ABC ABC Jazz

Al Di Meola World Sinfonia

Al Di Meola World Sinfonia blends world, folk, jazz, classical, and tango music with Middle Eastern overtones; an exhilarating mix complete with sophisticated rhythms, haunting melodies, and thrilling guitar action.
As well as an extensive list of headline concerts around Australia and New Zealand throughout March 2010, Al Di Meola World Sinfonia has been added to the Byron Bay Blues & Roots Festival.
Al Di Meola holds the most prestigious guitar awards from the highest rated guitar poll in the world, Guitar Player Magazine, and has garnered a 25-year reputation as one of the most prominent virtuosos in modern instrumental jazz.
In 1974 he was a student at Berklee School of Music in Boston when he received a life-changing call from pianist Chick Corea to join cutting edge ensemble Return To Forever, known for its uncompromising musical exploration.
Al debuted with the band at Carnegie Hall, and the next night played before 40,000 at an Atlanta jazz festival, and he was only 19 years old when he won his first Grammy Award and re-defined the electric guitar's place in jazz.
In 1976 Di Meola put together his own outfit which featured a stellar cast including drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, bassist Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius, keyboardists Jan Hammer, Barry Miles and Chick Corea plus percussionist Mingo Lewis, to record seven albums with Columbia Records.
1980 marked the triumph of the acoustic guitar trio with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin and their debut album Friday Night in San Francisco, sold more than two million units.
The virtuoso guitarists toured from 1980 to 1983, releasing the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire in 1982, and in 1995, they reunited for a third recording, Guitar Trio, followed by another triumphant world tour.
In early 1996, Di Meola formed a new trio with the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and RTF bandmate Stanley Clarke called The Rite of Strings.
Al reunited with the original members of Return To Forever, keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke, and drummer Lenny White, for a world tour in 2008 that was one of the biggest jazz events of the year.
But for now Al’s main focus remains his World Sinfonia: “I’m more interested now in moving forward with the World Sinfonia, which has really developed into something beautiful. For me, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done in a long, long time. You don’t have the overbearing volume with this band. Instead you have a rich harmonic kind of music with lots of improvisation; you have a music that is emotional. What I’m doing now is just completely satisfying, like a phenomenal meal and a great glass of vintage wine.”
Di Meola has further expanded his world music vocabulary after touring Morocco with World Sinfonia.
He explained before embarking that the tour would “afford me the chance to jam with some of the local musicians there. I’m wide open to that kind of collaboration now. I’ve done some jamming back in New York at a world music club in the East Village called Drom with a Turkish clarinet virtuoso named Husnu Senlendiric. I find that I have a real affinity for the music of the Middle East.”
TOUR DATES:
http://www.bellepromotions.com.au/dates_and_venues.html
March
AUSTRALIA
5th Perth - Concert Hall http://www.perthconcerthall.com.au/
7th Sydney - City Recital Hall http://www.cityrecitalhall.com/
9th Bellingen - Memorial Hall http://www.bellingermagic.com/accom_result1/al-di-meola-world-sinfonia/
10th Byron Bay - High School Hall http://www.bellepromotions.com.au/
12th Sydney - Enmore http://www.enmoretheatre.com.au/
13th Sydney - The Basement http://www.thebasement.com.au/
15th Brisbane - Concert Hall QPAC http://www.qpac.com.au/
16th Kuranda - Amphitheatre http://www.kurandaamphitheatre.org/
NEW ZEALAND
18th Auckland - Town Hall http://www.the-edge.co.nz/
19th Christchurch - James Hay Theatre http://www.vbase.co.nz/
22nd Wellington - Opera House http://www.stjames.co.nz/
AUSTRALIA
24th Hobart - City Hall http://www.hobartcity.com.au/
25th Melbourne - Hamer Hall http://www.theartscentre.com.au/
26th Adelaide - Her Majesty’s Theatre http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/
27th Canberra - Royal Theatre NCCC http://www.nccc.com.au/
29th Newcastle - Civic Theatre http://www.civicprecinctnewcastle.com.au/
30th Parramatta - Riverside Theatre http://www.riversideparramatta.com.au/
April
2nd Byron Bay Blues Festival http://www.bluesfest.com.au/