Al Di Meola The Elegant Gypsy 40th Anniversary tour... saw him last night
at a 928 seat hall, a beautiful venue with very nice acoustics. Here's how
the show went down.
The whole band came out just past starting time and and played a very intense
first set of electric standards from Di Meola's solo masterpiece, Elegant Gypsy,
his new Elysium (got him back into electric touring) and RTF's Romantic Warrior.
Having listened to him for over 40 years, still unprepared for his viruosity, speed
and and 'lick kill'. He has been awarded by Guitar Mag 9 times and is considered
one of the best in the fusion genre. The band was without percussionist Ortiz,
but the keyboard, fx-bassist-violionist extrordinaire and drummer were great
to say the least. Without the percussionist they were more streamlined and their
read on Romantic Warrior's Medieval Overture, a progressive-fusion jamjest was
incredible. After the break he went into an acoustic set that showed another side
of his immense talent, told a story about recording in Abbey Road studios a few
yrs ago during some free time between gigs and performed some reworked
Beatles tunes... an incredible 15 minutes this was. Back to the final electric set
where they performed Black Dog with the violinist laying down stringed Plant vocals
while dueling with guitarist Al Di Meola, moving on through some very heavy fusion
and encoring with the classic Race With The Devil Down The Spanish Highway.
Di Meola was one of the classiest musicians ever, charm, passion, and an ear
for his audience, genuine guy. He is 62 going on 40. Most of the night he played
his '59 Gibson ES blackie. We were very close to the stage and it was prob the
most intense, electrifying 2 hr show I have seen since King Crimson in 2003.
Thanks for reading and good listening...
