It had been 35 years since Al Di Meola set foot in the valleys of Andorra to bring his fusion music to the Pyrenees. It was in 1988 and within the framework of the Andorra Escaldes-Engordany Jazz Festival, an event recently recovered that tonight, in its 39th edition, presents one of the best jazz guitarists in the Prat del Roure room (9:00 p.m.). who will perform in trio and acoustic format. The artist speaks to La Vanguardia from Naples, the country of his ancestors, where he is recording a new album that will not be released until the beginning of next year, although he will perform some songs at his concert this Friday, where perhaps some of the pieces that he has composed for the second part of Diabolic inventions, from 2006, with new versions by Astor Piazzola. Those who cannot go to see him in the mountains will have a second chance on July 3, when he will perform at the Tortosa Jazz Festival
The New Jersey musician’s previous studio work dates from 2020 and is titled Across the universe, a reinterpretation of Beatles songs like the one he already did in 2013. “The first one was just acoustic and I wanted to do another one with much more production , with drums, percussion, electric guitar and all the different instruments and keyboards”, explains the guitarist. “It’s a very different album from the previous one, which I’ve mostly worked on alone.” A work in which Al Di Meola’s own style is reflected, characterized by the fusion of styles in which he has developed his entire career. “As you get older you develop an instinct, you accumulate different influences, and this forms his own style. Everything, from the early Beatles to different jazz artists, exposing myself to flamenco and Paco [de Lucía]. I made great selections, and my first years with Chick Corea were a great, great influence, like later Piazzola and the Argentine tango”.
More recently, Saturday night at San Francisco has been released, an album that follows the mythical “Friday night…” published in 1981 and recorded live in 1980 with Paco de Lucía and John McLaughlin, an album that marked the career of Di Meola, at that time with 27 years. The new recording includes the concert held the night after, the last of the tour carried out by the fantastic guitar trio.
“The tapes were 45 years old, and they contained songs that were not on Friday night,” he explains, and remembers that if he did not publish them before, it was because he needed the approval of Paco de Lucía, who “was very busy.” But the covid arrived in 2020, and it was then that he called John to remind him that they had recorded Saturday night, something that the English guitarist had forgotten. “I told him, ‘Well, now is a good time before something happens to us,’” because “if something happens to any of us these tapes will never be played.” Di Meola explains that listening to that recording again “returned me to that time, it was something very exciting, the audience was different” and the album, like its older brother, was “all improvisation, the songs were minimal, 20% , while the improvised was 80%”.
The tour with Paco de Lucía marked a milestone in the mix of jazz and flamenco, a possible fusion because the Andalusian genre “is a music of traditional rhythms that forces you to play with harmony”, and when this game occurs, when you improvise through harmony, “that’s jazz”, he affirms, adding that between flamenco and jazz “there are many similarities in their cadences and the structure of the chords”. The person responsible for exploiting these links was the genius from Algeciras, who “had the courage to learn to improvise in the jazz way” with flamenco harmonies. “There are not many who have that value, it is very uncomfortable to leave your comfort zone and he did it, he felt comfortable expanding his own world.” Di Meola does not forget the rejection that De Lucía suffered among his own ranks, especially among critics, “but he always returned to his roots, he loved them more than anything, which is as it should be.”
Four decades later, the sound of the guitars seems to have lost influence in the face of electronics, something that does not worry Di Meola, since he is convinced that “the young generations will end up realizing that they cannot get away from the guitar completely”, while At the same time, it comforts him to see many young guitar talents on the internet, which lead him to affirm that “it is the most popular instrument in the world” if we except the human voice. The problem, he points out, is that the new generations “do not know what is real or what is not, nor do they care. They only want to listen to music and don’t have the patience to listen to something deeper”, a situation that they attribute to the excessive use of screens, “they live on mobile phones and have no space for attention”.
Another different problem is the one that the New Jersey musician drags: tinnitus. He has been suffering from this disease for a long time, an annoying ringing that affects him especially when he is near some loud sound, limiting him in concerts. “I can play the electric guitar but more softly and always controlling the speakers”, because if the sound is very loud the tinnitus is there “forever”, although he admits that “it is horrible” when he assaults him. Tonight, acoustically, he will enjoy and transmit peace.
