{"id":179,"date":"2009-04-07T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2009-04-07T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2009\/04\/al_di_meola_and_the_fusion_war_1\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:34:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:34:05","slug":"al_di_meola_and_the_fusion_war_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/04\/al_di_meola_and_the_fusion_war_1.html","title":{"rendered":"Al di Meola and the Fusion Wars pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guitarist Al di Meola<\/a>, recently of Return to Forever’s reunion tour, takes me to task for not knowing his most recent recordings — during WNYC’s “Soundcheck Smackdown,”<\/a> which pitted me “against” Will Layman<\/a> (of PopMatters.com) regarding jazz fusion’s legacy,\u00c2\u00a0moderated by John Schaefer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Di Meola let it be known that he agrees that some of Return to Forever’<\/a>s music is bombastic — and over-long! He describes 2008 RTF juggernaut as a nostalgia trip, fun for a while, but eventually not so much. He said keyboardist-composer-RTF leader\u00c2\u00a0Chick Corea<\/a>, despite his vaunted interest in communication, didn’t pay attention to di Meola’s opinion that audiences didn’t want 20 minute unaccompanied solos and two-song second halves of concerts.\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Taking di Meola at his word — “My composing has grown, developed” — I’m going to give quick listens to his most recent albums, in “Fusion Wars part 2,” asap.<\/div>\n
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