Al Di Meola
Albert Laurence Di Meola is an American guitarist. Known for his work in jazz fusion and world music, he had his breakthrough after 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. Highlights of his work are Elegant Gypsy, his Friday Night in San Francisco collaboration and the World Sinfonia trilogy.
An alumnus of Berklee College of Music and a Grammy Award winner, Di Meola's successful career includes high-profile collaborations with musicians such as, besides Corea, Stanley Clarke, Larry Coryell, Steve Winwood, Jaco Pastorius, Paco de Lucía, Bill Bruford, John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Vai and others.
Early life
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, 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. He has been a resident of Old Tappan, New Jersey.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 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. As a teenager, Di Meola practiced guitar eight to ten hours per day.
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.
Another defining moment from his early life came through feeling ostracized on his high school years, because of his unique playing style. He tells:
Although he appreciated 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. 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." Of McLaughlin, he praised him as "the first guitarist I heard to combine tremendous amount of emotion with incredible technique."
Career
1970s
He attended Berklee College of Music in 1971. 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. Of joining the group, he said:Di Meola then compared Corea's band to John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, the group that inspired Corea to take Return to Forever into a rockier, high-octane direction. 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.
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.
Di Meola recorded with Larry Coryell on Lenny White's solo debut album, Venusian Summer. 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.
In early 1976, Return to Forever released an album Romantic Warrior. Debuting at No. 170, it peaked at No. 35 in May, spending three weeks on the Billboard Top 40 and a total of 15 weeks on Billboard 200. Fourteen years later it won a gold RIAA certification for selling an excess of 500,000 copies. 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, either by its medieval themes or its prog rock leanings.
File:Al Di Meola & Chick Corea.jpg|thumb|285x285px|Di Meola with Chick Corea in Rochester, New York, 1976
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.
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.
As Return to Forever was disbanding around 1976, Di Meola recorded his first solo album, Land of the Midnight Sun. 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.
To market his sophomore album, Elegant Gypsy, 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. Elegant Gypsy reached #5 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart, #58 on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart, and eventually went gold.
From 1976 to 1978 he played with Stomu Yamashta in the supergroup Go on three records.
Di Meola's final solo album of the 1970s, Casino, featured the song "Egyptian Danza", which blended ancient and current Egyptian influences with exotic middle-eastern themes and Latin congas.
1980s
1980 saw Di Meola release the double album Splendido Hotel, which had been recorded throughout 1979.Shortly after, Di Meola and Paco de Lucía 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.
In 1980, 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.
The trio reconvened in 1982 to record a studio album, Passion, Grace & Fire. 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.
1982 was also the year 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. Along with music from preceding albums, it featured a previously unreleased Di Meola track and two Hammer compositions, "Advantage" and "Cruisin'" from Electric Rendezvous. The studio version was marketed as a single.
After touring straight for ten years the guitarist took some time off in 1984. Di Meola felt he had reached a dead end in his career, both with his fusion work and the acoustic trio. On his words:
Di Meola produced Magic Touch, Stanley Jordan's Blue Note debut. The record spent 51 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's jazz chart, and went gold almost 20 years after its release. It garnered Grammy nominations in two categories: Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist and Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental. Di Meola granted Stanley Jordan had a "phenomenal" approach to guitar tapping, taking it "into another dimension."
The latter half of the 1980s came with noticeable shifts in Di Meola's music. He now incorporated vocals, the Synclavier guitar synthesizer, weaving these it into his compositions. Also, since playing with McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía, he rethought "aggressive" and "loud" sets. Di Meola seemed to have left fusion definitely behind after the subdued, all-acoustic Cielo e Terra. 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.
Tirami Su 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.
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 attendees included Bo Diddley, John Sebastian, Rick Derringer, Robby Krieger, Jeff Beck, Nile Rodgers and Elliot Easton. 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.