To dismiss such a superb player as America’s Al Di Meola as being purely muso friendly would be an injustice. As both an arguably driving force behind the now legendary fusion group ‘Return to Forever’ and having being a part of Chick Corea’s band should be cred enough. But Al has also worked diligently on a renowned solo career whilst still collaborating with some of the finest instrumentalists to grace the planet. That includes the monstrous live recording known as ‘Friday Night in San Francisco’ with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia. He has also lent his technicality and sense of musicianship to various albums of ranging tastes and seriously big names whilst still maintaining a sense of fun. The list is substantially impressive.
So, after thirty years, it seems Al Di Meola is finally making the trek to Australia with his new project of ‘World Sinfonia’. It is a project of unique creativity, spellbinding technique and disciplined musicianship that will also hit regional centres, having been around the world. Luckily, Paul Southwell of Australian Guitar managed to snare a phone call with the man during a brief break whilst on tour in the States. After around twenty five solo albums alone, he’s still enthusiastic about music, his influences and about the way to translate that joy to international an audience.
AG: You’re coming to Australia. So, re you going to play much old stuff as well or is totally World Sinfonia? I’ve noticed with Sydney you’re playing three different venues. Are there differences in the set list to reflect that?
ADM: Not necessarily. We might change it up a little bit but it wasn’t because of that reason, no. Yeah, great venues, from what I’ve heard. It’s kind of fun to play, actually. I like that. I’ve done that in LA before within the same two week period, play different venues, from large to clubs.
AG: Do you notice any problems with amplifying acoustic guitars anymore?
ADM: Ah, I’ve been doing it for so long that it’s been fine. It’s been worked out pretty well. Plus with my acoustic guitar, whatever one I’m not playing, I have a hookup for certain sounds that I trigger, with the dynamic of the music, certain sections of the composition become…you know, where there’s a need for it to sort of like sing, then I can blend in the acoustic sound of the twelve string or a bass or some kind of electric sound and it gives it a boost for that moment in the music when it needs it.
AG: For nylon strings are you still using Conde Hermanos guitars?
ADM: Yeah, Conde Hermanos are the main axe and it’s got an RMC pickup on it that I have running through a VG808 Roland floor synth that gives me those effects that I always have on. If I use it I use it always with the never sound. I never take the volume of the guitar out in favour of whatever is in the unit. It is always a blending of if I’m using it at all. Then my electric guitar is a Prism PRS which is my signature model.
AG: That’s the rainbow one? Nice guitar.
ADM: Yeah, it is beautiful with a gorgeous look to it. I put in a lot of ground work because I had this vision of it long before I presented my ideas, both in the sound and the actual look of it, which is really the primary distinctive feature of it. I didn’t think anyone had ever made one that had a rainbow blending of colours. When I presented it to the staff at the Paul Reed Smith factory, I was ready for a ‘no’, (laughs) Instead Paul said to me, ‘God, you know, we never even thought of doing something like that, we’ve never ever tried anything like that’ and then every one looked at one another and then obviously the reality of how difficult it would be to actually make a finish like then became the topic of discussion for the rest of the evening because it really is a difficult thing to make. So they took whatever time they needed to come up with, after we worked on the certain sound aspects of the instrument and all of that. How I wanted the fret board and that kind of stuff. They worked on a prototype and came up with a photo of it because at the time I was in Siberia of all places, on tour and I got picture of it and I was completely knocked out because it was exactly what I had imagined. So there it was and we were off to a good start.
AG: What sort of pickups do they put in there?
ADM: They put their own in there. I leave that up to Paul, pretty much. I tell them how I like the sound; I played them some things that would exemplify how I like the sound. He knows what I’m looking for, I like a pretty round top on the high ends and I like a biting bottom. But then again, to me, all of his guitars sound great so it was just finding some fine points and I like them fine tune the pickups and make that part of a stock pickup for the guitar. But on my particular model I have a rosewood neck which is a special thing, a special line up if you want the guitar to not come stock. The frets are not huge, they are medium size.
AG: How does playing a PRS compare to playing a Les Paul?
ADM: Les Paul’s, I think are fatter, it’s not as creamy, I think it’s just fatter; it’s a bigger, fatter sound. Paul’s guitars are more creamy and more fluid in a sense and I use the vibrato arm on it, which is kind of unique for me to be using that but it’s something I’m enjoying, interjecting within certain phrases that I do. I don’t have that ability on my Les Paul. But I happen to have a ’59 Les Paul which is just incredible, it really should not be on the road although I did take it out two years ago in addition to the PRS guitars; my signature one and one other guitar that was Paul’s actual guitar and he gave it to me as a gift. So I would switch between a ’59 Les Paul which had an amazing sound and really the guitar just should not be on the road because it is quite valuable. But I took it out for the reunion of ‘Return to Forever’; it was an important thing to do. I was known for playing that particular black Les Paul back in its day but that group was kind of like a visual blast from the past.
AG: So was the ‘Return To Forever’ reunion more of a nostalgic thing?
ADM: Yeah for me it was – look I had hoped that it would have turned into something more forward thinking and more modern but it really wasn’t more than just a blast from the past, you know, and I could not lead that group. If I were to lead that group I would have had some new compositions, new sounds and really forward thinking, you know. They were pretty much stuck back in their whole era whereas I think we’ve gone onto a whole new level, new territories and new frontiers. But it was fun to go back but I could see that they were only going to go back and that and that’s not what I do.
AG: I remember reading you’ve found fusion not so compositionally interesting of late.
ADM: Well, no, the strongest thing about RTF was that of all of the fusion groups that was the best composition band; it was really about composition. So, from nineteen years old I was very influenced by the compositional aspect of the music because whereas a lot of other groups that continued with fusion and came about after that were primarily players but that didn’t make the composition necessarily as strong as the player was and therefore a level of boredom came in quickly. There are phenomenal players out there, there are tonnes of them, but not a lot of them can write. So, to me, the element of strong composition was the thing that kept me interested in the music if I was to listen to something. My influences led me to develop as a composer as the years went on as well.
AG: With ‘World Sinfonia’, is a lot of it very structured or is it improvisation?
ADM: Oh, it is highly structured and there are places within the composition that are designated for improvisation. Due to the fact that I have, in addition to myself as an improviser, I have a phenomenal improviser who is a very important element to the music who plays accordion [Fausto Beccalossi] and we have a really interesting chemistry when it comes to how we alter music and improvise within composition as well as the designated places that are set to improvise over certain harmonies. But when you have a player like that, you can take the music somewhere or you can bring things to the music that may have been structured and written so that there’s an element of surprise all of the time even though there is a structure.
AG: With that structure, how do you present that to the people you’re playing with?
ADM: Well, I write everything out, first of all, for just about all of my composition and each player has a separate part. Otherwise, because of the complexity of the music and the amount of sections within each composition, to teach it without a player’s ability to read, would mean that we’d need a month to rehearse. So I pick players that are great readers and I go in prepared to the point of which the music is written. I then take that, once we get into rehearsal and there are certain aspects of how the percussion fit with the drums that might not be written where I spend a lot of time making sure they do not play the same part that everyone has an independent part in the percussion rhythm section as compared to drums and percussion. So, that they’re in syncopation but in individual parts and that takes some time. It is rally my standard way of operating with all music.
AG: What amplifiers are you suing for the electric side of things? I believe you’re using Elmwood Modena M90s and Mesa Boogie Mark IV amplifiers.
ADM: Well I used that for a while and I use a Fuchs 100 watt amp on and off. I also use Boogie on and off. But I currently use Boogie; right now I’m using a Nomad but I’ve used every kind of Mark III and Mark IV. On my record I’m using, I’m very excited to say, a Dumble amp. Luckily I’ve found someone with a Dumble who was gracious enough to loan it to me for the recording because they basically start at about fifty thousand dollars (laughs) so they are just ridiculously expensive amps. But the sound is like butter, it is just so smooth. So that, you won’t see on tour but you will hear on our new studio record though.
AG: I have to ask, what it was like playing with Mr. Malmsteen for Derek Sherinian’s recent album; do you do a lot of tribute albums?
ADM: Oh, you know what, I don’t know if we ever did play together because it was like an overdub thing. It is very rarely done and it was more of like a favour to a friend of mine but it was so fast I can barely remember doing it at all. It was in and out. But, I do occasionally do guest spots because it can be fun sometimes.