Al Di Meola
Elegant Gipsy

THE REVIEW

The mere fact of facing an Al Di Meola album makes you realize how small and insignificant you are compared to someone who, like this man, has managed to write some of the most beautiful pages of jazz fusion in just over 30 years of career. This becomes even more apparent when you think about the ease and carefreeness emanating from every single note that this young 53-year-old extracts from that guitar.

Although Al demonstrated a great musical taste from his beautiful debut album, it is with the second album "Elegant Gipsy" of 1977 that I can say I truly fell in love with the sound of this man's music: the venture towards realms that somewhat distance him from jazz renders this second record decidedly more flavorful and rich, partly because the influences of English progressive rock become pronounced, as can be noticed in "Race With The Devil On Spanish Highways", laid out on schemes typically coming from 1970s intellectual rock, while never forgetting the fusion base especially evident in the keyboard parts, and partly because samba and rock sections alternate with those of more pure jazz.

It was mentioned before that Di Meola's background is fundamentally jazz fusion, and here we find tracks like "Mediterranean Sundance", spiced here and there with some hints of flamenco concerning the guitar phrasing, clearly inspired by the tradition of the Spanish school. For those looking for pure jazz fusion, you have to wait until the two concluding tracks, namely "Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil", a short song of just 1 minute and 46 seconds where the most delicate side of the American guitarist emerges, showing that he can express himself in the best way even with an acoustic guitar in hand, and the final "Elegant Gypsy Suite", 9 minutes and 16 seconds of heart-stopping instrumental evolutions.

At the end of the album listening, one cannot help but be ecstatic about the just concluded experience, not only because you have listened to an album full of beautiful, catchy songs, constructed with great care and also very elaborate from a technical point of view, but also because you have been able to hear a work of a guitarist who has shown over the last 30 years to be capable of composing only works of great quality and endowed with an absolutely uncommon charm.