Song:Beyond The Mirage
Album:The Guitar Trio
Al Di Meola started out as a jazz fusion guitar whiz with Return To Forever in the 70s and later turned to acoustic guitar. He has recorded three albums with jazz guitar legend John McLaughlin and flamenco guitar legend Paco De Lucia including this 1995 CD The Guitar Trio. Di Meola was born July 22, 1954 in Jersey City, NJ. He was attending Berklee School of Music in Boston when in 1974 he was picked to replace Bill Connors in Return To Forever. Di Meola played on three RTF albums including the very successful 1976 album Romantic Warrior. Then he left to go solo and signed with Columbia Records. His debut album Land Of The Midnight Sun was very successful and Di Meola became known for his electric guitar virtuosity. At the time, McLaughlin was also signed to Columbia. He formed an acoustic guitar trio with De Lucia and Larry Coryell in 1979. They toured Europe and recorded the 1981 album Castro Marin. Then Coryell left and was replaced by Di Meola. This new trio recorded the very successful 1981 album Friday Night In San Francisco followed by the 1983 album Passion, Grace and Fire. Di Meola left Columbia in 1983 and recorded for Manhattan-EMI, Tomato and Atlantic. He reunited with De Lucia and McLaughlin for the 1995 CD The Guitar Trio on Verve. McLaughlin was on Verve at the time. Beyond The Mirage was written by Di Meola and he also recorded it on his first CD for Telarc The Infinite Desire in 1998. Fans of guitar virtuosity should check out The Guitar Trio. Though Di Meola still occasionally plays electric guitar, he prefers acoustic guitar. He is currently signed to Concord and his latest CD Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody was released Apr. 2011. Here's Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin performing Beyond The Mirage at the Audi Jazz Festival in Brussels, Belgium 1996.
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