Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Di Meola, Al
Label: Ear Music Records
Release: 2018
Runtime: 58:28
Rating: 4/5
Al Di Meola, the American jazz-fusion guitar grandmaster who first wowed audiences as a member of the legendary Return to Forever before building an outstanding solo career, is back with a new studio album, »Opus«, featuring eleven new compositions and released on earMusic, a label fairly well known among fans of experimental music. Al wrote every composition on »Opus« without any outside help, played all the arrangements on acoustic guitar himself, and also threw in a few very pleasant touches on electric guitar.
»Opus« is a decidedly intimate album with a heap of classically minded arrangements, where jazz, flamenco and classical music mostly join hands, while Di Meola occasionally switches over to electric guitar, although on most of the pieces it’s his ‘working over’ of the acoustic strings that rules. On the opening piece »Milonga Noctiva« Al quickly conjures up an intimate mood, which he blends successfully with gorgeous symphonic arrangements directed by guest keyboardist Kemuel Roig, who did a superb job with the extra orchestration wherever it suited the atmosphere best.
Richie Morales handled the drums and percussion, which create a colorful backdrop for Al’s strongly guitar-driven compositions with their occasional symphonic embellishments. Even in 2018, Al is still an astonishingly fast guitar virtuoso, and in that respect he seems ‘frozen in time,’ which goes for his looks too, since he’s barely changed over the past forty years. This time he doesn’t overdo the ‘supersonic’ moments and prefers to go for quieter, subtler ones, so with its mostly mellow nature »Opus« works for pretty much any listening occasion.
The ten-minute eclectic dance »Ava’s Dream Sequnce Lullaby« is one of the rare moments on »Opus« where you get the feeling you’re hearing a band rather than the product of a single musician. That happens again on »Cerreto Sannita«, the next of the two tracks where keyboardist Roig pitched in with orchestration and some seriously tasteful piano soloing. As you’d expect from a Di Meola solo creation, there’s no shortage of eclectic moments on »Opus«. Among the most interesting highlights are undoubtedly the dramatic jazz-funk-latino hybrid »Notorius«, the ethereal »Frozen in Time« and the latino jazz gem »Escapado«.
With »Opus«, Mr. Di Meola, who recently surprised people by saying that for the first time in his career he made an album while in a good mood, has delivered a lovely, suitably eclectic and mostly acoustic album. He doesn’t show off any great innovation here, but he’s still proved once again that after all these decades of diligent solo work and countless side and guest projects, he’s far from ‘past it’ and remains one of the key names of the jazz fusion scene. The fact is, Al is aging like ‘fine wine.’
Lineup
Al Di Meola – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar, percussion, drums, additional orchestration
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Kemuel Roig – keyboards, orchestration
Richie Morales – drums
Dario Eskanazi – keyboards, orchestration
Production
Al Di Meola
Track list
1.Milonga Noctiva: Wandering in the Dark (feat. Kemuel Roig)
2. Broken Heart
3. Ava’s Dream Sequence Lullaby
4. Cerreto Sannita (feat. Kemuel Roig)
5. Notorious
6. Frozen In Time
7. Escapado
8. Pomp
9. Left Unsaid
10. Insieme
11. Rebels (feat. Kemuel Roig)
