Al Di Meola - One of These Nights
Long regarded as one of the world’s finest guitar players, jazz virtuoso Al Di Meola is now entering his 31st year as a recording artist and his new DVD, One of These Nights, is his first full-length concert DVD.
Recorded May 17, 2004 at Scala, in Ludwigsburg, Germany, the DVD features 11 tracks.
01 Innamorata (Al Di Meola) – “Flesh on Flesh”, 2002
02 Misterio (Al Di Meola) – “The Grand Passion”, 2000
03 Azzurra (Al Di Meola) – “The Infinite Desire”, 1998
04 Orient Blue (Al Di Meola) – “World Sinfonia”, 1993
05 Rhapsody of Fire (Al Di Meola) – “Tirami Su”, 1987
06 This Way Before (Al Di Meola) – “Orange and Blue”, 1994
07 One Night Last June (Al Di Meola) – “Kiss My Axe”, 1991
08 Fugatta (Astor Piazzolla) – “Flesh on Flesh”, 2002
09 Libertango (Astor Piazzolla) – “The Grande Passion”, 2000
10 Beyond the Mirage (Al Di Meola) – “Guitar Trio, 1996
11 Egyptian Danza (Al Di Meola) “Casino”, 1977
The performances all around sparkle and invigorate. Almost every track is cinematic in scope with delicate, quiet acoustic passages interwoven with dynamic, and rigorous workouts with the band, which features Mario Pamisano (acoustic piano and synths), Gumbi Ortiz (percussion), Ernie Adams (drums) and the Sturcz String Quartet – Andras Sturcz (cello), Guyla Benko (viola), Gabor Csonka (1st violin) and Victor Uhzik (2nd violin.)
The DVD is not slickly produced with an overindulgent number of camera angles. Rather, it’s actually more intimate and immediate. Even the stage and light show are akin to what you might see at a small jazz festival, but in no way does it detract from what matters most – letting the music do the talking.
Fusion jazz can be very beautiful and very accessible to most casual music fans, since it can approximate the dramatic romance we often hear in film scores. Prettiness alone doesn’t make for great jazz, though, and while the band is not designed to mostly improvise, they do cut loose here and there. There’s some delightful improvisation between Di Meola and Gumbi Ortiz where they look at each other and dare the other to play along. You can tell how much fun they had. As the audience applauded, Ortiz looked over to Di Meola as if to say, come on, let’s keep this going. And they did. It was a welcome change from the other, more structured material.
Article comments
1 - godoggo
I've always liked Al, and I still pull out my old copy of Casino sometimes, but I really really really like the stuff he's been doing in recent years, since he discovered Astor Piazolla. His music has improved in every way, more creative, more sophisticated, more expressive, deeper.
2 - Paul Roy
Great review. Very visual. I might have to check this one out as it sounds like more of a band venture than his Montreux performances. I'm still dying to see a killer electric Di Meola show
3 - Triniman
When I saw him, I could have sworn he only played an acoustic guitar. But, he had the audience totally eating out of his hands.
Yea, by all means, check out this DVD.