LA NACION - Buenos Aires Argentina:
THE JAZZ IN MOVEMENT
- La Nacion - Tuesday march 19 - 2002
Presentation of the Herrera Quartet, with Alejandro
Herrera in electric 5 strings bass, Gustavo Camara in
tenor Sax, Andres Beeuwsaert in keyboard and Oscar Giunta
in drums. At Thelonious Bar.
Our opinion: very good.
The group of the bass player Alejandro Herrera fell on
the public of Thelonious like a leopard caress. A combo
made of four soloists that unfolded interesting
combinations of collective understanding and individual
improvisation.
The Herrera Quartet is one of the new expressions of the
domestic jazz. This electric bass player, of a remarkable
technique, shows himself up here like a restless composer
that creates intricate harmonic structures over harmonic
sketches. The first impression that gets to us from the
scene is the high technical level of the group that will
be throughout the night the common denominating.
The show begins with a bop that seems inspired by the
jazz of the fifties. Herrera introduces FOURTH TRIP, a
tribute to Ron Carter, with lines that start getting
trough the game of legatos, a tension of strong dynamism
that explodes with the entry of the group, where Camara s
tenor saxophone seams to sing over the rhythm. The theme
highlights for its changes, which give an interesting
variability to the composition.
The group moves under the directions of the bass player,
who pivots between the rhytmical section and the
saxophone and whose interaction is per moments
overwhelming. The rhytmical section seems to pulsate by
the work of Giunta, whose style shows a dimension of a
greater rhytmical rhythmical support. His interpret mode
in this quartet sounded renewed by certain atmosphere
based on traditional rhythm & blues, Knitting Factory
style (ex- factory of New York taken as a creative
space).
The work of Herrera and Beeuwsaert make a strong
counterpoint over the rhythm of Giunta and melodies that
Camara describes. The bass player has a style that
oscillates between two speeches: the pianstic and the
saxophonistic, that means, Herrera exceeds the slavery
that is supposedly imposed to a bass player to become a
powerful soloist.
Individual creativity
The music of Herrera is based on the individual
creativity and for Beeuwsaert, a great young pianist in
ascent, it exceeds him. He manages to conjugate
impulsivity and subtlety satisfactorily. Their solos have
conciseness, by the way something not very common in the
local jazz, and an adapting skill for the rhythmical
changes that Herrera s compositions impose. His elegant
touch preserves a clear and understandable sound,
although, even, with the saturation of the Marshall
equipment to which his keyboard was connected. Camara is
a saxophone player that showed to be in good shape (since
his entrance in Malosettis quintet, his style matured).
His rough soundness and his irritated attacks put the
most bop character of the night. He interacts short
phrases with long phrasing that end in drowned howls. His
mood is based not so much on his speed as in his
solidness as a performer with fluid diction
Soon after, comes a ballad, MATYS SMILE, in where Herrera
unfolds some kind of loving song. A medium tempo in which
they construct a diaphanous atmosphere and with some
certain harmonic complexity, that rests some heat to the
smooth going of the group. The first sensation is that
the quartet interconnects better on faster revolutions
per minute. Even Herrera s ability as an arranger seams
better in those fast changes of tempo and risky plunges
that the group did like in PISTRO, that has a bop
background in an instrumental context, that exposes the
love that the bass player has for the fusion.
Latter a part in which the group became a trio and the
rhythmical section focused on certain preciosisms in a
work that was almost contrapuntistic between the piano
and the bass, and bass and drum. The place full at
Thelonious, in spite of a tenacious rain, and the
applause of the end, showed that Herrera and his quartet
seem to be beginning a happy history of creativity and
assembly.
Cesar Pradines
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/02/03/19/ds_381889.asp
The NACION | 19/03/2002 | Pagina 5 | Espectaculos
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JAZZ PLANET
- La Nacion - August 10 - 2002
TONIGHT, HERRERA CUARTET
One of the powerful expressions of the local jazz is the
quartet of the electric bass player Alejandro Herrera
with Gustavo Camara in saxophone, Andres Beeuwsaert in
keyboards and the excellent Oscar Giunta in drums that
will appear today, at 22,30hs, in Thelonious Bar,
Salguero 1884. The group develops a repertoire, centrally
based in standard and their own material. Based strongly
on the individualities, this quartet also act s on
Wednesday, 21.30pm, in Notorious, Callao 966.
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THE JAZZ MOVES TO URUGUAY
- La Nacion - Wednesday May 22 - 2002
...In September there will be two interesting visits in
Montevideo, on one side on the 3rd, the Belgian guitarist
Philip Catherine will be here, musician born in 1942, and
has a style of refined lyricism that he develops. He
remembers the great Django Reinhardt. Catherine will be
with two Argentine mucicians, the electric bass player
Alejandro Herrera and the drummer Oscar Giunta.
....
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USA PRESS:
Oct 06, 01:39 AM
The Santa Fe New Mexican
GUITARIST AL DI MEOLA JUST CAN´T STOP
Beatle-freak fusionist goes from mellow to brazen
Two guitar gods in Santa Fe in one month! A concert
today, Oct. 4, with
Al Di Meola follows two dates in September that featured
Di Meola's one-time mentor, Larry Coryell.
Di Meola grew up listening to the Beatles, Doc Watson,
Flesh Italian classical music, flamenco, The Ventures and
jazz, but it was the rock-jazz hybrid that would soon be
known as fusion that turned him on his head. The younger
guitarist would ride the bus from New Jersey to see
Coryell play in clubs and cafes around Greenwich Village.
"I had grown up on rock and loved it, but I found it a
very limited kind of music for expansion on your
instrument," he once told Down Beat magazine. "I started
listening to bluegrass, especially Doc Watson, which
really helped me develop my speed. I really dug Tal
Farlow and Kenny Burrell at the time, but I also knew
that it wasn't what I ultimately wanted to do. I wanted
to do something new."
His novel style sounded strange to the musicians he
jammed with in high school but developed into something
that caught Chick Corea's ear.
It was 1974, during a period of study at Boston's Berklee
College of Music, that Di Meola got a call from Corea,
who had spent the last six years playing with Miles
Davis, Anthony Braxton and Stan Getz. After a weekend of
rehearsals with a new version of Corea's fusion group
Return to Forever, Di Meola made his debut with the band
at Carnegie Hall.
The guitarist's blazing lines electrified RTF, adding a
signature sound to the quartet, which included Corea on
keyboards, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on
drums. The band recorded three gems of fusion
storytelling: Where Have I Known You Before, the Grammy
Award-winning No Mystery and Romantic Warrior.
It's still powerful stuff for Di Meola. When he hits the
Lensic stage tonight, he will pay homage to that music as
well as play tunes from his 2002 release, Flesh on Flesh.
"Yeah, we'll pull out some jams from the past, even a
Return to Forever tune or two," he said from his home in
New Jersey. "It's so much hipper for me than a lot of
what Chick's doing now."
Di Meola is bringing percussionist Gumbi Ortiz, who first
appeared on the guitarist's 1988 Kiss My Axe; keyboardist
Mario Parmisano, a 12-year veteran of Di Meola's bands;
drummer Ernie Adams, who premiered on 1998's The Infinite
Desire; flutist Alejandro Santos; and bassist Alejandro
Herrera.
All but Herrera played on Flesh on Flesh, the new Telarc
release with guest Gonzalo Rubalcaba on Fender Rhodes
electric piano. Rubalcaba's 2001 album Supernova won best
Latin jazz album in the Latin Grammy Awards last month.
Flesh on Flesh is the guitar wizard's 24th album since
Return to Forever disbanded in 1976. The highlights from
his solo career, albums ranging from mellow acoustic
guitar to brazen electric, include Land of the Midnight
Sun (1976) with
Jaco Pastorius, Alphonse Mouzon and Stanley Clarke;
Elegant Gypsy (1977) with Jan Hammer; Friday Night in San
Francisco (1980) with John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia;
and Di Meola Plays Piazzolla (1990) with Dino Saluzzi on
bandoneon.
Along the way Di Meola has enjoyed alternating his twin
loves of acoustic and electric guitar. He indulged the
latter on The Infinite Desire, his 1998 Telarc debut that
featured his most extensive use yet of guitar
synthesizers and sampling technology to create lush and
exotic layers of sound.
"With Infinite Desire there was a lot of technological
production and really interesting sounds and loops,
whereas the new one is more of a group-sounding record,"
he said. "It's about all the elements I've collected over
the years and that I've further developed in the
compositional area, and it has a nice blend of acoustic
and electrical guitars."
Di Meola plays five guitars, often plugged into a Roland
VG-88 synthesizer, on Flesh on Flesh, and he plans to
have a few instruments with him in Santa Fe.
"Yeah, I'll have a few this time: a Les Paul, maybe the
signature model; a Conde Hermanos classical; a jazz-body
Gibson, which is also a signature model; an Ovation with
MIDI controller; and a Godin acoustic electric with nylon
strings.
He will have a variety of voices at his disposal. "It
could be worse," he joked.
His tune choices for Flesh on Flesh include
five Di Meola originals, one each by Argentine nuevo-
tango master Astor Piazzolla and Brazilian guitarist
Egberto Gismonte, and a funkified version of Corea's
"Senor Mouse." On that one, which Di Meola first recorded
in 1978, he plays both Stratocaster and drums.
In the liner notes, Di Meola describes his love for the
Gismonti piece "Meninas" (Portuguese for "girls"): "When
hearing this incredible melody on long trips, I had
always gotten an intense feeling, missing my two
beautiful daughters."
"Gismonti is one my favorite composers and musicians,
both on piano and guitar," Di Meola said. "I just find a
lot of what he does very inspiring. This is the first
time I've recorded one of his pieces ,but he was nice
enough to send the music."
The musician, now 48, spends a lot of time on the road:
the life of a performing musician. "It's on and off," he
said. "You can go strong for a few months with little
breaks and then you go off for a while. When you work,
you work intensely.
One final question: After 30 years of listening to and
playing all kinds of music, does Di Meola still listen to
the Beatles?
"I just can't stop," he answered.
DETAILS
Al Di Meola, concert
8 p.m. today, Oct. 4
Lensic Performing Arts Center
211 W. San Francisco St.
-, 988-1234
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/2002/10/01/entertainme
nt/4191525.htm
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/2002/10/01/entertainme
nt/4191525.htm
————————————————————————————-
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Posted on Fri, Oct. 04, 2002
GUITARIST STANDS ON SHOLDERS OF 2 MUSICAL GIANTS
Di Meola to explore both electric and acoustic sides
By Andrew Gilbert
Special to the Mercury News
An artist is fortunate to find one creative ``parent''
who nurtures his or her talent, but Al Di Meola can claim
two musical giants as formative influences.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Di Meola became a guitar
icon in 1974 when Chick Corea hired the 19-year-old
firebrand for the revamped version of Corea's popular
fusion band Return to Forever, with electric bassist
Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White. Over the next
decade, through his performances with Return to Forever
and his own albums, Di Meola attained both commercial
success and critical plaudits with his jaw-dropping,
speed-demon fretwork.
By the mid-'80s, though, he had fallen under the sway of
another master, Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla.
A backstage encounter during a festival in Japan led to a
friendship that soon started transforming Di Meola's
sound. Taking up the nylon-string acoustic guitar, Di
Meola created World Sinfonia, a group steeped in
Piazzolla's music, while also drawing on Middle Eastern
and Mediterranean cadences. Once defined by his
relentless attack, Di Meola emerged as a master of
nuance, with a greatly expanded emotional range.
``The broad range of feelings and the complexity of
Piazzolla's music were a really nice marriage for me,''
Di Meola says. ``What better musical father can you have,
after Chick? It was super-heartfelt music, but at the
same time it offered technical complexities that made it
interesting. Emotionally, it definitely reflects my
Italian roots.''
The band Di Meola brings to Villa Montalvo on Monday and
Thursday and the Rio Theater on Wednesday, is drawn
largely from his latest album, ``Flesh on Flesh''
(Telarc), featuring pianist Mario Parmisano, flutist
Alejandro Santos and bassist Alejandro Herrera, all
Argentines, and percussionist Gumbi Ortiz and drummer
Ernie Adams. Touring with both acoustic and electric
guitars, Di Meola has assembled a band that easily
encompasses his immersion in Piazzolla and his roots in
jazz-rock fusion.
``World Sinfonia is primarily acoustic, focusing on more
of a tango slant, the Piazzolla repertoire,'' Di Meola
says. ``This is more a cross section of my work. We'll be
featuring a good selection from the new record and
selected pieces from my older records, as well, like
`Kiss My Axe,' `Infinite Desire,' maybe one or two from
`World Sinfonia.' ''
The impressive arc of Di Meola's career is the subject of
the two-disc ``Anthology,'' released by Columbia/Legacy
in 2000. Besides tracing the guitarist's emergence as a
chops monster, the album captures his development as a
composer during his early years (1976-82), a journey
launched by Corea's insistence that the guitarist start
contributing tunes to Return to Forever's repertoire.
``I wouldn't have been writing without Chick's strong
encouragement,'' Di Meola says. ``I just couldn't
understand what the hell he was talking about, but I was
very flattered that he wanted to get something from me
other than my playing. I'm grateful that he pushed that
side of me because I didn't even know it existed.
``One thing he said that stuck with me,'' Di Meola
continues: ``A lot of classical composers are great
improvisers, and if you have the ability to improvise,
you have the ability to compose. You just have to see
where it's going to take you.''
Di Meola started gaining attention as a writer with
pieces such as ``Majestic Dance'' on Return to Forever's
``Romantic Warrior,'' a 1976 album that broke into the
Top 40 of the Billboard 200 chart. When the mercurial
Corea suddenly decided to disband the group later that
year, Di Meola was forced to start his solo career, and
his crossover success continued with his albums ``Land of
the Midnight Sun,'' ``Splendido Hotel'' and ``Elegant
Gypsy,'' which went gold.
He started the '80s with one of the most popular guitar
sessions of the decade, ``Friday Night in San
Francisco,'' a blazing showdown with fellow ax masters
Paco de Luca and John McLaughlin. Though the three
guitarists reportedly don't enjoy each other's company,
they have reunited several times, producing 1982's
``Passion, Grace and Fire'' and an eponymous 1996 album
for Verve.
Despite his myriad successes, Di Meola still laments the
breakup of Return to Forever, the band that launched his
career as a teenage guitar phenomenon.
``That was something that should not have happened,'' Di
Meola says of the breakup. ``I think we had five great
years ahead, and we were just about to cross over to a
huge period. Chick went into a whole different avant-
garde direction. Stanley and Lenny went into a kind of R
& B-ish direction. And I was left to carry the jazz-rock
torch. I benefited from the breakup, but I had hoped
Return to Forever would continue.''
Al Di Meola
Where: Carriage House, Villa Montalvo, 15400 Montalvo
Road, Saratoga
When: 7:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday
Tickets: ,
October 11, 2002
- GUITARIST PUSHES JAZZ TO A NEW LEVEL -
By Spencer Patterson
Mark Wahlberg's character in "Rock Star" notwithstanding,
it's not every day a musician gets the chance to join his
favorite band.
Yet in 1974, 19-year-old Al Di Meola received a call from
jazz piano great Chick Corea, asking the young guitarist
to become a member of fusion supergroup Return to
Forever.
"I had seen (Corea) live before, and I had mentioned to a
friend of mine the desire I would have to play with that
group," Di Meola said in a recent telephone interview
while backstage setting up for a show in Durango, Colo.
"Chick had heard a tape of my playing, and he called me
personally to join the band," he said. "It was my
favorite group at the time. It was the beginning of the
fusion era in music, and the attention on it was huge.
The band was superhot and hip at the time. So it was a
total dream; absolutely perfect."
Di Meola stayed will Return to Forever for 2 1/2 years,
recording three straight Top-40 albums with Corea,
bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White, and also
performing around the world for sold-out crowds.
The four members, who are considered Return to Forever's
"classic" lineup, reunited in 1983 for a brief tour. And
now, according to Di Meola, there's talk of getting back
together again.
"We had one pretty nice reunion in '83, and there's talk
of another one," Di Meola said. "We're hoping; it just
depends on Chick making up his mind on what he wants to
do. Everybody thinks it would be a great idea."
Until such a reunion materializes, the 48-year-old Di
Meola will continue doing what he has done since leaving
Return to Forever: pushing his music into new territory
with solo recordings and new group collaborations.
Saturday night at 8, Di Meola will bring his current
project to Club Madrid at Sunset Station. The six-piece
band, which also includes pianist Mario Parmisano,
flutist Alejandro Santos, bassist Alejandro Herrera,
percussionist Gumbi Ortiz and drummer Ernie Adams, is
touring behind Di Meola's latest CD, "Flesh on Flesh."
The album, released in August, features Di Meola & Co.
performing both acoustic and electric albums, marking the
first time the guitar great has plugged into the studio
since he recorded 1998's "The Infinite Desire."
"We really started out as an acoustic group, but now
we're back playing electric as well," Di Meola said. "The
show is quite a mix of both."
Di Meola, who lives in New Jersey, moved his band down to
Miami to record the new album, hoping the city's Latino
influence would creep into his music. It did, creating a
unique blend of electric fusion and Latin jazz over the
disc's eight tracks.
"It has a Havana-like Latin slant to it," Di Meola said.
"It was deliberate to be surrounded in that kind of a
space down there, get out of New York and soak it all up
in Miami. We thought it would be good to get away, to a
whole different environment, and it was a great move."
On "Flesh on Flesh," Di Meola also paid tribute to three
men who have had a significant impact on his career. The
album includes one track written by Corea ("Senor
Mouse"), one by Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla
("Fugata") and one by Brazilian guitarist/pianist Egberto
Gismonti ("Meninas").
"Chick Corea and Astor Piazzaolla have been major
influences in the development of my career as a writer
and as a composer and player," Di Meola said. "And a
third inspiration has been the work of Egberto Dismonti.
I really like listening to him a lot.
"I think that the work of all three of these guys has
been prevalent in my music in the past, and that should
just continue."
The album's Latin flavor recalls the feel of one of Di
Meola's most successful ventures, his guitar trio with
John McLaughlin and Paco DeLucia. In the early 1980s, the
three instrumental greats thrilled crowds with a fiery
live set of acoustic music.
"Friday Night in San Francisco," released in 1981,
remains a popular and critically acclaimed document of
the trio's collaboration to this day.
But unlike Return to Forever, the guitar trio is not
likely to resume touring or recording anytime soon, as
much as Di Meola might like to see that happen.
"Let's just say that we had more compatibility musically,
but we weren't the best of friends necessarily," Di Meola
said. "Unfortunately, the touring wasn't as pleasurable
as it could have been.
"But whatever differences there may be, I always think
that a great musical situation should continue for the
sake of music and the fans. So I would hope that the
theory of 'never say never' prevails."
For now, though, Di Meola will keep thoughts of such
possible get-togethers in the back of his mind,
concentrating instead on his music of the moment. And to
hear him talk, he couldn't be more pleased with the way
his current group sounds.
"The live show is a lot of fun," Di Meola said. "We go
back to some older pieces that are more electric
oriented, as far back as when I joined Return to Forever.
I'm really looking forward to playing it for the people
of Las Vegas.
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Las Vegas SUN main page
All contents 1996 - 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc.
Nevada s Largest Website
www.soundsoftimelessjazz.com/pages/618580/ -
AL DI MEOLA DELIVERS A BAZING SET AT THE KNITTING FACTORY
-
www.soundsoftimelessjazz.com/pages/618580/ -
Al DiMeola and a new World Sinfonia group brought their
intriguing fusion of rhythmic and electronic flair to the
Knitting Factory October 8th. Their strong Latin jazz and
buoyant world melodies were blended extremely well with a
heavier electronic jazz/rock feeling which brought
standing ovations from the audience several times during
both well-attended shows. Di Meola s compositional
control over his fusion band resulted in a satisfying
mixture of pre-composed structures of varying complexity,
raw improvisational energy and beautiful melodic appeal.
Playing songs from both critically acclaimed Telarc
recordings, THE GRAND PASSION and his most recent, FLESH
ON FLESH, the handsome guitar virtuoso dazzled patrons
with his skill and techniques for transforming the
original melodies and strict rhythmic structure of Astor
Piazzolla into a fresh and memorable theme by using
heavily inflicted syncopation and unpredictable
harmonies, meter and timbre. However, it was such
original songs as Flesh on Flesh, Saffire Soleil, that
set the images of Di Meola s blazing guitar brilliance in
our memories. It was pure emotion satisfying, sensual,
complex and joyful.
As one of the world s most accomplished and imaginative
sonic engineers in contemporary fusion, Al Di Meola made
use of numerous types of guitars. Their gleaming beauty
only added to the visual excitement as he absorbed and
returned the intense but loving energy the audience was
giving off. Mario Parmisano s acoustic piano synths
produced a bright, electronic timbre that sounded great
in this particular room and Alejandro Herrera, the newest
member of the group, held down the rhythm logic on
electric bass. From the changes that would stop on a dime
to the lyrical beauty of Alejandro Santos flute floating
in the air, to Ernie Adams excellent drumming and Gumbi
Ortiz's percussive genius, each member was so purely
complimentary that each of their musical sentences were
punctuated at just the right harmonious moments and
completed with the stylistic plurality that only Al Di
Meola can deliver.
Among the many stellar moments during the concert was Di
Meola s rhythmic duet with percussionist Gumbi Ortiz. Al
Di Meola developed this high-energy improvisation with
the looseness and rhythmic dancing quality of electronic
jazz while Ortiz added fiery Latin conga beats and
thunder from his seat box. Together, they produced some
great adventurous heat that brought on a robust round of
applause.
Al Di Meola is more varied in artistic scope and musical
technique than the Al Di Meola who revolutionized and was
the epitome of electronic rock/jazz fusion of previous
decades. He is more soulful, his arrangements more
tasteful and orchestral but at the same time, still
appealing when he injects a heavy dose of rock into the
world mix. He continues to erode the distinction between
the genres with this excellent fusion ensemble. Now on a
30-city tour, you d be highly disappointed if you missed
this exciting performance. Stay in touch with Al Di Meola
and World Sinfonia at www.telarc.com
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