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Long Islander DiMeola played a pivotal role in the development of fusion guitar. He was the link between the blazing, spiritually inspired mastery of Mahavishnu Orchestra leader John McLaughlin and the technique-driven contemporary ruling class of pyro-jazz six-stringers that includes Mike Stern and Scott Henderson. Along the way he invented a muted picking style that remains the key to his distinctive language. In the ’70s and ’80s, when he emerged in Return to Forever and began a solo career, he usually spoke that language with a Gibson guitar plugged into a Marshall amp, obtaining a sound that was sophisticated, raw, and exciting. Over much of the past decade he’s favored acoustic instruments and guitar synthesizers in his solo work. His long-time fans will be thrilled with his return to solid-body electric instruments on this album. Likewise, he’s rekindled his earlier compositional fires, even if most of these instrumentals are more lyrical than incendiary. DiMeola’s command of syncopation and his colorful Latin influences keep Consequence of Chaos as interesting and vaguely exotic as many of the numbers on his pioneering Elegant Gypsy (Columbia). And “Odyssey” and “Red Moon” feature his classic sweet ’n’ saturated tone in passages that play out like mini shred fests.
Al DiMeola | Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Cambridge | October 6 | 617.226.6000
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