Casino

Description

Master of the strings, Al Di Meola, who turn his back on over-ambitious manual dexterity as in Elegant Gypsy to concentrate more on musical substance, demonstrates his intensive work with the material in the follow-up album Casino. For example in Egyptian Danza, an amalgamation of melodies which circle around one another and evoke with light electronics the contrasting worlds of the Orient, Occident and New World. A far sharper sound is conjured up in Chasin The Voodoo, which escalates to an extremely tightly-knit continuous fire, infused with the maestros familiar guitar sound. Di Meola with himself alone combines the idea of multiple rhythms and parts: In the Fantasia Suite For Two Guitars, four miniatures with percussive zapateado and whirling flamenco, he accompanies himself thanks to multi-tracking. All great stuff, but the best comes last: in the lengthy title number Casino all powers come together to create a magnificent performance with varying tempos, layered patterns, deceptive metrical changes and, of course, guitar playing of the highest order.

This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head. More information under

All royalties and mechanical rights have been paid.

Recording: May September 1977 at Electric Lady Studios, New York, by Dave Palmer
Production: Al Di Meola

Al Di Meola (g); Barry Miles (keyb); Anthony Jackson (b); Steve Gadd (dr); Mingo Lewis (cga); Eddie Colon (perc)