Al Di Meola Guitar Tab Books, Instruction DVDs, Solos, Licks, Transcriptions, Video Lessons

 "Mediterranean Sundance"

    Al Di Meola was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 22, 1954 and raised in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He began playing the drums at the age of five and later on, motivated by Elvis Presley, switched to the guitar at the age of eight. By the time he was in his early teenage years he had already performed with different school bands playing both steel string acoustic and electric guitars.

    At that point in time country and western music had a huge appeal for Al, but when he was sixteen he heard a recording by Larry Coryell. Di Meola was so impressed by Coryell's jazz fusion blend of guitar playing that he took every opportunity he could find to hear him play in New York City jazz clubs. He was lucky to establish a relationship with Coryell and this helped Di Meola get valuable knowledge and contacts.

    After leaving high school in 1973 Al Di Meola went to school at Berklee College of Music in Boston. After leaving Berklee he played for a few months with The Barry Miles Quintet but decided to go back to the college to study arranging and further his musical education. In 1974 Di Meola was given a spot with jazz pianist Chick Corea's "Return To Forever" group without an audition. Corea had actually heard some tapes made by The Barry Miles quintet including Di Meola on guitar. This was an amazing stroke of luck for the guitar player due to the fact that at that time "Return To Forever" was Di Meola's favorite group.

    Al Di Meola made a number of big selling records with "Return To Forever" creating for himself in an extremely brief amount of time an exceptional international reputation. After he left this well-known jazz fusion group in the late 1970s Di Meola led several of his own groups. Throughout the 1980s Di Meola was once again fronting his own groups that experimented with various musical styles.

    Then with John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia in an amazing guitar trio in 1980 Di Meola changed to playing acoustic guitar instead of electric. Their recordings "Friday Night In San Francisco" and "Passion, Grace & Fire", are full of virtuoso guitar playing and unique moments. In addition to tape-recording and touring with his New World Sinfonia band, Di Meola (who focused primarily on the acoustic guitar in the 1990s) has been included in other musical projects. In 1996 he had a trio with violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and bassist Stanley Clarke called "The Rite of Swings".

    Al Di Meola has worked with artists from other musical fields (Luciano Pavarotti, Paul Simon, classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco, Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, and Frank Zappa), matched ideas with keyboardist Jan Hammer, played the tango music of composer Astor Piazzola, and sometimes been featured with all-star groups that included the 2008 reunion of "Return To Forever". In recent times Di Meola has mainly been leading The New World Sinfonia, playing music that is both spectacular and beyond classification!

Jazz Guitar Chords & Arpeggio Patterns - Stacy McKee - This unique book includes 300 jazz guitar chord formations and matching single note arpeggio patterns in a quick reference format that no one has ever done before! Cross indexing makes this manual extremely easy to use and regardless of what style of music you play, we know you will find this to be a valuable, "must have" addition to your library.  Stacy McKee was the featured guitarist with "Les Brown and The Band Of Renown" and for a limited time only, we will include an exclusive copy of his book FREE with your first order!
==> Click here to see the Stacy McKee Chord Melody Solo Collection <==