Al Di Meola | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Albert Laurence Di Meola |
Born | Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. | July 22, 1954
Genres | |
Occupations |
|
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) 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. 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. [1] [2]
Di Meola's career is peppered with high-profile collaborations. The list includes Chick Corea, Stanley Jordan, Jaco Pastorius, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia, 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 he 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 appearences on the 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", said of his first teacher. [7] [8]
By the late 1960s, Di Meola became keenly aware of the rock explosion. Besides British Invasion acts such as The Rolling Stones and The Who, he was particularly fond of the stateside acts coming from California. He liked country rock stars The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills and Nash, as well as the SF's Bay Area psychedelic rock scene, namely Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. "I loved all those bands", said he. [8]
Although he grew to appreciate the "whole package" of late 1960s and early 1970s rock icons Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Carlos Santana, he never looked up to them as role models. "I never thought of the rock players as having good technique", he pondered. Di Meola was rather inspired by jazz guitarists George Benson and Kenny Burrell and bluegrass and country guitarists Clarence White and Doc Watson. His musical direction solidified when was exposed to jazz rock pioneers Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin. [7] [8]
He attended Berklee College of Music in 1971. [3] There, he practiced up to eight hours a day. [7]
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] His short, two-year period with RtF's proved to be the group's career peak. 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. [1]
No Mystery's 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. [9] Debuting at #170, Romantic Warrior peaked at #35 on May 1975, spending 3 weeks on the Billboard Top 40 and a total of 15 weeks on Billboard 200. [10] The album went on to win a gold RIAA certification on May 24th, 1990 for selling an excess of 500,000 copies. [11] [12]
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. [13] His sophomore album, Elegant Gypsy (1977), went gold in July 24, 1989. [12]
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). Di Meola continued to explore Latin music within jazz fusion on Casino and Splendido Hotel .
From 1976 to 1978 he played with Stomu Yamashta in the supergroup Go on three records.
In 1980, Al Di Meola recorded the best-selling Friday Night in San Francisco live album with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. It became one of the most popular live albums for acoustic guitar, selling more than two million copies worldwide. [1] [14]
The trio reconvened in 1982 to record a studio album, Passion, Grace & Fire (1983). In the 2005 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 contribute with two compositions each. [15]
The latter half of the 1980s came with noticeable shifts in Di Meola's music. One was the adoption of the Synclavier guitar synthesizer into his compositions.
The second shift was the start of a "Brazilian" phase of sorts. In Cielo e Terra (1985) 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. [16] [17] [18]
Al Di Meola was one of the select invitees to Les Paul's 72nd birthday celebration on June 8th, 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' 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. [19]
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.
In the mid-1990s Al Di Meola, Stanley Jordan 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. [20] [21]
Al Di Meola rediscovered his love of the electric guitar in 2006, [22] and the DVD of his concert at the Leverkusen Jazz Festival 2006 is subtitled Return to Electric Guitar. [23]
On September 23, 2008, PRS Guitars unveiled their first Al DiMeola signature model: the Al Di Meola Prism. The guitarist went on the 2008 Return to Forever reunion tour with it. [24]
In 2018, Di Meola was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. [25]
On January 11th, 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. [26]
In July 2016, Al Di Meola married Stephanie Kreis after meeting after a 2013 concert of his in Budapest. [27]
Al has two daughters from a previous relationship; Oriana [28] and Valentina. [29] He also has a daughter with Stephanie, named Ava. [30] Additionally he is a first-time grandfather with his grandson named Orion [31] [32] 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. [33] He took some time off from performances, but began performing again in January 2024. [34]
Besides the impressive speed and accuracy of his alternate picking, another hallmark of Al Di Meola's style is his palm muting. [35] [36] 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". [37]
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. [37]
In regard to his right-hand picking technique, Al di Meola advocates for the importance of picking all notes as much as possible. He stear clears 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". [38]
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." [39] 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." [40]
Al di Meola made an impression on a whole generation of hard rock and heavy metal guitar heros. The list includes Mr. Big's Paul Gilbert, Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt and Dream Theater's John Petrucci. [35] The late Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads, at one point, declared that di Meola was his favorite guitarist. [41] Neoclassical legends Yngwie Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine also sang praises for him. [42] [43] The latter said, back in 1987:
He's someone I greatly admire. I knew everything he ever did, every song from Return to Forever to all his solo albums. He was like the big guy to me. I picked up some things from him, like the right hand muting technique with the palm and the sheer speed and cleanless of execution. He was a big inspiration to me. He's mellowed out lately with Cielo e Terra and Soaring Through a Dream , which is cool. But I really like what he was doing before. I really hope he will incorporate that stuff back into what he's doing. I think he'll probably go back to that one day, and it'll be pretty amazing I'm sure. [43]
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. [44]
Al Di Meola has been inducted for Guitar Player's "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). [45]
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, Jason Becker, 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. [46] [47]
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. [48] In the same year he received a honorary doctorate degree from his alma mater , the Berklee College of Music. [49]
Grammy Awards [50]
Guitar Player Magazine [45] [51]
|
|
|
Berklee College of Music
BBC Jazz Awards
Latin Grammy Awards [52]
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.
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.
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.
"Spain" is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is likely Corea's most recognized piece, and is considered a jazz standard.
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in music education from his 30 years teaching at the Berklee College of Music.
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.
Jean-Luc Ponty is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer.
Francisco Sánchez Gómez, known as Paco de Lucía, was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamenco guitarists to branch into classical and jazz. Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton, authors of Guitar: Music, History, Players, describe de Lucía as a "titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar", and Dennis Koster, author of Guitar Atlas, Flamenco, has referred to de Lucía as "one of history's greatest guitarists".
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.
Land of the Midnight Sun is the debut album by jazz fusion guitarist Al Di Meola, released in 1976.
Splendido Hotel is a double album by jazz guitarist Al Di Meola that was released in 1980.
Return to the 7th Galaxy: The Anthology is a 1996 compilation of 1972-1975 recordings made by bands assembled by Chick Corea under the name Return to Forever. The collection includes tracks from the albums Light as a Feather, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before and No Mystery, together with four previously unreleased tracks.
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.
Returns is a live album by American fusion band Return to Forever. Released in 2009 by Eagle Records, it is the first recording by the band after a hiatus of 32 years. Also in 2009 a video recording of the band's live performances from the "Returns" tour at Montreux, Switzerland and Clearwater, Florida was released by Eagle Rock Entertainment as Returns: Live at Montreux 2008.
In the 1970s in jazz, jazz became increasingly influenced by Latin jazz, combining rhythms from African and Latin American countries, often played on instruments such as conga, timbale, güiro, and claves, with jazz and classical harmonies played on typical jazz instruments. Artists such as Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola increasingly influenced the genre with jazz fusion, a hybrid form of jazz-rock fusion which was developed by combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments, and the highly amplified stage sound of rock musicians such as Jimi Hendrix. All Music Guide states that "..until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate." However, "...as rock became more creative and its musicianship improved, and as some in the jazz world became bored with hard bop and did not want to play strictly avant-garde music, the two different idioms began to trade ideas and occasionally combine forces." On June 16, 1972, the New York Jazz Museum opened in New York City at 125 West 55th Street in a one and one-half story building. It became the most important institution for jazz in the world with a 25,000 item archive, free concerts, exhibits, film programs, etc.
Okan Ersan is a Turkish Cypriot jazz fusion guitarist, composer and record artist.
Mario Parmisano, is an Argentinian jazz pianist. He is recognized on the international scene for his work with guitarist Al Di Meola and for his Tango Jazz Trio, performing a unique interpretation about the Music of the Great Tango Master Astor Piazzolla.