AL DI MEOLA and his heavy 70s fusion albums 

Al DiMeola was my favorite guitarist of the late 70's. Right on, Al's heavy fusion period of 4 albums, from "Land of the Midnight Sun" to "Splendido Hotel" was his Best. I started losing interest in Al DiMeola after his next studio album "Electric Rendezvous" (with song "Black Cat") in 1982, that's when he started changing. Although I bought "Kiss My Axe" many years later, but it just wasn't the same anymore. (How did I miss the Live record you mentioned, I will have to give it a listen!) I've seen his live electric show many times from 1978-1982, and also was blessed to see the incredible acoustic trio of Al, John MacLaughlin and Paco De Lucia Live at Carnegie Hall in NYC in 1981. Back then I was obsessed with copying Al. In my senior year high school talent show in 1980 I played "Chasin' the Voodoo" on guitar from the Casino album with an incredible drummer, bass, and keys and we brought the house down. Recently I just listened to our performance, believe it or not, it still survives (barely audible) on an old cassette tape. Definitely a highlight of my teenage years! Thanks for taking me back to my high school years, Andy!! BTW, I love your videos and deep granular analyses into the great jazz fusion players, especially your videos on Allan Holdsworth the GOAT of them all:) There's nothing like your channel. Keep it going!!

I agree with everything you said in this video. Some of the things you mentioned hadn't occurred to me, so thanks for that. I didn't know he'd made a CD of Piazzolla songs, so I ordered a copy of that, and am looking forward to hearing it. Several years ago, in the late teens, I saw Al Di Meola and his band in concert at the Harris Center concert venue at Folsom Lake College, California. It's not an intimate venue, but it's not huge, either. The performance was what you'd expect, namely technically accomplished and fun for us old folks who had heard his records many times. But he certainly wasn't taking any chances. Which was fine. Folsom Prison, of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," is less than five miles from the concert venue, so Di Meola volunteered to play and sing that song, just the one time, just for grins. Fortunately he didn't belt it out loudly, but just sang it within what he thought his voice could do. Well, it wasn't great, of course, but it was fun for the audience and, I think, fun for him.

Agree Midnight Sun. My first Al album. Phenomenal record. The Wizard solo towards the end - how many times have I done air guitar to that in my dining room? I love that album.

A neighbor of mine in my college dorm introduced Al Dimeola to me when I was a freshman. I bought Elegant Gypsy and my sister gave me Casino as an Xmas gift. I recall playing it for a friend. He took issue with the album cover too but liked the music. I had the good fortune of seeing him life at the Berkeley Community Theater when Return to Forever reformed and toured in the mid or early eighties (timeline in my head is fuzzy). Stanley Clark was on bass. It was mind blowing.

Land of the Midnight Sun was lent to me when I was 18 by an older student living in my digs. After a previous diet of heavy rock this blew my mind and at the same time opened it to Jazz Rock fusion which I've been a fan of for nearly 40 years. The track Golden Suite Dawn also turned me on to Jaco Pastorius who plays the most complex yet funkiest bass lines whilst Al Di Meola literally shreds - easily the fastest and yet precise guitarist on the planet! I can't recommend this album enough........

Love the early records and have them all..my guitar teacher in 1980 turned me onto elegant gypsy and that was it,...casino will always be my favorite,..,saw him many times starting with electric rendezvous tour in ‘82,..many ovation guitar clinics etc...met him a few times also....great player, great songs, and great guy

Thanks, another great watch. Al Di Meola and Raymond Gomez are tops for me and have been lucky enough to see both live. Love the earlier albums best too but Electric Rendezvous and Tiramisu also deserve a mention. The cover of Song to the Pharoah Kings on Tiramisu is brilliant and his duel with Kei Akagi on keyboards is one of the most amazing live performances I^ve ever seen.

Al di Meola is the Godfather of Speed- and Thrash Metal.

I have no objections really to anything you've said. As far as the way I have always viewed his solo work, this was a spot on breakdown of Di Miola's discography. Well done, sir!

I've just seen this but you seem to have forgotten the "Electric Rendezvous" album that came out before Tour De Force. Did you not like it? It has a much better continuity than Splendido Hotel in my humble opinion.

I saw him back in 1976 and he was warming up for Renaissance but I was there to see Al Di Meola and Renaissance was alright buy I'm a guitar nut. Actually now I can't really say exactly how it all sounded because if you're 72 now and you can remember the 1970s you weren't smoking the stuff I was.

I love the sound on Go!! His playing with the vocals of Steve Winwood are awesome!

Like most who 'got it' ... I loved those early albums

I'm in love with tour de force

I recently picked up that Land Of Midnight Sun album for a few bucks! super hard hitting wow-ing prog fusion.

Rapid fire guitar solos !

“Let’s hear it for another great Italian...”

Nice view of Di Meola’s output. He is someone I have great respect for but truly never gravitated towards him.

Absolutely spot on take on DiMeola. I've been a fan since I was a kid and he's one of my earliest guitar influences. I've always felt Land of the Midnight Sun and Elegant Gypsy were his best albums. Casino is also very solid. Splendido Hotel has its moments but I also can sense the pressure from record execs in his desperate attempt for a pop hit with "Roller Jubilee" and that forgettable song he does lead vocals on. I agree that Electric Rendezvous was his last go at old school fusion. Scenario has it's moments but doesn't really work. It's a very flat album. I like some of his experimentation in the 80s but was glad when he did Tiramisu, which is a good album. I agree that Kiss My Axe was DiMeola's attempt to get back in the super shred game, but it's not a great album. It doesn't have to guts to go full fusion. I think "Phantom" is the best track. Al is a monster player, no doubt about it. But I also think he's way past his prime. Another thing is that he doesn't have the chops he had in the old days, but McLaughlin plays as well as he ever did. The issue I have with McLaughlin is that his tone has degraded since he started playing strats and resorted to pedal amps. I don't mind pedal amps as I use one myself, but his tone is just missing something. I also don't think his latter music is all that interesting. But his chops are still top notch and the guy is 80. I guess all that clean living and yoga paid off.

I gave my friend Kieth More , Romantic Warrior back in the 70's, a year later he could play every note Al plays on that album, including the palm muting.

Most Double Albums should be restrained to a Single Album. Blue Spanish Eyes would then be the perfect last Drink at the Hotelbar Tune at the End of Side 2.

My first DiMeola album was Electric Gypsy when released, quickly followed by Land. Then my favourite, Casino the following year. Spendido Hotel was still great but then life got in the way. Still got those albums and still play them quite often. 👍

Di Meola shared something with Holdsworth, yet was totally different from Allan, in that he never played pre-rehearsed riffs and never played the same thing twice.

I got onboard at "Casino", bought the first two records very quickly after hearing that one. Still my favorite three of his. I also got to see him in NYC, with UK opening -- I was in my mid teens, and was particularly interested in the "almost" King Crimson reunion, had no idea who that was on guitar though (and I wanted it to be Fripp), till the show started.... I don't think I picked up my jaw that night until after I got on the subway to go home. Your commentary on the early album covers has me cracking up! Those always bothered me, but I never broke down how funny they were for myself.

I remember seeing Return To Forever on television back on the ‘70s (after the “Where Have I Known You Before” album). I was totally blown away by the band’s playing. I don’t think I’d ever heard anyone play bass like Clarke or guitar like Di Meola. It wasn’t only Al’s speed but his precision. His playing on the RTF albums and the first few solo albums is amazing. He started to take quite a bit of criticism in the late ‘70s from people saying that the only thing he could do was play fast (where they also implied that playing fast only takes practice, not talent. Never really understood that). I think he took that criticism to heart and changed his style. BTW, check out Lenny White’s first solo album “Venusian Summer”. The last song on the album features both Di Meola and Larry Coryell. While I really like Coryell, Al pretty much blows him away…

70's fusion axe slinging madness plus cowboy boots = awesome!

Love your channel, Andy and this is a very good appraisal of AdM's work - the great, the good, and frankly the stuff you can just pass over. But for anyone unfamiliar with him I'd recommend listening to the work he did with Stomu Yamashta in the mid-70s, particularly Go Live from Paris. Man of Leo is just great to listen to, not just for Al's guitar but also for Steve Winwood's vocals. On another of my guitar heroes have you done, or would you consider doing, a retro on Terje Rypdal?

In a way I believe it is unfair for people to say that Di Meola was influenced by Metheny, because Metheny lived in Brazil for several years and was influenced by Brazilian music. Airto Moreira plays on Soaring through A Dream, and he is from Brazil. Thus, perhaps it is accurate to say that both Metheny and Di Meola were influenced by Brazilian music. Check out the Native Dancer album by Wayne Shorter and Milton Nasciemento. Both Metheny and Lyle Mays were influenced by this album. Chick Corea had a Brazilian sound when he played with Airto and Flora Purim. I figure Al heard that music before he heard Metheny's music. The guitar synth became available to more than one player, not a surprise. I like Al's music after 1980 more than his earlier music. I believe he evolved as a composer. For his earlier music, I like Splendido Hotel the most.

Hey Andy! The album you were trying to think of where those softie live tracks come from is Electric Rendevous. The first half of that was the definite last hurrah for Al. He would have been better off putting those A side Rendevous tracks on Splendido, and kicking off some of the cheesey tunes. Cheers!

One of my mates had dinner with Al di Meola and said he was so arrogant, it was actually quite funny, like he was almost laughing at himself. Paco de Lucia was a major figure in flamenco guitar way before di Meola started playing with him.

It's probable that Short Tales of the Black Forest was left off of Romantic Warrior. Time limitations possibly?

Thanks Andy, Yes those first two Di Meolas are the dog's doodahs. Tour De orce live is another of those live albums that should have been a double and ideally should have come out a few years earlier after Casino rather than after Electric Rendezvous, theres a couple of boots of him in 78 from soundboard and radio broadcasts that could have been used either to add to Tour De Force or replace it. When I first got into him it was the same as you, via Romantic Warrior and then I got the first two so ever after felt increasingly disappointed as he progressed through towards his acoustic works. Then in the early 2000s he started to reintroduce his fusion style, albeit sparingly, and I got an album he did with Russian Singer Leonard Agutin, Cosmopolitan lIfe (because it had Al Di Meola on it) and its ok for what it is and in a way the title sums it up, but its far from essential and has lots of softies on it, though he does play some nice guitar - then again Di Meola would wouldn't he. Anyone who hasnt heard any of his solo material ( though I doubt there are many fusion fans who havent?) would probably be best off getting his Anthology that has stuff form the first two albums.

Barry Miles made two fantastic jazz fusion albums : "Barry Miles and Silverlight" (74) and the essential "Sky Train" (77).

so you're basically saying Land of the Midnight Sun, Elegant gypsy and Casino are the holy trinity of his discography?

That white table came from Aldi....😂

DiMeola's first several albums showcased his incredible speed and he became one of the early pioneers of what many call today as "shredding" But Al became disenchanted with his image as a speed demon guitarist, believing that the bulk of his audience was guitar players, which was perhaps true. On later solo albums, he concentrated more on melodic structure and disbanded the super fast triplet playing. Personally, I didn't care much for those early albums His technique was amazing, but because he constantly used the major scale and its related modes, his music sounded contrived and it lacked harmonic color.

maybe it's the same plant for both albums.

Lew-chee-uh. Damn Nazis.

His playing on that first one is some of the sickest guitar playing ever. And yes, the album covers are terrible and he had more bad songs than good.

Those early covers, given the musical treasures to be found within…terrible…a portent of some of the fuzak to come I was quite fond of Electric Rendezvous, but you could already clearly hear the train arriving at the 80s

casino is my fave,though lotms was one of the first fusion albums i owned,and was one of the changeover periods,when i was like,ok i love my rock gods ,but this stuff,and mclaughlin ,was taking things further,to the point where i started buying more fusion albums than rock.did you have a listen to mingo lewis flight never ending album,which contains a pre lotms version of the wizard,and a couple of other tunes on the al album,bit rawer ,with randy sellgren on guitar,who is also a excellent guitarist,though i dont know much about him,the mingo album is also awesome ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ux9ttpDjuy8.html