Al Di Meola | |
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![]() Al Di Meola at the Granada Theater, Dallas, Texas, December 6, 2006 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Albert Laurence Di Meola |
Born | Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. | July 22, 1954
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instrument | Guitar |
Discography | Al Di Meola discography |
Years active | 1974 – present |
Labels | |
Formerly of | Return to Forever |
Website | aldimeola |
Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) [1] is an American guitarist. Known for his works in jazz fusion and world music, he began his career as guitarist with the group Return to Forever in 1974. From 1976 to 1978 he played with Stomu Yamashta in the supergroup Go on three records. The 1970s and 1980s saw albums such as Land of the Midnight Sun , Elegant Gypsy , Casino and Friday Night in San Francisco earn him both critical and commercial success. [2] [3]
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, [1] 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 he was eight years old, he was inspired by Elvis Presley and the Ventures to start playing guitar. His teacher directed him toward jazz standards. He cites as influences jazz guitarists George Benson and Kenny Burrell and bluegrass and country guitarists Clarence White and Doc Watson. [7]
He attended Berklee College of Music in 1971. [1] 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. [1] He recorded three albums with Return to Forever, helping the quartet earn its greatest commercial success as all three albums cracked the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard pop albums chart. [2]
As Return to Forever was disbanding around 1976, Di Meola began recording solo albums on which he demonstrated a mastery of jazz fusion, flamenco, and Mediterranean music. [8] His sophomore album, Elegant Gypsy (1977), eventually went gold, certified by the RIAA in July 24, 1989. [9] In 1980, he recorded the acoustic live album, Friday Night in San Francisco , with Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin. [2]
In the beginning of his career, as evidenced on his first solo album Land of the Midnight Sun (1976, on which Jaco Pastorius and the ex-members of RTF collaborated), 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. Notable examples are "Mediterranean Sundance" and "Lady of Rome, Sister of Brazil" from the Elegant Gypsy album (1977).
His early albums were influential among rock and jazz guitarists. Di Meola continued to explore Latin music within jazz fusion on Casino and Splendido Hotel . He exhibited a more subtle touch on acoustic numbers "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, selling more than two million copies worldwide. [10]
In the mid-1980s, Di Meola began to incorporate the Synclavier guitar synthesizer into his compositions. Except for the occasional electric guitar foray on albums such as 1991's Kiss My Axe , he spent most of the next two decades exploring both acoustic and world music. He rediscovered his love of the electric guitar in 2006, [11] and the DVD of his concert at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival 2006 is subtitled Return to Electric Guitar. [12] In 2018, Di Meola was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. [13]
In July 2016, Al Di Meola married Stephanie Kreis after meeting after a 2013 concert of his in Budapest. [14]
Al has two daughters from a previous relationship; Oriana [15] and Valentina. [16] He also has a daughter with Stephanie, named Ava. [17] Additionally he is a first-time grandfather with his grandson named Orion [18] [19] from daughter Valentina.
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. [20] He took some time off from performances, but began performing again in January 2024. [21]
Besides the impressive speed and accuracy of his alternate picking, another hallmark of Al di Meola's style is his palm muting. [22] [23] 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". [24]
Di Meola espouses the advantages of palm muting when playing the electric guitar:
If you're playing, let's say, a Les Paul or a guitar with a lot of amplification in a sustained setting, and you go down low, it's pretty messy. So I would try to clean that up by muting so that you don't have this 'wash' of sound, if you know what I mean. It cleans up the wash, in a sense. So that kind of became a thing. [24]
Al di Meola made an impression on a whole generation of hard rock and heavy metal "guitar heros". The list includes neoclassical legend Yngwie Malmsteen, Mr. Big's Paul Gilbert, Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt and Dream Theater's John Petrucci. [22] [25]
Guitar World magazine included Al di Meola on their top 50 fastest "shredders" of all time list. Di Meola personally dislikes the term, though, which he finds "limiting". He was featured alongside other rock and jazz luminaries, such as Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale and others. [26]
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 Warrior's title track at the event. [27] In the same year he received a honorary doctorate degree from his alma mater , the Berklee College of Music. [28]
Grammy Awards [29]
Guitar Player Magazine [30]
Berklee College of Music
BBC Jazz Awards
Latin Grammy Awards [31]
Stanley Clarke is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status.
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhunters, and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever is often cited as one of the core groups of the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s. Several musicians, including Clarke, Flora Purim, Airto Moreira and Al Di Meola, came to prominence through their performances on Return to Forever albums.
Leonard "Lenny" White III is an American jazz fusion drummer who was a member of the band Return to Forever led by Chick Corea in the 1970s. White has been called "one of the founding fathers of jazz fusion".
No Mystery (1975) is a studio album by jazz-rock fusion band Return to Forever, and the second featuring the quartet of Chick Corea, guitarist Al Di Meola, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White.
Where Have I Known You Before is a studio album by Return to Forever, the first featuring guitarist Al Di Meola, and the second since leader Chick Corea switched to mostly electric instrumentation, playing music heavily influenced by progressive rock, funk and classical.
Romantic Warrior is a studio album by the American jazz fusion band Return to Forever, their first recorded for Columbia Records, after releasing their previous four albums on Polydor. In February 1976, the group retreated to Caribou Ranch near Nederland, Colorado to record. It was the first album to remove the "featuring Chick Corea" credit from beside the band name on the album cover. Despite the music being more dense and avant-garde than the funkier No Mystery, it remains the band's highest selling album with over 500,000 copies sold in the US alone.
Elegant Gypsy is the second album by American jazz fusion guitarist Al Di Meola. It was released in 1977 by Columbia Records.
Tour de Force — Live is a live album by jazz guitarist Al Di Meola that was released in 1982 and recorded on February 4, 1982 at Tower Theatre in Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania. Additional keyboards and percussion were overdubbed in the studio.
Biréli Lagrène is a French jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt–influenced style. He often performs in swing, jazz fusion, and post-bop styles.
Roman Maksimovich Miroshnichenko is a Ukraine-born Russian jazz fusion multi-award winning guitarist, composer, producer, recording engineer and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades, including four The Independent Music Awards, 1st Prize of the USA Songwriting Competition, 1st Place of the International Songwriting Competition, 1st Prize of the International Acoustic Music Awards, Gold medal of the Global Music Awards, World Entertainment Awards winner, Film Music Contest absolute winner, four Hollywood Music in Media Awards nominees, "Musician of the Year" nominee of Josie Music Awards and two Hollywood Independent Music Awards nominees. He has worked with musicians such as Steve Vai, Al Di Meola, Mike Stern, Marco Mendoza, Paul Wertico, Jennifer Batten, Heather Headley, Djivan Gasparyan, Dominique DiPiazza during his career. In 2008 - 2017 he toured regularly in a duo with fusion guitarist Larry Coryell.
Kiss My Axe is an album by jazz guitarist Al Di Meola that was released in 1991. It is a jazz fusion album, with significant world music influences. Like its predecessor, Tirami Su (1987), it is credited to "The Al Di Meola Project", although the two albums have an almost entirely different set of backing musicians.
Consequence of Chaos is an album by Italian-American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist Al Di Meola, released in 2006. The album features guest appearances by Chick Corea, Steve Gadd, John Patitucci and Barry Miles.
"Mediterranean Sundance" is the third track on Elegant Gypsy (1977), the second album by Al Di Meola. This piece and "Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil", are the only two entirely acoustic tracks on the album. However, unlike "Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil" which is an acoustic solo by Di Meola, "Mediterranean Sundance" consists of an acoustic guitar duet with flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía. With a duration of 5' 13", the song is a complex blend of jazz and flamenco influences.
Flesh on Flesh is a 2002 album by Italian-American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist Al Di Meola. The album contains new compositions and reworkings of older ones as well.
"Río Ancho" is a Spanish flamenco guitar piece that combines flamenco and gypsy jazz influences. The piece is in the key of E minor and progresses to A minor, D, G, C and B7. The original performances of the song had notable flute solos towards the end of the piece, reminiscent of classic Spanish gypsy music with trumpets. The track first featured on Paco de Lucia's 1976 album Almoraima.
Barry Miles is an American pianist, record producer, and author.
"Egyptian Danza" is a composition by Latin jazz-fusion guitarist Al Di Meola. He first recorded it in 1977 for his album Casino and also recorded live in Philadelphia in February 1982. It later appeared on his 1994 album Essence of Al Di Meola. Heavily influenced by Contemporary Egyptian music and Ancient Egyptian music, the distinctive exotic middle-eastern mystical sound and atmosphere of the piece comes from the C-sharp Phrygian dominant scale, which is composed from the fifth degree of an F-sharp harmonic minor scale. When Di Meola performs it live the piece is characterised by muting at the top of the fretboard in parts and by very fast sporadic picking. Although he performs the piece on an electro acoustic guitar parts of the piece are played as on an electric guitar. It features violins and Latin congas in the background. The original album recording featured Mingo Lewis.
Okan Ersan is a Turkish Cypriot jazz fusion guitarist, composer and record artist.
Timothy Gerard Landers is an American bassist best known for his contribution to the 1970s-80s jazz-fusion genre and his work with Al Di Meola, Billy Cobham, and Gil Evans. Landers is a session musician and was a member of Tom Scott's band on The Pat Sajak Show.