While filming a promotional video for his new album, Opus [Red Distribution], Al Di Meola made an offhand comment that it was the first record he made in a state of sustained personal happiness. Since then, he feels that the press has made far too much of it. (Full disclosure: It was the first thing we asked him about, as well.)
“It’s the first thing anybody asks me,” he says. “I mean, yeah, it’s an incredibly happy time in my life. I’m remarried, and I have a two-year old now, and it feels like a new start. The fact is, I’ve gone through periods when things weren’t so great, but I still made music that I’m quite proud of. Even so, I was a little worried when I started the new record. Could I write good music being happy? That was something I grappled with for a bit.”
The resulting album underscores that his fears were unfounded, as it contains some of the fusion-guitar master’s most beguiling and beautiful—and, in some cases, darkly haunting—songs ever. Featuring sparse touches by Cuban pianist Kemuel Roig and Moroccan percussionist Rhani Krija, the 11-song disc moves elegantly from the nuevo tango-inspired “Escapado,” to the pensive jazz of “Insieme,” to the rugged, Zeppelin-like rock of “Notorious.” While there are splashes of fleet-fingered electric lines, the album might disappoint listeners still thirsting for flashbacks of the Return to Forever-era shred that put Di Meola on the map in the early ‘70s, as the bulk of the album is dominated by nylon-string acoustic rhythms and leads.
“More and more, I love playing acoustic guitar,” he says. “The acoustic separates the men from the boys, because you can’t get away with a lot of stuff. With an electric, you might do a sweep with