Drak Posted December 14, 2003 Report Share Posted December 14, 2003 I thought that might get your attention! I was turned on to Al DiMeola (and fusion in general) back in about '78, which in turn introduced me to the world of flamenco guitar via Al's Elegant Gypsy disc, which as Al usually did back then, blended a mix of fiery fast 'LP thru Marshall' fusion mixed with some fluently fast acoustic too. Been listening ever since, I absolutely love it. And one of my favorite flamenco/Brazillian guitar duelling duo's was just on BET on JAZZ just now. Strunz and Farah. WHOA!!! I've been listening to these guys for well over 15 years now, and they just get better with age. They are Maniacs on flamenco guitars. The other 'Hot Crew' is Young and Rollins. They just formed I think about 2-3 years ago(?) and are the closest thing to Strunz and Farah I've ever come across. All 4 of these guys could probably dance circles around your favorite electric fretboard speed demon. ...Well, maybe. Check em out, download a few clips, eh? Strunz and Farah Homepage Young and Rollins Homepage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 Yup, fantastic stuff! Heh, I was introduced to Al DiMeola on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert (let's see who's old enough to remember that show ) late 70's, early 80's I think. I think I still have a video tape of it but on BetaMax (don't have a beta machine anymore though .) Strunz and Farah are incredible players... very flamenco like, even though they play with picks . Hmm... never heard of Young and Rollins, I'll have to check them out. Another guitarist in this vein worth checking out is Jeff Kollman. He's can be considered one of those electric speed demon but he has this cool latin influenced sound to his playing. The Guitar9 website has some clips of Cosmosquad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 with picks or fingerpicks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 with picks or fingerpicks? I believe regular picks. I'm remembering back to when I read about them in Guitar Player magazine... 15 years ago sounds about right. I think I remember them being mathematicians or something like that... doing funky math tricks in their music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 I remember Don Kirshner's Rock Concert but I don't remember Al Dimeola being on it. Maybe I'm not old enough. I think that's where I saw The Mahavishnu Orchestra though. I did see Al DiMeola though at the Montreal Jazz Fest a few years ago. Half of his set was acoustic and the other was electric. He may be a great guitarist but he had no stage presence or charisma whatsoever. As far as flamenco guitarists go, one that merits mentioning is Paco DeLucia. I hit the jackpot one year in seeing him and his musicians as an opening act for the John McLaughlin Trio with Dennis Chambers and Joey DeFrancesco. That was pretty sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snork Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 john mclaughlin is god of the classical guitar. check out live at the worlds fair. J MAC IS THE MAN! holy crap bitches brew blows me away. so well done. its like the b b king of fusion. I never knew that one note could say SO much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 15, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 The Jeff Kollman thing sounds cool...thanks! I'll be checking him out. Al used to be much more of a 'rock' musician back in the day. I saw him with Return To Forever and he strutted that stage with as much...how you say?...chutzpah?...as anyone I've ever seen. Blazing speed, perfect timing, chops akimbo...the whole enchilada he had in his pocket and he strutted it big time. But Al is now...hmmm, he's more into 'world music' (which I like a lot too) and is a very calm, relaxed player who cares vastly more about the MUSIC he's playing than his stage presence these days. I always go to see him when he tours and I know what you mean tho...but I understand what his gig is now too...it's much different than it used to be... BTW Saber, you did know that Al and Paco are friends/musical collaborators of better than 25 years, yes? Paco played on Al's earlier solo albums. McLaughlin, master that he is, lacked the whole Latin 'feel' thing that Al just excells at, just peels off like a freakin' Latin whiplash at will. Al D will always be in my top 5 guitarists of All Time, that's a no-brainer for me, I respect and admire what he's done in music more than I can tell you...been following the guy for over 20 years now! ...but this thread wasn't really about Al. These 4 guys blow so hard it's incredible to watch them. It's too bad none of them really 'tour' regularly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 The Jeff Kollman thing sounds cool...thanks! I'll be checking him out. Al used to be much more of a 'rock' musician back in the day. I saw him with Return To Forever and he strutted that stage with as much...how you say?...chutzpah?...as anyone I've ever seen. Blazing speed, perfect timing, chops akimbo...the whole enchilada he had in his pocket and he strutted it big time. Yes, do! You'll be happy you did . Kollman is cool. Fuggin' A! Yeah! Return To Forever is/was awesome. I was lucky enough to see them on their reunion tour, April 1, 1983 at the Palladium in NYC, IIRC. Al D., Chick C., Stanley C., Lenny W... unbelievable! You better believe I practiced 12-15 hrs/day for awhile after seeing that . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 15, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 That's the same tour we saw in DC. Constitution Hall if I remember right... Al weren't no wallflower then! I also got to see the triple acoustic thing too, the DiMeola, McLaughlin, DeLuca thing...in the round with a rotating stage...still got BW pics of that night all these years later. I was taking photography in high school then, our teacher insisted we shoot everything in B/W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 McLaughlin, master that he is, lacked the whole Latin 'feel' thing that Al just excells at, just peels off like a freakin' Latin whiplash at will. The way that you say McLaughlin lacked the latin feel suggests that he is required to have it. That's not his style at all. He created a style all his own mixing jazz with eastern influences and creating a unique harmonic richness that I've heard nowhere else. Meanwhile, DiMeola started his career as a speedster and stuck mainly with his predictable latin phrasings and influences. Mclaughlin has been continually evolving from cool jazz to high energy fusion to acoustic Indian music to electric guitar synth with his newer Mahavishnu to acoustic guitar synth with Trilok Gurtu to a guitar-organ-drums trio, and now he has released a CD for orchestra and guitar. It may come down to a matter of taste but I just find that McLaughlin's career has been much more unique and more interesting to follow than DiMeola's. And to coin a phrase, I just feel more from McLaughlin's music whereas DiMeola, while I enjoy hearing him rip up the fretboard with technical precision, often leaves me cold. It may just be one of those intangible things for which only personal taste is accountable. Needless to say, McLaughlin is my alltime favourite musician, let alone guitarist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 BTW, Al DiMeola was one of my favourites early on. I even got nostalgic a few years ago and got the Romantic Warrior CD. I also saw him in a "Rites of Strings" concert at the Jazz Fest where he trioed with Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clark. But over the years, the more I've seen and heard him, the more I've lost interest. I prefer hearing guys like Mike Stern and John Scofield who co-incidently have also played with Miles Davis. Miles could really pick them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 BTW, Al DiMeola was one of my favourites early on. I even got nostalgic a few years ago and got the Romantic Warrior CD. I also saw him in a "Rites of Strings" concert at the Jazz Fest where he trioed with Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clark. But over the years, the more I've seen and heard him, the more I've lost interest. Wow, I didn't expect anyone to know Jean-Luc Ponty here... I'm impressed . His "Enigmatic Ocean" album is one of my all time favorites (early Holdsworth.) It kinda reminds me of cheesy 70's spam music... but it's good . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbkim Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 Whoa, when did I get bumped up to "Advanced Member?" Was it for the 200th post milestone? It happened in this thread and I didn't notice it, 'til now. Is that how it works? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 Whoa, when did I get bumped up to "Advanced Member?" Was it for the 200th post milestone? It happened in this thread and I didn't notice it, 'til now. Is that how it works? I guess that's how it works. It's happened to me too recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 Wow, I didn't expect anyone to know Jean-Luc Ponty here... I'm impressed . His "Enigmatic Ocean" album is one of my all time favorites (early Holdsworth.) Speaking of "early Holdsworth", are you familiar with Soft Machine's Bundles. That was the first time I heard Holdsworth and I was blown away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted December 15, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 That's cool Saber, we all have our own favorites, but this is (was) a flamenco/latinish thread, there really wasn't room for McLaughlin. I like him too! No diss on the guy at all, but read the first post. It's not about Al either, but oh well, such is the life of a thread sometimes, I'm happy to talk about fusion all day, I love it, but this was more about 4 PURELY ACOUSTIC flamenco players. Two teams of incredible players. That's what I wanted to talk about... On the by and by, I am a big JLP fan too, I used to have about a dozen Ponty discs, still have most of them. Ponty used a lot of hired guns over the years, Daryl Steurmer, Jamie Glaser, my favorite 'gun' was Joaquin Lievano, I loved his style. I've always wanted to follow up on Joaquin and get some of his later solo efforts, I found him on an internet search and bumped into a few people who actually knew and worked with him. So, I guess this is going to become a fusion thread huh? Brand X was a killer fusion band, Phil Collins never getting any respect for being in that band, I'll tell ya! Wasn't Holdsworth with Tony Williams Lifetime? About Al, I completely understand your loss of interest, but I would say that Al has not become any less interesting, but has moved on to other forms of music, he has matured musically and left his teenage 'Marshall/LP' musicality behind him where a lot of his old fans (including me sometimes) want to hear basically the same thing, he just isn't 'that' person musically anymore. He has put out some stuff that I consider even better than his early fusion work, yes, he has let out some musical duds as well...over a 25 year career span, anyone would...especially someone who is still searching, who has not moved into the 'Orange and Blue' I consider a nicely crystallized representation of what he has morphed into in later years. That record KILLS, ...in an international way. Where a lot of bands peak and then just keep playing the same thing that made them popular, Al just keeps pressing forward, exploring even more, that's part of why I respect him so much. I'm sure McLaughlin is probably doing the same thing in his own way, I just don't keep tabs on him like I do with Al. I dig the latin influence much more personally. Larry Coryell did some good fusion for a few short years too, what was that offbrand guitar he was pictured with? It'll come to me... Scofield might be camped in the fusion family? And then there was the McLaughlin/Santana disc too. Fusion is great! (Hijack Complete!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saber Posted December 15, 2003 Report Share Posted December 15, 2003 Sorry if I hijacked but when I saw the word "fusion", I lost my head! And this thread just seemed to "evolve" like a good musician. I was a fan of Brand X and I think Phil Collins did some of his best work with them, though I wouldn't put him up there with the world's greatest drummers. If you ever have a chance to see A Salute to Buddy Rich with Phil Collins, Dennis Chambers and Steve Smith, you'll see the enormous difference in chops between Phil and the other two. Brand X had its own guitar wizard in John Goodsall; I wonder what he's up to these days. All the guitarists mentioned in this thread are masters. Each of them has developed his own personal voice that is immediately recognizable. Time restrictions prevent us from following every single ones career so we tend to stick with favourites which are determined by the inexplicable factor of taste. But maybe I'll check out "Orange and Blue" for a change of scenery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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