Al Di Meola | Splendido Hotel

Born from the electric turning point of Wayne Shorter and Miles Davis, who have merged some influences and rock veins into the traditional jazz, fusion has been like a comet in the musical universe: a stunning, brief and intense glow, easy to detect in the firmament; but afterwards a quite repetitive wake, without originality, whose trail lingers on today in the works from Yellowjackets to Marcus Miller. So, even if worthy in the intentions, this genre, for its intrinsic formal bond, could not produce true classics, unless in few cases.  Among them, surely Splendido Hotel, a work issued in 1981 by Cbs on double vinyl, where the Italian-American guitarist, in a great composition moment, together with Chick Corea, Anthony Jackson, Tim Landers, Steve Gadd, Robbie Gonzales, Mingo Lewis and Les Paul, succeeded in giving perhaps the best of his “electric” career. The opening track, Alien Chase On Arabian Desert, could worth alone the price of the entire CD, and the same happens with the delightful acoustic duet with Chick Corea in Two To Tango, the lonely Splendido Sundance, or Spanish Eyes where, with Gadd and Jackson at the rhythmic session, he plays a duet with the mythic Les Paul’s Gibson. And as we were discoursing about firmaments and comets, we can say that the five stars have been fully deserved.

Al Di Meola

Splendido Hotel

Cbs

CD

Total Time 68’31’’

1981