Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola (born Al Laurence Dimeola; July 22, 1954 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist, composer, and record producer of Italian origin (from Cerreto Sannita). Albums such as Friday Night in San Francisco have earned him both artistic and commercial success^[1] with a solid fan base throughout the world.^[2]

Early life

Di Meola grew up in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and attended Bergenfield High School.^[3] He has been a resident of Old Tappan, New Jersey.^[4]

Having grown up with the rock music of Elvis Presley, The Ventures and The Beatles, Di Meola knew at an early age he wanted to play guitar. By his early teens, he was already an accomplished player. Proclaiming he was “trying to find myself, or find the kind of music that suited where I was going with the guitar”, he began listening to jazz players like Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell,^[5] plus "country pickers with great technique" like Clarence White and Doc Watson.^[6] He was soon taken with Larry Coryell’s blending of jazz, blues and rock in the late 1960s, which would become known as fusion, and knew then that this was the type of music he wanted to pursue.^[5]

Career

In 1972, Di Meola enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. By his second semester at Berklee, Di Meola had joined a fusion quartet headed by keyboardist Barry Miles. When a friend of Chick Corea’s sent him a tape from one of the quartet’s live performances, Corea hired the 19-year old Di Meola to replace the departing Bill Connors in his fusion supergroup Return to Forever.^[5] In 1974, Di Meola made his Return to Forever debut on the album Where Have I Known You Before. Two more albums, No Mystery (1975) and Romantic Warrior (1976) were released during Di Meola's stay in the band. This lineup featured him playing with Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny White until it was disbanded in 1976.

Di Meola went on to explore a variety of styles, but is most noted for his Latin-influenced jazz fusion works.

Di Meola with Return to Forever at Onondaga Community College, Syracuse, New York, 1974

In addition to a prolific solo career, he has engaged in successful collaborations with bassist Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, and guitarists John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. He also guested on "Allergies" from Paul Simon's Hearts and Bones album (1983). He also appeared with Frank Zappa. Live at the Ritz, NYNY in 1981.

In the beginning of his career, as evidenced on his first solo album Land of the Midnight Sun (1976), Di Meola was noted for his technical mastery and extremely fast, complex guitar solos and compositions. But even on his early albums, he had begun to explore Mediterranean cultures and acoustic genres like flamenco. Good examples are "Mediterranean Sundance" and "Lady of Rome, Sister of Brazil" from the Elegant Gypsy album (1977). His early albums were very influential among rock and jazz guitarists alike. Di Meola continued to explore Latin music within the jazz fusion genre on albums like Casino and Splendido Hotel. He exhibited a more subtle touch on acoustic numbers like "Fantasia Suite for Two Guitars" from the Casino album, and on the best-selling live album with McLaughlin and de Lucia, Friday Night in San Francisco. The latter album became one of the most popular live albums for acoustic guitar ever recorded, and sold more than two million copies worldwide.^[7] In 1980, he also toured with fellow Latin rocker Carlos Santana.

After being named Best Jazz Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine's Readers Poll for a fifth consecutive year in 1981, Di Meola was inducted into the magazine's Gallery of Greats.^[5]

Di Meola, live at Leverkusener Jazztage (Forum/Leverkusen/Germany) on November 7th 2016

With Scenario, he explored the electronic side of jazz in a collaboration with Jan Hammer (later of Miami Vice theme fame). Beginning with this change, he further expanded his horizons with the acoustic album Cielo e Terra. He began to incorporate the Synclavier guitar synthesizer on mid-1980s albums such as Soaring Through a Dream. By the 1990s, Di Meola recorded albums closer to World music and modern Latin styles than jazz.

Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía performing in Barcelona, Spain in the 1980s

He has continued to tour, playing in smaller venues like The Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, and House of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In various interviews, Di Meola has stated that his reason for stepping away from the electric guitar is due to hearing damage (manifested as tinnitus) from years of playing at excessive volumes;^[8] the acoustic guitar does not aggravate his condition.

However, in 2006 he rediscovered his love of the electric guitar,^[9] and the DVD of his concert at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival 2006 bears the subtitle Return to Electric Guitar.^[10]

Discography

Trivia

In 2017 a German brothel tried to trick Di Meola into playing for its clients. A German feminist magazine contacted his manager, and the concert was cancelled. Di Meola apologized for this slip and stated that he preferred to be sued than to play there.^{[11][12][11][13]}

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Al Di Meola.

External links

• Al Di Meola Official Web Site
• Al Di Meola Interview - NAMM Oral History Library (2015)