tour with it.[55] [56]
Return to Forever reunited in 2009. The incentive initially came from Chick Corea's participation on Al Di Meola's Consequence of Chaos (2006). Di Meola pitched the idea to Corea, and the others came onboard.[57] Things went sour during the mixing stage of their live album, Returns (2009). Corea and Clarke mixed down Di Meola's guitar.[58]
In July 10, 2013 Al Di Meola played at the 33th edition of Spain's Festival de la Guitarras de Córdoba. Approximately 25,000 people attended the event. Other participants included Michael Schenker, Fito y Fitipaldis, Tomatito Sexteto and Robert Cray.[59]
Al Di Meola returned to Spain in 2017, to the IV Encuentro Internacional de Guitarra Paco de Lucía. The festival was held in Algeciras, Paco's birthplace, from 17th to 22th of July. For Di Meola's only presentation in Spain that year, he made the "World Sinfonia" show.[60]
In 2018, Di Meola was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from his alma mater, Berklee College of Music.[61]
On January 11, 2023, Al Di Meola wrote a heartfelt eulogy for Jeff Beck in his official Facebook page. "There was no one like Jeff" he said, praising his "most unique style." He reminisced how he grew up listening to Truth (1968) and Beck-Ola (1969). He also remembered how he loved Beck's 1976-1979 visits to his Hammersmith Odeon shows on London.[62]
TwentyFour (2024).[63]
After a head injury when still a child, Al Di Meola developed a case of tinnitus. His time touring, especially with Return to Forever, worsened it. Although he had no hearing loss so far, he does experience the ringing sensation in his ears, typical of this condition, and the very high frequencies were compromised.[64]
Al Di Meola said that middle class New Jersey "was the perfect place to grow up." Living close to New York, he could go the city's record stores and music clubs. "The greatest shows any night of the week". He visited Bill Graham's Fillmore East in Greenwich Village to see rock bands "on a weekly basis". He also went NYC's jazz clubs and Latin clubs, "soaking it all in".[65]
In July 2016, Al Di Meola married Stephanie Kreishttps://registry.theknot.com/stephanie-kreis-al-di-meola-july-2016/14348641 after meeting after a 2013 concert of his in Budapest. Al has two daughters from a previous relationship; Oriana and Valentina. He also has a daughter with Stephanie, named Ava. Additionally, he is the first-time grandfather of Orion, Valentina's daughter.[66] [67] [68] [69] [70] [71] [72]
From 2019 onwards, Di Meola and family devised the A Fine Taste and Music house events. The idea came about after a dinner with friends, when Al suggested to his wife that they livestream him cooking one of his "special Italian dishes." They did, and the guitarist joked to his viewers: “If you like what you see you can come here, live in person! I’ll cook and we can talk and we can have dinner together." Much to his surprise, people from around the world - Africa, Asia, South America - took them seriously, inquiring the cost of such an event. The Di Meolas did a total of 10 dinners before putting them on hold, because of COVID-19 restrictions.[73]
Stephanie Di Meola devised three different A Fine Taste packages. The top package - the "Diamond" plan - includes dinner, a private show and a jam session, where guests get to play with one of Al's famous guitars. These encompass his black '71 Les Paul Custom, from his Return to Forever days, and the ‘59 Les Paul he used in Kiss My Axe. The setlist for the pocket show is taken from previous solo albums, Beatles songs and "new stuff." According to Di Meola, "it’s a chance for me to try out material in front of diehard fans. And the fans get the first shot at hearing it."[74]
In September 2023 while performing on stage in Bucharest, Romania Di Meola suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to a local hospital where he was treated for ST elevation myocardial infarction.[75] Dates from his "The Electric Years" tour, like his appearance on Brazil's Rio Montreaux Jazz Festival, were immediately cancelled.[76] [77] He took some time off from performances, but began performing again in January 2024.[78]
By the time he was recording Casino, back in 1978, Al Di Meola described his music as a combination of Latin music - "probably my favorite" - and "beautiful romantic Italian melodies". His rock n' roll side brought in "the energy", and his deep appreciation for jazz contributed to the complexity of his compositions.[79]
Al Di Meola is known for using non-Western modes when composing. One example was "Egyptian Danza" - the opening track from Casino - based on a Phrygian dominant scale.[80] Right around that time, he said he was also keen on applying "elements" of the dorian, myxolydian, and locrian modes on his playing.[81]
Besides the impressive speed and accuracy of his alternate picking, another hallmark of Al Di Meola's style is his palm muting.[82] [83] In an interview to Rick Beato, Di Meola explained how he developed and practiced this technique: "[...] when I was younger, and the neighbors downstairs in the next yard, I didn't really want them to hear me play. So I would mute my strings. So I got kind of got used to the palm on the bridge and muting. But I also liked the fact that the notes popped".[84]
Di Meola espouses the advantages of palm muting when playing the electric guitar:
Although fond of whammy bars, they're also notably absent from his playing style. Al di Meola's 1971 black Les Paul, featured on his early solo records, came with a Bigsby, which he had removed for a variety of reasons. He cited tuning issues, along with loss of tone and "some sustain capabilities."[85] In the 1980s di Meola acquired a PRS solid-body with a tremolo. He later quit using it, confessing he was "afraid of the obvious comparisons to other players."[86]
Al Di Meola advocates for the importance of picking all notes as much as possible. He steers clear from sweep picking and hammer-ons, which he deems as "shortcuts". In his opinion they're detrimental, in the long run, "for playing more intricate kinds of music".[87] For one, this makes his playing quite distinct from blues guitarists, whose regular use of hammer-ons and pull-offs are essential to the style.[88] [89] By avoiding sweep picking, he also sets himself apart from the 1980s shred guitar movement, which heavily relied on this technique.[90] [91]
Still on the subject of note picking, Al Di Meola is critical of tapping as well, a technique popularized by Eddie Van Halen in late 1970s and 1980s. He views it as a form of "cheating"; an impressive way to sound fast, without being de facto fast. He then draws attention to it's limited use in an acoustic context, due to the lack of sustain a classical guitar has compared to an electric.[92] These critiques of tapping aren't entirely warranted, though. On his minute-long tour de force "Spanish Fly" Van Halen proved that the technique worked fine on an acoustic guitar. It is regularly voted as one of EVH's best solos.[93] [94] [95] [96]
Al Di Meola is proficient in crosspicking, a technique that meshes arpeggios with string skipping. One such example is "Vertigo Shadow" from Cielo e Terra, played at a 7/8 meter.[97]
The criticism of Al Di Meola's musicianship usually focuses on the perceived lack of expression and substance, despite being praised for his virtuosity. His guitar playing has been described as "clinical", "cold" or "soulless" by some critics and musicians, including guitarists John McLaughlin, who accused Di Meola of minimizing Di Meola's American influences and "playing cultural hopscotch" in the track "Egyptian Danza" from Di Meola's album Casino[98] and Gary Moore; Moore admired Di Meola, but declared the following in a 1983 interview to Music U.K. magazine:
In February 1981, Jazz Journal described Di Meola's solo set, in a trio performance at the Royal Albert Hall with McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía, as a "one long and structureless amalgam of crudely connected passages" and considered Di Meola as "a rare breed of musicians who make virtuosity seem like a severe handicap."[99]
On this type of critique, Di Meola defended himself, stating:
On an interesting note, Di Meola claimed he didn't know who Gary Moore was in a 2016 Ultimate Guitar interview,[26] though he did a live rendition of Moore hit song "Parisienne Walkways" in 2012.[100]
Al di Meola made an impression on a whole generation of hard rock and heavy metal guitar heroes. The list includes Mr. Big's Paul Gilbert, Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt and Dream Theater's John Petrucci. The late Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads, at one point, declared that di Meola was his favorite guitarist.[101] Neoclassical legends Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine and Jason Becker also sang praises for him.[102] [103] [104] MacAlpine said, back in 1987:
Al Di Meola's influence extends to other genres of as well. Toto guitarist and session musician Steve Lukather said Al was "incredible" and that his "sound and style [...] smacked me in the face". Along John McLaughlin, he was one of the 12 guitar players that shaped Lukather's style.[105]
Al Di Meola has been inducted for Guitar Players "Gallery Of The Greats" by winning 5 times in one or more categories of the magazine's Annual Readers Poll. He has been awarded 14 times so far, on four different categories: "New Talent" (1975), "Jazz" (1977-1981), "Guitar LP" (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981) and "Acoustic Steel-String" (1983-1987).[106]
Guitar World magazine included Al Di Meola on their top 50 fastest "shredders" of all-time list. He was featured alongside other rock and jazz luminaries, such as Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale and others. Di Meola personally dislikes the term, though, which he finds limiting. He sees himself as more of a composer than a virtuoso.[107] [108]
Al Di Meola, along with former bandmates Return to Forever, received in 2008 the BBC Jazz "Lifetime Achievement Award" by Beatles producer George Martin. They performed Romantic Warriors title track at the event.[109] In the same year he received a honorary doctorate degree from his alma mater, the Berklee College of Music.[110]
Al Di Meola was notably absent from Rolling Stone magazine's "250 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time" list, a list which stirred great controversy. Other notable omissions included Peter Frampton, Neal Schon, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, Guthrie Govan and Eric Gales. Rick Beato called the list "idiotic" and hit hard on it's questionable ranking: Pat Metheny at #157 and John McLaughlin at #72, for example.[111] [112] [113]
See main article: Al Di Meola discography. Refer to the main article for Di Meola's extensive discography.
Grammy Awards[114]
Guitar Player Magazine[115]
Berklee College of Music
BBC Jazz Awards
Latin Grammy Awards[116]