Al Di Meola has enjoyed an impressively long career as a recording artist. The guitar virtuoso was only 22 when he recorded his first album as a leader, Land of the Midnight Sun, back in 1976 (although he had joined Chick Corea's Return to Forever at 19), and a 56-year-old Di Meola was still going strong when 2011 arrived…
Too some, Al di Meola is best known for is shredding guitar work as part of Return to Forever, and also his early solo albums. But di Meola has always had an interest in flamenco styled acoustic playing ("Mediterranean Sundance" off of Elegant Gypsy, anyone?) — which is the six-string style that he fully embraces on his 2007……
A pair of early 80s fusion sets from Al Di Meola – 1980's Splendido Hotel and '82's Electric Rendezvous – in a single package! Splendido Hotel is one of the most stylistically sprawling fusion efforts we can think of – with a vibe that stretches from spacey atmosherics, to muscular riffing, to Latin and Middle Eastern influences – and that's just the in the opening track! The personnel is pretty amazing – with Eddie Colon, Jan Hammer, Les Paul and Chick Corea contribution. Includes "Alien Chase On Arabian Desert", "Silent Story In Her Eyes", "Two To Tango", "I Can Tell", "Spanish Eyes", "Bianca's Midnight Lullaby" and more. Electric Rendevous is another wildly eclectic and far reaching fusion groover from guitarist Di Meola – with a number of players from the Slendido Hotel set, including Jan Hammer, Philippe Saisse, Steve Gadd and Anthony Jackson. Titles include "God Bird Change", "Electric Rendezvous", "Cruisin'", "Ritmo De La Noche", "Jewel Inside A Dream".
Latin music has been a strong influence on Al Di Meola since his early years, and in the '90s, he paid especially close attention to the music of Argentina. A welcome addition to his already impressive catalog, Di Meola Plays Piazzolla pays homage to the late Argentine tango master Astor Piazzolla (whose distinctive and very poetic brand of romanticism was considered quite daring and radical in Argentina). It would have been easy for an artist to allow his own personality to become obscured when saluting Piazzolla's legacy, but the charismatic Di Meola is too great an improviser to let that happen. Though his reverence for Piazzolla comes through loud and clear on these haunting classics, there's no mistaking the fact that this is very much an Al Di Meola project.