Al Di Meola - Live in Concert [HD] | Live at North Sea Jazz Festival 1993

Al Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American fusion guitarist. He was part of Chick Corea's band Return to Forever and played with Paco de Lucía, Herbie Hancock and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, among others. He mainly plays acoustically, but always with a plectrum. He regularly decorates his performances with various framing show effects. Al Di Meola has released dozens of albums since the 70s. In the Return to Forever band with Chick Corea he mainly played electric guitar (Gibson) much later a PRS tailor made. His trade mark is the fast soloing with strings dampened by the right hand, giving the whole a very rhythmic character. Al Di Meola studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. As early as 1972, Di Meola played in keyboardist Barry Miles' quintet and two years later, at the age of 19, he was discovered by the pianist Chick Corea and was included in his music group Return to Forever, which, in addition to Chick Corea, included Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. With them he toured all over the world. Together with Return to Forever, he received the Grammy Award in 1975 for the «best jazz interpretation of a band». The popular magazine Guitar Player awarded him the title of «Best New Talent». In 1976 he released his first solo album, which was a success. At the same time, he was a member of Stomu Yamashta's Go project. He was also recognized by Guitar Player in 1977 as «Best Jazz Guitarist» and his second album as «Best Guitar LP». He was the youngest guitarist ever to receive these awards. In general, he received this title four times. Guitar Player also made him «Best Acoustic Guitarist» three times and included him in his Gallery of Greats in 1981, alongside musicians such as Leo Kottke and Andrés Segovia. In the same year, he was a guest at Frank Zappa's legendary concert on November 17 at the Ritz in New York. The East Coast concert, recorded by WLIR FM radio, was broadcast on the radio. In the 1970s, Di Meola was also considered "the fastest guitarist in the world." In 1981, he recorded the famous live album Friday Night in San Francisco with guitarists John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía, which sold over two million copies. 1982 followed the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire. In 1996, the brilliant trio tried to build on previous successes with The Trio, another studio album and a reunion tour. With his formation New World Sinfonia, in which Peo Alfonsi was recorded in recent years, he also presented world music material. At the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991, Di Meola and Israeli musician David Broza played for American soldiers in Israel out of patriotic motivation ("I wanted to experience a war").

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