HT Productions will present Al Di Meola Elegant Gypsy & More Electric In Concert at Boston's Berklee Performance Center [136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, 02115] on Saturday, October 31 at 8 pm. Reserved-seat tickets at $67 VIP seating, $47 and $37 and a special VIP Fan package for $200 that includes admission to sound check and 20 minute Q&A with Al, meet and greet, autographed CD and poster and premium seating ticket go on sale August 28 at http://www.berklee.edu/bpc, by calling 617-747-3161 or at the Berklee Performance Center Box Office. All tickets include a $2 Berklee restoration fee. BPC is wheelchair accessible. For more information call, 617-747-3161....
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HT Productions will present Al Di Meola Elegant Gypsy & More Electric In Concert at Boston's Berklee Performance Center [136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, 02115] on Saturday, October 31 at 8 pm. Reserved-seat tickets at $67 VIP seating, $47 and $37 and a special VIP Fan package for $200 that includes admission to sound check and 20 minute Q&A with Al, meet and greet, autographed CD and poster and premium seating ticket go on sale August 28 at http://www.berklee.edu/bpc, by calling 617-747-3161 or at the Berklee Performance Center Box Office. All tickets include a $2 Berklee restoration fee. BPC is wheelchair accessible. For more information call, 617-747-3161.
While currently juggling acoustic tours in Europe and electric tours in the United States, Di Meola arrived at the perfect marriage of the two aesthetics on his latest album, Elysium (released June 9, 2015) which finds the guitar great blending the lush tones of his nylon string Conde Hermanos acoustic prototype model and a ’71 Les Paul electric (his Return to Forever and Elegant Gypsy axe) in a collection of songs that are at once invigorating and alluring. “It represents a new composition phase for me, whereby the writing became, in a sense, my therapy during a challenging personal transition in my life," he said. Â
This summer, Al was honored as the 22nd recipient of the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Miles Davis Award, created in 1994 to honor a great international jazz musician for the entire body of his or her work and for that musician’s influence in regenerating the jazz idiom. While in Montreal, a young African American musician found his way backstage and asked Al if he could play for him. Violinist Evan Garr completely blew Di Meola away! Al then asked Evan to sit in with him. The result was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnTFMy48AtU at B.B. Kings in New York City.
Al Di Meola's ongoing fascination with complex rhythmic syncopation combined with provocative lyrical melodies and sophisticated harmony has been at the heart of his music throughout a celebrated career that has spanned four decades and earned him critical accolades, three gold albums and more than six million in record sales worldwide. A bona fide guitar hero, perennial poll-winner, and prolific composer, he has amassed over 20 albums as a leader while collaborating on a dozen or so others with the likes of the fusion supergroup Return to Forever (with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White), the celebrated acoustic Guitar Trio featuring fellow virtuosos John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia, and the Rite of Strings trio with bassist Clarke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. And while his dazzling technique on both acoustic and electric guitars has afforded him regal status among the hordes of fretboard fanatics who regularly flock to his concerts, the depth of Di Meola's writing along with the soulfulness and the inherent lyricism of his guitaristic expression have won him legions of fans worldwide beyond the guitar aficionado set.
A pioneer of blending world music and jazz, going back to early Latin-tinged fusion outings like 1976's Land of the Midnight Sun, 1977's Elegant Gypsy and 1978's Casino, the guitar great continues to explore the rich influence of flamenco, tango, Middle Eastern, Brazilian and African music with his World Sinfonia, an ambitious pan-global group that he formed in 1991. Their exhilarating world music fusion has been documented on such releases as 2000’s The Grande Passion (featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra), 2007’s Live in London, 2011’s Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody and the stunning 2012 DVD, Morocco Fantasia (recorded at the Mawazine Festival in Rabat, Morocco and featuring special guests Said Chraibi on oud, Abdellah Meri on violin and Tari Ben Ali on percussion).
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