al di Meola

Excellent addition to any rock music collection
4.5 stars really!!!!
Having recently shocked and awed the JR/F world with two amazing albums (Hymn To The seventh Galaxy and Romantic Warrior), Return To Forever was riding high on the wave it had created, riding on Corea and DiMeola's incredibly fast playing, displaying a monstrous but cold virtuosity that would eventually have a lot of fans grinding their teeth.

Having grown a bit weary of playing loud fusion, Al DiMeola recorded a largely acoustic set on his debut for Manhattan. DiMeola, who augments his acoustic guitar with the orchestral Synclavier guitar, plays five unaccompanied solos and is joined on the other four numbers by percussionist Airto Moreira. Other than Keith Jarrett's "Coral," all of the moody selections are by the guitarist.

Any time the likes of Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola and Jean-Luc Ponty are assembled, there is a good chance the results are going to be impressive. Clarke and DiMeola had played together in the legendary Return to Forever, producing some of the most intense playing in all of fusion; Jean-Luc Ponty had also made several excellent, very diverse recordings…

'Across The Universe' is a homage to The Beatles and their influence on generations of musicians and music lovers all over the world. You will enjoy the instantly recognizable Beatles melodies blended into the elaborated and unique style of one of the greatest jazz guitarists of our time. These recordings not only are means to pay tribute to the Beatles, whom Di Meola had admired since his teenage years, but also go back in time and capture all the moments that define him today as a man and guitarist who inspired generations of musicians. Di Meola invites his audience to accompany him on his very personal musical journey throughout his life. A life that has been accompanied by iconic Beatles songs like 'Hey Jude', 'Here Comes The Sun', 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Yesterday'. 'Across The Universe' is a musical retrospective of Al Di Meola’s life, his music and his unique career of almost five decades.

Andrea Parodi & Al Di Meola - Midsummer night in Sardinia - 2004
Jazz Folk | EAC Rip | FLAC, Cue, Log | Cover 600 dpi | 480 Mb

For who hasn't heard of Andrea Parodi before, he was the lead singer of a folk-pop group (Tazenda) that had a brief moment of success in Italy in the early 90s. His unique voice and the folk themes sung in Sardinian make him more belonging to world music. In this album Al di meola rediscovers the european and mainly Spanish influences that are very evident on Friday Night in SF. The quality of the recording, taking into account that it's a live album, is excellent and remarkable.
"Amargura" is a Sardinian folk song acccompanied by the classical flamenco-stylish guitar and sung by Sandra Ligas (uncredited) together with Andrea. "Umbras" is a jazz-folk piece, full of unusual passages, changes in tempo and tonality. For jazz-prog lovers and not only. a 5-stars track..

Passion, Grace & Fire is the second album by John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucía released in 1983. Unlike their first album "Friday Night in San Francisco", this album consists entirely of studio recordings.