Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. He is known for his work in jazz fusion and world music. He had a major success after joining Chick Corea's Return to Forever group in 1974. In 1976, he began a successful and highly praised solo career, recognized for his skilled techniques, complex music, and exploration of Latin music. Notable works include Elegant Gypsy, his collaboration on Friday Night in San Francisco, and the World Sinfonia trilogy.
A graduate of Berklee College of Music and a Grammy Award winner, Di Meola's career includes collaborations with musicians such as Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Larry Coryell, Steve Winwood, Jaco Pastorius, Paco de Lucía, Bill Bruford, John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Vai, and others.
Early life
Al Di Meola was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, into an Italian family with origins in Cerreto Sannita, a small town located northeast of Benevento. He grew up in Bergenfield, where he attended Bergenfield High School. He has lived in Old Tappan, New Jersey, for many years.
When Di Meola was eight years old, he discovered the music of Elvis Presley and the Ventures, which inspired him to begin playing the guitar. However, hearing The Beatles for the first time made him decide he wanted to become a musician. His older sister introduced him to The Beatles during their family’s 1963 Christmas celebration, when they listened to the Meet the Beatles! album. "Listening to that album really changed my life," Di Meola said. Watching The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show two months later further strengthened his desire to pursue music. Di Meola began taking guitar lessons from Robert "Bob" Aslanian, who taught him jazz standards, music theory, and reading music. "He was my biggest influence," Di Meola said about his first teacher. As a teenager, he practiced the guitar for eight to ten hours each day.
By the late 1960s, Di Meola became aware of the growing popularity of rock music. He admired British rock bands like The Rolling Stones and The Who, as well as American rock groups from California, such as The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and bands from the Bay Area psychedelic rock scene, including Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead. "I loved all those bands," he said.
A specific group from San Francisco, Santana, had a strong influence on Di Meola during his childhood, he said.
Another important experience in his early life occurred when he felt left out in high school due to his unusual playing style. He explained:
Although he admired rock musicians like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Carlos Santana from the late 1960s and early 1970s, he did not see them as role models. "I never thought of the rock players as having good technique," he said. Instead, Di Meola was inspired by jazz guitarists such as George Benson, Tal Farlow, and Kenny Burrell, as well as country guitarists like Clarence White and Doc Watson. His musical direction became clear when he was exposed to jazz rock pioneers Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin. Di Meola said Coryell’s "unique approach" gave him the "confidence to continue in my direction." Seeing Coryell and other jazz musicians perform live in New York City was "a real thrill" and "a turning point" for him. He praised McLaughlin as "the first guitarist I heard to combine tremendous emotion with incredible technique."
Career
Al Di Meola attended Berklee College of Music in 1971. While there, he practiced up to eight hours each day. At nineteen, he was hired by Chick Corea to join the important jazz fusion group Return to Forever, replacing Bill Connors. The group included Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. Di Meola said:
Di Meola compared Corea's band to John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, the group that inspired Corea to make Return to Forever's music more rock-like and energetic. He stated:
His two-year time with Return to Forever was the group's most successful period. He recorded three albums with the band, which helped them achieve their greatest commercial success. All three albums reached the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard pop albums chart.
The title track of the album No Mystery won a Grammy for Best Jazz Performance by a Group. However, the band did not attend the event because they believed they would not win. Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald presented the award.
Di Meola recorded with Larry Coryell on Lenny White's solo album Venusian Summer (1975). On the album's final track, "Prince of the Sea," Di Meola and Coryell took turns playing solos. Fans were unsure who played which part. Coryell said this was the only time he and Di Meola performed together using electric guitars.
In early 1976, Return to Forever released the album Romantic Warrior. It debuted at number 170 on the Billboard charts and reached number 35 in May. The album spent three weeks on the Billboard Top 40 and 15 weeks on the Billboard 200. Fourteen years later, it received a gold RIAA certification for selling over 500,000 copies. The album was seen as Chick Corea's response to Rick Wakeman's The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975), either because of its medieval themes or its prog rock style.
When Return to Forever was at its peak, Chick Corea decided to end the group. The main reason was the other members' involvement in side projects. White, Clarke, and Di Meola were already working on their own music, with their labels and management supporting their new careers, which may have slowed the group's progress.
Corea's connection to Scientology might have also contributed to the group's end. Band members avoided discussing the topic, though Clarke leaving Scientology at the time could have influenced the decision.
As Return to Forever disbanded around 1976, Di Meola released his first solo album, Land of the Midnight Sun (1976). Former members of Return to Forever and new bassist Jaco Pastorius helped with the recording. Early in his career, Di Meola was known for his fast, complex guitar solos and compositions. He also explored Mediterranean cultures and acoustic styles like flamenco and classical guitar.
To promote his second album, Elegant Gypsy (1977), Di Meola toured the United States with Weather Report, where Jaco Pastorius had joined the band. Both Elegant Gypsy and Weather Report's Heavy Weather were released the same week on Columbia Records. The label heavily promoted the tour, which was successful with sold-out shows. Elegant Gypsy reached number 5 on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart, number 58 on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart, and eventually went gold.
From 1976 to 1978, Di Meola played with Stomu Yamashta in the supergroup Go on three records.
Di Meola's final solo album of the 1970s, Casino (1978), included the song "Egyptian Danza," which combined ancient and modern Egyptian influences with Middle Eastern themes and Latin congas.
In 1980, Di Meola released the double album Splendido Hotel, recorded throughout 1979.
Soon after, Di Meola and Paco de Lucía were invited to tour with Leo Kottke. A better opportunity arose: a two-month European tour with John McLaughlin. Di Meola became friends with Paco but did not grow close to McLaughlin. Di Meola said McLaughlin was very competitive and feared being replaced as the top fusion guitarist. "It was like going into a boxing match and he's out to kill you," Di Meola said. Their rivalry benefited the audience.
In 1980, Di Meola recorded the popular live album Friday Night in San Francisco with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. The album sold seven million copies worldwide.
The trio reunited in 1982 to record the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire (1983). In the Spanish remaster of the album, flamenco scholars José Manuel Gamboa and Faustino Nuñez shared their thoughts on the liner notes. While less warm than their live debut, Passion, Grace & Fire was a more balanced effort. Each performer contributed two compositions.
In 1982, Di Meola released his first live album, Tour De Force. It featured former Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist Jan Hammer, along with sidemen Anthony Jackson, Mingo Lewis, and Steve Gadd. The album included a previously unreleased Di Meola track ("Nena") and two Hammer compositions, "Advantage" and "Cruisin'" from Electric Rendezvous. The studio version of "Cruisin'" was marketed as a single.
After touring for ten years, Di Meola took a break in 1984. He felt he had reached a dead end in his career, both with his fusion work and the acoustic trio. He said:
Around this time, Di Meola left Columbia Records. His next three albums were released on Manhattan Records.
Di Meola produced Magic Touch (1985), Stanley Jordan's Blue Note debut. The album spent 51 weeks at number 1 on Billboard's jazz chart and went gold nearly 20 years after its release. It received Grammy nominations in two categories: Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Soloist and Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Vocal or Instrumental. Di Meola said Stanley Jordan had a "phenomenal" approach to guitar tapping, taking it "into
Personal life
When Di Meola was a child, he suffered a head injury that caused tinnitus, a condition that makes ringing sounds in the ears. His work with the band Return to Forever during tours made the ringing worse over time. Although he did not lose any hearing, he still experiences the ringing, which is common with tinnitus. His ability to hear very high sounds was also affected.
Di Meola grew up in middle-class New Jersey, which he described as an ideal place to grow up. Living near New York City allowed him to visit record stores and music clubs easily. He often attended concerts, including shows at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East in Greenwich Village, where he saw rock bands regularly. He also visited jazz and Latin music clubs in New York City, where he listened to music and learned from it.
In July 2016, Di Meola married Stephanie Kreis. They met after one of his concerts in Budapest in 2013. He has two daughters, Oriana and Valentina, from previous marriages. He also has a daughter, Ava, with Stephanie. Additionally, he is the grandfather of Valentina’s son, Orion.
Starting in 2019, Di Meola and his family created the A Fine Taste and Music house events. The idea began after a dinner with friends, when Di Meola suggested livestreaming himself cooking a special Italian dish. He joked with viewers that they could attend a live dinner with him. Surprisingly, people from many countries, including Africa, Asia, and South America, asked about the cost of these events. The Di Meolas held 10 dinners before pausing the events due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stephanie Di Meola created three packages for A Fine Taste. The highest package, called the "Diamond" plan, includes dinner, a private concert, and a jam session where guests can play on one of Di Meola’s famous guitars. These guitars include his black '71 Les Paul Custom from his time with Return to Forever and the ‘59 Les Paul he used in Kiss My Axe. The concert includes songs from his solo albums, Beatles songs, and new material. Di Meola explained that these events let him test new music for fans and give fans the chance to hear it first.
In September 2023, Di Meola had a heart attack during a concert in Bucharest, Romania. He was treated in a local hospital for a condition called ST elevation myocardial infarction. Events from his "The Electric Years" tour, such as his appearance at Brazil’s Rio Montreaux Jazz Festival, were canceled. He took time off from performing but returned to concerts in January 2024.
Artistry
By 1978, when Di Meola was recording the album Casino, he described his music as a mix of Latin rhythms and "beautiful romantic Italian melodies." His rock 'n' roll background gave his music energy, and his love for jazz made his compositions more complex.
Although blues was a key part of 1960s and 1970s music styles like psychedelic, British blues, and hard rock, Di Meola did not like the genre. He said that even though he enjoyed rock 'n' roll, his lessons with Bob Aslanian made him feel different from others in the growing rock scene.
Di Meola is known for using musical scales from non-Western traditions in his compositions. For example, the opening track of Casino, "Egyptian Danza," uses a Phrygian dominant scale. Around that time, he also used elements of the Dorian, Mixolydian, and Locrian scales in his playing.
A key feature of Di Meola's style is his fast and precise alternate picking technique. He once said he wanted to be the fastest guitarist in the world. However, by the mid-1980s, he changed his mind. He explained that speed was no longer his main goal. Instead, he focused on the meaning of the music he played.
Another important part of his style is palm muting. In an interview with Rick Beato, Di Meola explained how he developed this technique. He said he started muting his strings to avoid disturbing neighbors. Over time, he found that this technique helped create a clear, popping sound.
Di Meola often uses palm muting when playing the electric guitar. However, he does not use whammy bars much. His 1971 black Les Paul guitar, used in his early solo recordings, originally had a Bigsby tremolo system, which he removed due to tuning problems and a loss of tone and sustain. In the 1980s, he used a PRS solid-body guitar with a tremolo system but later stopped using it, saying he was "afraid of comparisons to other players."
Di Meola believes it is important to pick every note individually. He avoids techniques like sweep picking and hammer-ons, which he calls "shortcuts." He thinks these methods are not helpful for playing complex music. This makes his style different from blues guitarists, who often use hammer-ons and pull-offs. It also sets him apart from the 1980s shred guitar movement, which relied heavily on sweep picking.
In a 1992 interview with Downbeat magazine, Di Meola criticized tapping, a technique popularized by Eddie Van Halen. He called it a form of "cheating" because it can make a guitarist sound fast without actually being fast. He also noted that tapping is less useful on acoustic guitars because classical guitars lack the sustain of electric guitars. However, examples like Van Halen’s "Spanish Fly" and Michael Hedges’ work show that tapping can work well on acoustic instruments.
Di Meola is skilled in crosspicking, a technique that combines arpeggios with string skipping. An example of this is "Vertigo Shadow" from the album Cielo e Terra, which is played in a 7/8 meter.
Critics sometimes say Di Meola’s music lacks emotion and depth. They describe him as a "textbook case" of what was wrong with fusion guitarists, saying he focused too much on showing off technical skill rather than drawing from jazz. In February 1981, Jazz Journal criticized a trio performance by Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucía at the Royal Albert Hall, calling it a "structureless amalgam of crudely connected passages" and saying Di Meola made "virtuosity seem like a severe handicap."
Some have also called his rock 'n' roll playing "clinical," "cold," or "soulless." Gary Moore, a famous guitarist from Thin Lizzy, admired Di Meola but once said in a 1983 interview with Music U.K. that Di Meola’s style lacked warmth.
Di Meola defended himself against these criticisms. He said that critics misunderstood his approach to music. John McLaughlin accused Di Meola of ignoring American musical influences and "playing cultural hopscotch" in the track "Egyptian Danza" from the Casino album.
Legacy
Di Meola inspired many famous guitarists in hard rock and heavy metal. These include Paul Gilbert of Mr. Big, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme, and John Petrucci of Dream Theater. Randy Rhoads, the late guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, once said Di Meola was his favorite guitarist. Other well-known musicians, such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and Jason Becker, also praised Di Meola. In 1987, Tony MacAlpine said, "Di Meola was incredible. His sound and style left a strong impression on me."
Di Meola's influence also reached other music genres. Steve Lukather, a guitarist for Toto and a session musician, said Di Meola's "sound and style […] smacked me in the face." Alongside John McLaughlin, Di Meola was one of 12 guitarists who helped shape Lukather's playing style.
Di Meola was honored five times in the "Gallery of the Greats" by Guitar Player magazine, winning in one or more categories of its Annual Readers Poll. He has received 14 awards across four categories: "New Talent" (1975), "Jazz" (1977–1981), "Guitar LP" (1977, 1978, 1980, 1981), and "Acoustic Steel-String" (1983–1987).
Guitar World magazine listed Di Meola among the top 50 fastest guitarists of all time. He was grouped with other famous rock and jazz musicians, such as Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, and others. Di Meola does not like the term "shredder," which he believes is too limiting. He prefers to be seen as a composer rather than a virtuoso.
In 2008, Di Meola and his former bandmates from Return to Forever received the BBC Jazz "Lifetime Achievement Award," presented by George Martin, a producer for The Beatles. They performed the title track of their album Romantic Warrior at the event. That same year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music, his former school.
Di Meola was not included in Rolling Stone magazine's "250 Greatest Guitar Players of All Time" list, which caused controversy. Other notable guitarists not on the list included Peter Frampton, Neal Schon, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, Guthrie Govan, and Eric Gales. Rick Beato criticized the list, calling it "idiotic" and pointing out questionable rankings, such as Pat Metheny at No. 157 and John McLaughlin at No. 72.
Awards and nominations
- 1976: Best Jazz Group Performance – "No Mystery" with Chick Corea & Return to Forever
- Guitar Player Magazine
- Berklee College of Music
- 2008: Honorary Doctorate Degree
- 2008: Lifetime Achievement with Chick Corea & Return to Forever
- 2011: Best Instrumental Album – "Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody"
Gear and equipment
Al Di Meola preferred Gibson guitars throughout much of his career. He also promoted the L6-S model for Gibson during the late 1970s.
On September 23, 2008, PRS Guitars introduced their Al DiMeola signature model: the Al Di Meola Prism. This was the first PRS guitar to include a wide range of colors. The Prism was based on the original Modern Eagle guitar, which combined features of a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster. It has a 25-inch neck, a tremolo bridge, and 1957/2008 humbucker pickups, which are similar to older PAF pickups. Al Di Meola used this guitar during the 2008 Return to Forever reunion tour.
Al Di Meola was one of the first guitarists to use DiMarzio pickups. He appeared in an advertisement for the company in the February 23, 1978, issue of DownBeat magazine.