Elegant Gypsy by Al DiMeola (CD, Jul-1987, Columbia (USA))

Album Features
UPC:	074643446129
Artist:	Al Dimeola
Format:	CD
Release Year:	1987
Record Label:	Columbia (USA)
Genre:	Guitar, Jazz Instrument

Track Listing
1. Flight over Rio
2. Midnight Tango
3. Mediterranean Sundance
4. Race With Devil on Spanish Highway
5. Lady of Rome, Sister of Brazil
6. Elegant Gypsy Suite

Details
Playing Time:	37 min.
Contributing Artists:	Paco De Lucia, Jan Hammer, Steve Gadd, Anthony Jackson, Mingo Lewis
Producer:	Al Dimeola
Distributor:	Sony Music Distribution (
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Personnel: Al di Meola (electric guitar); Paco de Lucía (guitar); Barry Miles (piano, electric piano); Jan Hammer (electric piano, synthesizer); Mingo Lewis (organ, synthesizer, congas, percussion); Anthony Jackson (bass guitar); Lenny White, Steve Gadd (drums).Director: Al di Meola.Arranger: Al di Meola.DiMeola made his name as a member of Chick Corea's groundbreaking fusion supergroup Return To Forever, but it wasn't long before he embarked on a solo career, of which this album is the second installment. DiMeola takes the electric, rock-inflected jazz approach of John McLaughlin and multiplies it exponentially, upping both the wattage and the speed. He offers a few lyrical acoustic passages (foreshadowing his later collaborations with Paco DeLucia [who guests here] and McLaughlin), but the focus of ELEGANT GYPSY is DiMeola's blistering, mile-a-minute electric fretwork. He spins out endless lines of death-defying sixteenth notes, sometimes in tandem with synth wizard Jan Hammer, over slightly funky rhythms that bear a hint of Latin influence. His thick, overdriven tone and superhuman abilities, displayed to their fullest here, make the Eddie Van Halens of the world look like underachievers.