Al Di Meola, World Sinfonia Australian Tour – March 2010
Toby SmithNovember 6, 2009
Go to Al Di Meola’s website (http://www.aldimeola.com) and look at his itinerary for this year alone. It’s a reflection of his worldwide popularity. After a splendid career spanning thirty years and exploring a variety of styles, Al Di Meola still ranks among the most popular guitar masters of jazz fusion and jazz-rock.
Now this guitar virtuoso and composer is embarking on an Australian tour. In March 2010 Al and his band will play in Perth, Sydney, Bellingen, Byron Bay, Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Kuranda, Parramatta and Canberra. They will also play three cities in New Zealand, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
voted “worlds best guitarist” several times by Guitar Player Magazine…
A bona fide guitar hero, perennial poll-winner and virtuoso of the highest order, Al Di Meola has also been recognized over the past 30 years as a prolific composer and respected artist with over 20 recordings as a leader. His creative output to date is staggering, whether it’s with his current World Sinfonia band or past musical endeavors like his electric Tour de Force group with Jan Hammer, Anthony Jackson, Steve Gadd and Mingo Lewis, the internationally acclaimed Trio with fellow guitar superstars John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia, the Rite of Strings trio with Stanley Clarke and Jean-Luc Ponty or the ‘70s fusion supergroup Return To Forever with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. And while his dazzling technique on both acoustic and electric guitars has afforded him regal status among the hordes of fretboard aficionados who regularly flock to his concerts, the depth of Di Meola’s writing along with the soulfulness and his inherent lyricism of his guitaristic expression have won him legions of fans worldwide beyond the six-string set.
Guitar historian Robert Lynch has this to say about Di Meola’s significance:
“In the history of the electric guitar, no one figure has done more to advance the instrument in a purely technical manner than Al Di Meola. His total command of the various styles and scales is simply mind-boggling.”
03/05/2010 – Perth, Australia
03/07/2010 – Sydney, Australia
03/09/2010 – Bellingen, Australia
03/10/2010 – Byron Bay, Australia
03/12/2010 – Sydney, Australia
03/13/2010 – Sydney, Australia
03/15/2010 – Brisbane, Australia
03/18/2010 – Auckland, New Zealand
03/19/2010 – Christchurch, New Zealand
03/22/2010 – Wellington, New Zealand
03/25/2010 – Melbourne, Australia
03/26/2010 – Adelaide, Australia
03/27/2010 – Canberra, Australia
03/29/2010 – Newcastle, Australia
December 2, 2009 at 10:50 am
Al Di Meola World Sinfonia blends jazz, classical, and tango music with Middle Eastern overtones. This electrifying mix is complete with sophisticated rhythms, haunting melodies, and thrilling guitar action.
As well as an extensive list of headline concerts around Australia and New Zealand throughout March 2010, Al Di Meola World Sinfonia has been added to the Byron Bay Blues & Roots Festival.
Al Di Meola holds the most prestigious guitar awards from the highest rated guitar poll in the world, Guitar Player Magazine, and has garnered a 25-year reputation as one of the most prominent virtuosos in modern instrumental jazz.
He was only 19 years old when he won his first Grammy Award and re-defined the electric guitar’s place in jazz. In 1974 he was a student at Berklee School of Music in Boston when he received a life-changing call from pianist Chick Corea to join cutting edge ensemble Return To Forever, known for its uncompromising musical exploration. Al debuted with the band at Carnegie Hall, and the next night played before 40,000 at an Atlanta jazz festival.
In 1976 Di Meola put together his own outfit which featured a stellar cast including drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, bassist Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius, keyboardists Jan Hammer, Barry Miles and Chick Corea plus percussionist Mingo Lewis, to record seven albums with Columbia Records.
1980 marked the triumph of the acoustic guitar trio with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin. Their debut album Friday Night in San Francisco, sold more than two million units. The virtuoso guitarists toured from 1980 to 1983, releasing the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire in 1982. In 1995, they reunited for a third recording, Guitar Trio, follow by another triumphant world tour.
In early 1996, Di Meola formed a new trio with the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and RTF bandmate Stanley Clarke called The Rite of Strings.
Al reunited with the original members of Return To Forever, keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke, and drummer Lenny White, for a world tour in 2008 that was one of the biggest jazz events of the year.
But for now Al’s main focus remains his World Sinfonia. “I’m more interested now in moving forward with the World Sinfonia, which has really developed into something beautiful. For me, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done in a long, long time. You don’t have the overbearing volume with this band. Instead you have a rich harmonic kind of music with lots of improvisation; you have a music that is emotional. What I’m doing now is just completely satisfying, like a phenomenal meal and a great glass of vintage wine.”
Di Meola has further expanded his world music vocabulary after touring Morocco with World Sinfonia. He explained before embarking that the tour would “afford me the chance to jam with some of the local musicians there. I’m wide open to that kind of collaboration now. I’ve done some jamming back in New York at a world music club in the East Village called Drom with a Turkish clarinet virtuoso named Husnu Senlendiric. I find that I have a real affinity for the music of the Middle East.”