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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZDi MEOLA, Al(b 22 July '54, Jersey City NJ) Guitarist, leader, composer. Began on guitar at nine inspired by the Beatles, played steel guitar at 15, then heard Miles Davis with Chick Corea and converted to fusion. Attended Berklee in Boston, joined Corea's Return to Forever '74, led own groups, toured and recorded in trio with John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia (see McLaughlin's entry). He plays both acoustic and electric; his principal infl. are classical guitarists like Julian Bream, and Corea. LPs on CBS: Land Of The Midnight Sun '76, Elegant Gypsy '77, Casino '78 with keyboardist Barry Miles (b 28 March '47, Newark NJ), two-disc Splendido Hotel '80 with Corea, Electric Rendezvous '82, Tour De Force 'Live' '82, Scenario '83, all made top 200 LPs USA. Switched to EMI Manhattan for solo acoustic Cielo e Terra '85; formed Al Di Meola Project, starting with Airto, Phil Markowitz on keyboards, Danny Gottlieb on drums, bassist Chip Jackson: Soaring Through A Dream '85 on EMI Manhattan followed by Tirami Su, sextet plus vocals by Jose Renato taking fusion further from rock roots and back into top 200 LPs. World Sinfonia and Kiss My Axe '90--91 on Tomato and Al Di Meola's World Sinfonia: Heart Of The Immigrants '93 on Mesa use Arto Tuncboyacian on all three, Gumi Artiz on the first two, Dino Saluzzi and Chris Carrington on the last two, plus others. He revived the project for Orange And Blue '94 on Blue Moon, with Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine and several others. Trio Rite Of Strings '95 consisted of Di Meola, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and bassist Stanley Clarke. |