Search - Al Di Meola :: Essence of Al Dimeola

A guitar god of a different color.

Guybert | 07/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first saw Al Di Meola a couple of years ago on tv. It was a rerun of one of his shows at the Montreal Jazz Festival and I was...flabbergasted. He did an amazing set and I wondered why I'd never heard of him before. I soon bought this album and was thoroughly impressed. And not just by Al, but by the whole band. He has some amazing people playing with him, too. "Electric Rendezvous" builds into a very powerful display of his skill on electric guitar, as does the outstanding "Race With the Devil on Spanish Highway," which also features his excellent bandmates heating it up. These songs are so hot that I would hardly consider them to be jazz. However, Di Meola is just as great on the acoustic. "Passion, Grace and Fire," a duet with the also-amazing Paco De Lucia, is played, ironically enough, with passion, grace and fire. What a beautiful song! Another standout is actually another duet with Paco De lucia, "Mediterranean Sundance," a tie for my favorite song along with "Race With..." "Two to Tango" finishes the album in a fun way. This is an interesting duet with Chick Corea, who he used to play guitar regularly for. Very different and cool. In conclusion, this album will appeal to people of many different musical tastes and is both jaw-dropping and beautiful. A masterpiece!"