Al Di Meola – Melbourne Recital Centre for Melbourne International Jazz Festival
Review: Greg Phillips. Photos: Jason Rosewarne
Longtime Al Di Meola fans had waited more than four decades for the return of the guitar legend to our country and thanks to the 2022 Melbourne International Jazz Festival, we were able to experience the great man at a sold out show tonight at the Melbourne Recital Centre. As he told the audience, he was just a kid when he toured here last with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia.
Sitting centre stage with Spanish percussionist Sergio Martinez to his right and Indian Tabla master Amit Kavthekar to his left, the trio delighted the audience with their exotic rhythms and intuitive musicianship, performing a combination of new material, older classics and compositions from some of Di Meola’s major influences such as The Beatles and late great Tango master Astor Piazzolla.
Al Di Meola first made a name for himself as a fiery virtuoso playing electric guitar alongside Chick Corea in Return to Forever, however much of his career has focussed on his extraordinary classical guitar work. Tonight, an array of classical guitars sat behind him yet it seemed he was content to use only one for the duration.
Di Meola picks the strings with intent, each note ringing out with clarity, while his nimble fretboard runs possess a fluidity that few could match.The musical dialogue between the three on stage is mesmerising, as they watch, listen and act. Martinez and Kavthekar provide drone-like backing rhythms when appropriate, then when summoned by Al with a nod or side glance, the percussive volume and presence intensifies. An ill-timed whistle from the crowd momentarily breaks the concentration but only for a second as the hypnotic pulse continues.
Not only is Di Meola an elite musician, he’s also a great story teller and he has plenty of those tonight too. He relates the story of how he received a call from Chick Corea asking him try out to to join fusion super-group Return to Forever and initially didn’t believe it was Chick on the line. His father didn’t believe him either and when he told him he’d be playing Carnegie Hall in a few days, his father asked, “Who’s Chuck Corea!”
A theme running through the night is Di Meola’s love of the Beatles music. In the last few years he’s released two Beatles tribute albums, Across The Universe and All Your Life. A beautiful version of ‘Norwegian Wood’ is the first acknowledgement of the fab four tonight.
Al leaves the stage to recoup his thoughts, leaving Amit Kavthekar and Sergio Martinez to showcase their immense percussive skills. Martinez is an acclaimed teacher at Berklee College and Kavthekar, a maestro in Indian classical music.
Di Meola tells a story about the origins of his two Beatles tribute albums and how he recorded a few tracks at Abbey Road in London but needed to get away and work on arrangements of more Beatles tunes before returning to Abbey Road to finish the record. He randomly picked out a rental house in The Hamptons from the newspaper, only to find out that miraculously, his Hamptons neighbour was none other than Paul McCartney. A positive omen for his album if ever there was one. He then proceeds to perform a stunning version of Strawberry Fields Forever for us tonight.
One of Di Meola’s most celebrated albums is Friday Night in San Francisco, the live recording from 1981 with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia. Al tells the story of how tapes from the San Francisco weekend had been sitting in storage for over 40 years and it took the pandemic to realise that there was enough material from the second night of those concerts to release another live album, which became the recent release Saturday Night in San Francisco. John McLaughlin didn’t even remember playing a second night. Al follows the story by ending the night with a wonderful version of ‘Mediterranean Sundance’ from the Friday night album, originally from Al Di Meola’s 1977 album ‘Elegant Gypsy’.
A standing ovation ensues and deservedly so, a stunning performance of over two hours from the bona fide guitar legend is just what eager jazz festival fans needed after missing out on so much over the last couple of years. Al Di Meola now plays Brisbane tonight and Sydney on Thursday night but vows to return soon, much sooner than 40 years he promises.
https://www.melbournejazz.com/
