Label: earMUSIC Records
Release date:20.07.2018
Rating: 8.5 / 10
American guitar hero Al Di Meola, who put out the excellent studio album “Opus” at the start of 2018, gave jazz fusion fans another treat in July of that same year with the live album “Elegant Gypsy & More,” recorded during an electric-focused American tour. On that tour, Di Meola, who in his later years had sworn mostly by the acoustic guitar, picked up the electric again and, together with a new backing band, played some of the most beloved pieces from his colorful career at the confirmed tour dates.
Among the new musical collaborators on “Elegant Gypsy & More,” violinist Evan Garr especially stood out, often sharing solo spots with Al on this live document. It’s also commendable that the focus this time was on the whole instrumental collective and not just on Al’s fast-fingered guitar wizardry, as was often the case at his live shows over the past decade. True, Al’s new lineup had no famous name with decades of experience this time, but these are still musicians who know very well how to serve up jazz fusion at turbo speed.
Judging by the title alone, you can tell that the emphasis on that 2017 tour was on Al’s most revered album, “Elegant Gypsy” (1977), since exactly forty years had passed since its release. The recording opens with “One Night Last June,” a gem from “Kiss My Axe” (1991), which sets the tone for a passionate and remarkably varied live set. By his own account, Al wanted to prove once again on that tour that jazz fusion can be just as energetic, fun and punchy as (hard) rock, and he (once again) pulled it off completely. Among the nicest surprises on this live recording is a bravura version of “Senor Mouse,” a “Casino” (1978) classic that Al created long ago with his Return to Forever buddy Chick Corea, and which was once again played with exceptional fire.
Al clearly also wanted to back up his words about jazz fusion and (hard rock) being equals at creating a high-voltage atmosphere with a short adaptation of the Led Zeppelin evergreen “Black Dog,” where he and violinist Garr delivered an unusual but thoroughly entertaining live moment. The peaks of “Elegant Gypsy & More” were the passionate renditions of “Elegant Gypsy” classics “Flight Over Rio,” “Midnight Tango” and the closing bomb “Race With Devil On Spanish Highway,” between which Al deftly slipped in another “Casino” evergreen, “Egyptian Danza,” where the completely new take on the closing section, with its orientally flavored guitar-violin harmonies, was especially impressive.
“Elegant Gypsy & More” could easily have been recorded in the seventies, eighties, nineties or at the start of this century, because Al Di Meola is still as much of a master on electric guitar as he was more than four decades ago, while his band-oriented trip down memory lane to the unforgettable albums “Elegant Gypsy” and “Casino” comes out exactly the way fans of his life and work would want it. Al didn’t release many official live albums over his extensive musical career. “Elegant Gypsy & More” is only his seventh, and saying it’s his most interesting live document since the outstanding live debut “Tour De Force – Live” (1982) is by no means an exaggeration.
author: Peter Podbrežnik
Track list:
1 One Night Last June ( 9:11)
2 Senor Mouse (8:04)
3 Adour (7:42)
4 Babylon (7:38)
5 Chiquilin De Bachin (3:49)
6 Flight Over Rio (7:44)
7 Black Dog (1:32)
8 Midnight Tango (6:21)
9 Egyptian Danza (6:21)
10 Race With Devil On Spanish Highway (5:35)
Musicians:
Al Di Meola – guitar
Phil Magallanes – keyboards
Philippe Saisse – keyboards (tracks: 3, 7 & 10)
Elias Tona – bass guitar
Luis Alicea – drums
Gumbi Ortiz – percussion
Evan Carr – violin
