Al's Bio:

His status as a guitar hero is undisputed. A world renowned chopmeister who has been feted in the pages of countless guitar magazines over the past three decades. A plecotrist of uncommon passion and uncanny facility, Di Meola first exploded onto the music scene in 1974 with Return to Forever, the premier fusion band of the '70s. He established himself as a bandleader in his own right with a series of exhilarating albums and tours through the '70s and early '80s. His composerly vision matured and blossomed through the '80s - this time-period included a couple of recordings and triumphant tours with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia in an acoustic guitar supergroup known as The Trio - and he has remained a creative force in the '90s, eager to explore music from other cultures while staying true to his own muse.

"Over the years I've tried to keep the fire in the music but also have enough melody and interesting harmony to give it real meaning," Di Meola explains. "Composing is painful in that you have to avoid the obvious and somehow rediscover yourself. The easiest thing would be to use the same chord and progressions of the past. It's much more satisfying to dig down and come up with something new that has deep meaning for you."

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on July 22, 1954, Di Meola grew up with the music of The Ventures, The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Drums were his first instrument, but by age eight he had switched to guitar. By his early teens, Al was already an accomplished player, though he felt somewhat ostracized from the local clique of musicians. "In the '60s, if you didn't play like Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page, you weren't accepted," he recalls of his high school years in Bergenfield, New Jersey. "So I was never really accepted by that group of so-called friends in Bergenfield because they didn't know what to make of my style. Even though I wanted to learn Beatles and Ventures music when I began taking lessons, my teacher (Bob Aslanian) also made me learn jazz and bossa nova and a little classical, so I had all this technique that my friends couldn't understand. It never fit the kind of music that they were playing. They were interested in my technique but at the same time they were jealous of it."

A big influence on his music outlook during his formative years was the burgeoning hybrid of rock and jazz that came to be known as fusion music. Guitarist Larry Coryell, whom Al later dubbed 'The Father of Fusion,' became a particular focus of interest. "I used to ride the bus from New Jersey to see him play at little clubs in Greenwich Village," he recalls. "Wherever he was playing, I'd be there."

Following an intensive period of woodshedding between his junior and senior years in high school, in which he practiced the guitar from eight to ten hours a day, Al emerged with impressive chops and a clear idea of how to apply them. "I was trying to find myself, or find the kind of music that suited where I was going with the guitar," he told Down Beat. "I had grown up on rock and loved it but found it a very limited kind of music for expansion on your instrument. I started listening to bluegrass, especially Doc Watson, which really helped me develop my speed. I really dug Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell at the time but I also knew that it wasn't what I ultimately wanted to do. I wanted to do something new, something nobody was doing."

In 1971, Al enrolled at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. By the second semester, he was playing in a fusion quartet led by keyboardist Barry Miles. It was in the early part of 1974 that he recieved the fateful call from Chick Corea. "I was just sitting around my apartment in Boston on a Friday afternoon when Chick called and asked me to come to a rehearsal in New York," he recalls. "I couldn't believe it. It was really a dream come true. In 10 minutes I packed some clothes in a bag, got a ride to New York and never saw that apartment in Boston again."

Following a weekend of rehearsals with that band, Return to Forever, Di Meola made his debut with RTF at Carnegie Hall. The next night he played to a crowd of 40.000 in Atlanta. His star quickly ascended.

After three wildly successful landmark fusion albums with Corea on keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass, Lenny White on drums and Di Meola on guitar - Where Have I Known You Before, the Grammy Award winning No Mystery and Romantic Warrior - RTF disbanded in 1976, effectively launching Al's solo career. He called the breakup a blessing in disguise. "It was probably for the best because we each got a chance to develop our own careers and get to know what it was like to be a leader and producer and just be out on our own."

He debuted in 1976 with Land Of The Midnight Sun, a typically blazing showcase of his frenetic, slashing style which also featured performances by drummers Leny White and Steve Gadd, percussionist Mingo Lewis, synth wizards Jan Hammer and Barry Miles, bassists Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius. Over the course of six more albums with Columbia Records - Casino, Elegant Gypsy, Splendido Hotel, Electric Rendezvous, Tour De Force and Scenario - Di Meola firmly established himself as a powerful and influential force in contemporary music. He went on to record a string of highly evocative, pan-global projects for the Manhattan/EMI, Tomato and Mesa/Bluemoon labels before signing with Telarc. His 17 records have sold over six million copies to date.

Di Meola continues to conquer new musical horizons on The Infinite Desire, which features his most extensive and effective use of midi technology to date. And wether he's triggering orchestral layers of rich sampled sounds or dealing with the acoustic purity of flesh and fingers on nylon strings, he still approaches his ax with uncommon conviction. At age 44, this bonafide guitar hero is still growing as an artist, still searching for new modes of expression, still eager to push the envelope on his astounding technique while bringing a new depth of feeling to bear in his playing, as he does so successfully on The Infinite Desire.

Discography:
1976 LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
1976 LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
1977 March ELEGANT GYPSY
1978 April CASINO
1980 June SPLENDIDO HOTEL
1980 Roller Jubilee
1980 Spanish Eyes
1981 FRIDAY NIGHT IN SAN FRANCISCO
1982 January ELECTRIC RENDEZVOUS
1982 TOUR DE FORCE - "LIVE"
1983 PASSION GRACE & FIRE
1983 September SCENARIO
1983 Sequencer
1985 CIELO E TERRA
1985 July
1986 SOARING THROUGH A DREAM
1987 TIRAMI SU
1991 August WORLD SINFONIA
1991 November KISS MY AXE
1992 THE BEST OF AL DIMEOLA
1993 HEART OF THE IMMIGRANTS
1994 ORANGE AND BLUE
1994 THE ESSENCE OF AL DI MEOLA
1995 THE RITE OF STRINGS
1996 THE GUITAR TRIO
1997 THIS IS JAZZ 31
1998 August 25 INFINITE DESIRE
1999 September XMAS: WINTER NIGHTS
1999 October 18 COLLECTION
2000 October 24 GRANDE PASSION
2000 ANTHOLOGY
2002 September 30 FLESH ON FLESH
2003 July 29 REVISITED

Official Site: www.aldimeola.com