Al Di Meola – Innamorata
2004
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Best comment
“Too dang good! How great can one artist be? It's overkill! Less is more, man! Dang!”
The story
Eleven and a half minutes of a man playing guitar like his fingers are on a deadline. This is the opening number from One of These Nights, a concert Al Di Meola played in Ludwigsburg, Germany, on May 17, 2004, later put out on DVD. Nobody stands up. There are no light shows. Di Meola only talks to introduce the band. The music does all the work.
The band is small and stacked: Mario Parmisano on piano and synths, Ernie Adams on drums, Gumbi Ortiz on percussion, plus a string quartet from Hungary sawing away behind them. Innamorata first showed up on Flesh on Flesh, his 2002 album for Telarc, and live it builds and builds until one reviewer heard echoes of the Mahavishnu Orchestra at the peak. All About Jazz called the whole disc hard to fault and singled out the strings as a major pleasure.
Di Meola made his name as a jazz fusion guitarist with very fast hands. Here he goes for chamber jazz with a Latin pulse and a little symphonic rock muscle. Pull up a chair. Stay a while.
