Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar (Volume 1, Music of Astor Piazzolla) Al Di Meola

• 1 Campero 04:50
• 2 Poema Valseado 04:27
• 3 Tangata El Alba 05:18
• 4 Adios Nonino 04:52
• 5 Tema De Maria 06:00
• 6 Milonga Del Angel 04:58
• 7 Romantico 04:35
• 8 Milonga Carrieguera 03:09
• Total Runtime 38:09

Info zu Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar (Volume 1, Music of Astor Piazzolla)

Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar, Vol. 1: Music of Astor Piazzolla is an album by Italian-American jazz fusion and Latin jazz guitarist Al Di Meola.

Al Di Meola's personal desire for this music in this solo guitar context was to bring his own vision by incorporating a syncopated rhythm concept unlike its original written conception.

His friendship with Astor Piazzolla proved to be a turning point in his life. Astor encouraged him to bring to Astor's music his own voice and expression.

Through their many conversations, Astor described his music as "diabolic", referring to the radical departure from the standard Tango music of the past. For that, Astor faced adverse reaction due to its mix of contemporary musical elements, while breaking all the rules and radically advancing this music into the future.

Like most musical innovators, Astor faced periods of intense criticism. After a lengthy period of exile, the tango purists finally accepted and heralded Astor's depth of work and he returned to Argentnia as hero.

"There’s something about the beginning of an Al Di Meola album that always takes my breath away. The brainbox knows he’s a brilliant guitarist who’s full of surprises and yet somehow, unexpectedly, miraculously, I’m surprised by his genius and agility anew. That’s how I feel every time I hear the opening “Campero” from his latest, Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar. Di Meola is here taking eight Astor Piazzolla tracks and interpreting them in his own idiom. Apparently. What I know about Astor Piazzolla would fit on the head of a very modest pin. Piazolla is a modern tango composer from Argentina, which I can find on the map, and that’s about it. So if you want a deeper discussion, look for one of those wanky writers who talk about “tone” like it’s a secret code word for something other than “sound.” Tango, seduction and diabolic detours have long been a part of Di Meola’s landscape, so fans shouldn’t be surprised to find themselves at the foot of Mount Piazzolla, gazing in awe. Yet Diabolic Inventions is a different artistic statement than earlier albums, a self-portrait of the artist as both passionate student and patient teacher. Clothed in contrarian rhythms, drunk with energy, Piazzolla’s work reels from seductive to unstable. Fascinating stuff, though my jaded ears begin to fence each subsequent song in as just another tango, the initial wonder at the delicious subversion of it all yielding to mild seduction. That’s not to suggest this is a romantic album; anyone attempting to make love to it is likely to sprain something. It’s more about being seduced by the musical possibilities of the tango, which has long been at the heart of Di Meola’s muse."

"Too some, Al di Meola is best known for is shredding guitar work as part of Return to Forever, and also his early solo albums. But di Meola has always had an interest in flamenco styled acoustic playing ("Mediterranean Sundance" off of Elegant Gypsy, anyone?) -- which is the six-string style that he fully embraces on his 2007 release, Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar, Vol. 1: Music of Astor Piazzolla. Like its title says, the album is comprised solely of renditions of tunes by Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla, who is best known for trailblazing the nuevo tango style (which contained traces of both jazz and classical). And di Meola has no problem offering up a fine tribute, especially on such tracks as "Campero" and "Romantico." With Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar, one of the world's most technically gifted guitarists proves once and for all that he is also one of the most versatile, as well." (Greg Prato, AMG)

Al Di Meola, guitar, hand clapping, djembe skins
Hernan Romero, cahon, handclapping, djembe skins

Recorded in January 2006 at the Di Meola 201 Studios
Engineered by Rich Tozzoli, Lester Lovell and Katsuhiko Naito
Mixed and mastered by Katsuhiko Naito
Produced by Al Di Meola and Bernhard Rössle

Al Di Meola
Di Meola's ongoing fascination with complex rhythmic syncopation combined with provocative lyrical melodies and sophisticated harmony has been at the heart of his music throughout a celebrated career that has spanned four decades and earned him critical accolades, three gold albums and more than six million in record sales worldwide. A bona fide guitar hero, perennial poll-winner, and prolific composer, he has amassed over 20 albums as a leader while collaborating on a dozen or so others with the likes of the fusion supergroup Return to Forever (with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White), the celebrated acoustic Guitar Trio featuring fellow virtuosos John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia, and the Rite of Strings trio with bassist Clarke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. And while his dazzling technique on both acoustic and electric guitars has afforded him regal status among the hordes of fretboard fanatics who regularly flock to his concerts, the depth of Di Meola's writing along with the soulfulness and the inherent lyricism of his guitaristic expression have won him legions of fans worldwide beyond the guitar aficionado set. ​

A pioneer of blending world music and jazz, going back to early Latin-tinged fusion outings like 1976's Land of the Midnight Sun, 1977's Elegant Gypsy and 1978's Casino, the guitar great continues to explore the rich influence of flamenco, tango, Middle Eastern, Brazilian and African music with his World Sinfonia, an ambitious pan-global group that he formed in 1991. Their exhilarating world music fusion has been documented on such releases as 2000’s The Grande Passion (featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra), 2007’s Live in London, 2011’s Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody and the stunning 2012 DVD, Morocco Fantasia (recorded at the Mawazine Festival in Rabat, Morocco and featuring special guests Said Chraibi on oud, Abdellah Meri on violin and Tari Ben Ali on percussion). ​

Growing up in Bergenfield, NJ with the music of Elvis Presley, The Ventures and The Beatles, Di Meola naturally gravitated to guitar as a youngster and by his early teens was already an accomplished player. Attaining such impressive skills at such a young age didn't come easy for Al, but rather was the result of focused dedication and intensive periods of woodshedding between his junior and senior years in high school. “I used to practice the guitar eight to ten hours a day,” he told Down Beat. “And I was trying to find myself, or find the kind of music that suited where I was going with the guitar.” ​

His earliest role models in jazz included guitarists Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell. But when he discovered Larry Coryell, whom Al would later dub “The Godfather of Fusion,” he was taken with the guitarist's unprecedented blending of jazz, blues and rock into one seamless vocabulary on the instrument. “I used to ride the bus from New Jersey to see him at little clubs in Greenwich Village,” he recalls. “Wherever he was playing, I'd be there.” In 1972, Al enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and by the second semester there began playing in a fusion quartet led by keyboardist Barry Miles. When a gig tape of that band was later passed on to Chick Corea by a friend of Al's in 1974, the 19-year-old guitarist was tapped to join Corea’s fusion supergroup Return to Forever as a replacement for guitarist Bill Connors. After three landmark recordings with Return to Forever -- 1974's Where Have I Known You Before, 1975's Grammy Award winning No Mystery and 1976's Romantic Warrior -- the group disbanded and Al subsequently started up his career as a solo artist. His 1976 debut as a leader, Land of the Midnight Sun, was a blazing showcase of his signature chops and Latintinged compositions that featured a stellar cast including drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, bassist Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius, keyboardists Jan Hammer, Barry Miles and Chick Corea and percussionist Mingo Lewis. Over the course of six more albums with Columbia Records – Elegant Gypsy, Casino, Splendido Hotel, Electric Rendezvous, Tour De Force and Scenario – Al established himself as an influential force in contemporary music. 1980 marked the triumph of the acoustic guitar trio with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin. Their debut recording on Columbia Records, Friday Night in San Francisco, became a landmark recording that surpassed the four million mark in sales. The following year, 1981, Di Meola was inducted into Guitar Player’s Gallery of Greats after five consecutive wins as Best Jazz Guitarist in the magazine’s Readers Poll and winning best album and acoustic guitarist for a total of a record eleven wins. The three virtuosos in the trio toured together from 1980 through 1983, releasing the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire in 1982. In 1995, they reunited for a third recording, Guitar Trio, follow by another triumphant world tour.

In early 1996, Di Meola formed a new trio with the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and RTF bandmate Stanley Clarke called The Rite of Strings. Their self-titled debut was released in 1995. Di Meola subsequently recorded with the likes of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, pop stars Paul Simon, classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco, and Italian pop star Pino Daniele. Over the course of his career, he has also worked and recorded with Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Steve Winwood, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Milton Naciemento, Egberto Gismonti, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. ​

Di Meola’s 2013 release All Your Life was an acoustic tour de force that had him revisiting the music of a seminal influence – The Beatles. “I really credit the Beatles for the reason why I play guitar,” he says. “That was a major catalyst for me to want to learn music, so their impact was pretty strong.” A virtual one-man show of virtuosity, it features the guitar great interpreting 14 familiar Beatles tunes in the stripped-down setting of strictly acoustic guitar. ​

In 2015 he released Elysium, which finds the guitar great blending the lush tones of his nylon string Conde Hermanos acoustic prototype model and a ’71 Les Paul electric (his Return to Forever and Elegant Gypsy axe) in a collection of songs that are at once invigorating and alluring. “It represents a new composition phase for me, whereby the writing became, in a sense, my therapy during a challenging personal transition in my life," he said. In the same year he was honored as the 22nd recipient of the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Miles Davis Award, created in 1994 to honor a great international jazz musician for the entire body of his or her work and for that musician’s influence in regenerating the jazz idiom. ​

2018 marked a new era for Al Di Meola: His first of six signed projects with German record label ear music, “OPUS” was released in March. The Grammy award winning virtuoso says: “With Opus I wanted to further my compositional skills as I think that the evolution of this part of my persona has labelled me more composer/guitarist than guitarist/composer. For the first time in my life, I have written music being happy, I’m in a wonderful relationship with my wife, I have a baby girl and a beautiful family that inspires me every day. I believe it shows in the music.” In July 2018 Di Meola received the Honorary Doctorate Degree of Music of his former alma mater Berklee School of Music. ​

A retrospective of Al Di Meola’s nearly 50 year acclaimed career is expressed through his latest Ear Music release of March 2020 “ACROSS THE UNIVERSE” with his virtuosic arrangements and creative interpretations of 14 Beatles songs with lightning speed electric guitar orchestrations balanced with lavish acoustic arrangements.

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