#1337499 - 05/03/01 04:10 AM
DiMeola?
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michael saulnier
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I thought Al DiMeola made some great points about the music industry in the article recently posted on this site. When he hit the scene fusion was not only innovative, it was actually POPULAR!
I've always been a DiMeola fan and could never understand why he was labled as "machine like" or "without emotion". Just because he can and does play super clean 64th note lines, it doesn't mean he can't and doesn't play beautiful and melodic parts. His rhythm playing is phenominal, he has one of the best "right hands" in guitar playing, and he manages to write pieces that have some "passion and fire".
I think he's the perfect example of what Jimmy James was saying on the "Clapton" thread... Fast, technically skilled players CAN also play "slowly" with tremendous emotion and grace.
I know others will say: "It's just wanking" or "I don't get it" or "it doesn't move me"... and OK that's your opinion...
But I think that Al DiMeola is one of the greatest "artists" who ever picked up a guitar, and an objective listening of his music will reveal a player who has both chops AND soul.
guitplayer
(Flame suit... check!)
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http://www.acousticvoodoo.com
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#1337500 - 05/03/01 04:31 AM
Re: DiMeola?
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Skip_dup1
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Liked him a lot with Return to Forever, but...
Great chops, too dispassionate and metronomic for me.
cf. Allan Holdsworth, John Mclaughlin.
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#1337501 - 05/03/01 06:13 AM
Re: DiMeola?
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Chip McDonald
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Originally posted by guitplayer:
I know others will say: "It's just wanking" or "I don't get it" or "it doesn't move me"... and OK that's your opinion...
In "Race with the Devil" he stops on notes and doesn't do perfunctory vibrato. That = "no feeling" to some people.
I was prepared to write some long diatribe explaining the logical disconnect behind deriding DiMeola, but I'm tired of bothering. If people don't get it, whatever, they're not going to get it. It's just like my post in the thread about Rush: if you're in a vibe to hear some fluid legato playing like Holdsworth, based on some sort of hybrid multiple tonality, you're probably not going to be in the mood to hear a lot of stacatto ostinato ehtnic-tinged music from DiMeola - and vice versa.
If you want to hear nice wallpaper, you don't listen to either, but choose Enya or some such. There's times for such things, at least in my life; I can understand that in some people's lives there isn't need for a vibe other than "Current Consumer Pop Music Predilection #989765".
All music that *is* actually music conveys a vibe. A lot of DiMeola's music is "tension" - which is something a lot of people don't want to embrace. At the same time, a lot of his more recent music is very beautiful and "scenic", and one is likely to be either ignorant or an idiot to say otherwise. He can play slow as well as anyone.
Yeah, I know that sounds biased based on what my acoustic stuff sounds like on my MP3.com web page (can Chip play slow and "soulful"?), but I was relatively silent when the alternative thing started happening and poor ability began usurping actual talent: it's getting old deriding people who are obviously very good into a negative category reflexively. It's intellectually banal. Music shouldn't be turned into such an "either/or" pursuit IMO.
http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald
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www.chipmcdonald.com (tagline inlieu of having a representational page of downloadable music for the moment...) / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien
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#1337502 - 05/03/01 02:05 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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Lee Flier
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Actually, I like listening to Al DiMeola... for about 10 minutes.  Then it gets boring.
it's getting old deriding people who are obviously very good into a negative category reflexively. It's intellectually banal.
Not everybody uses their "intellect" to listen to music.
--Lee
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#1337503 - 05/03/01 04:41 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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Steve LeBlanc
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Great post Chip, 100% right on.
As far as Al playing with soul and emotion, just listen to "Tour De Force - Live," the way he lets the right notes hang on "Elegant Gypsy Suite" is very sweet.
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#1337504 - 05/03/01 04:53 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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d gauss
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my upright bass player went to high school with dimeola. he has some good garage band stories where al obviously floored everyone....
-d. gauss
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#1337505 - 05/03/01 07:56 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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Jimmy James
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I wish I still had the quote here. But in an issue of some guitar magazine DiMeola takes on all the people who have this "One note is more important that a million" philosophy. First of all the says that it's a bunch of bulls**t. He says, "Tell that to a Flemenco player and they'll laugh at you." You have to have the physical skills to play the required music. Most of the people who have this philosophy have lousy technique. This is basically what he said.
The funny thing is he doesn't even play the music that he's known for anymore. His music today is alot slower and melodic. He still has the juice because the fans demand it but this recordings in the last 8 years have been alot mellower and romantic.
In discussing his new Anthology release he says he is amazed that people still love that old stuff. I still dig it too.
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http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/144/oscar_jordan.html
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#1337506 - 05/03/01 08:01 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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KHAN
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Posted by Lee:
>>>Not everybody uses their "intellect" to listen to music.
-----------------------
Exactly ! I use my Pancreas and right Kidney... 
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#1337507 - 05/03/01 10:56 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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AlChuck
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I got kinda sick of him for a while back in the later RTF days, but in the last ten years he's grown on me again -- the Astor Piazolla-inspired stuff is often quite moving and beautiful. I'll also always have a fond spot in my heart for him for enabling me to hear Jaco Pastorius for the first time on his (DiMeola's) first solo album (on the piece "Suite:Golden Dawn"). I haven't been the same since.
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#1337508 - 05/04/01 03:53 AM
Re: DiMeola?
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Chip McDonald
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Originally posted by Lee Flier:
it's getting old deriding people who are obviously very good into a negative category reflexively. It's intellectually banal.
Not everybody uses their "intellect" to listen to music.
That wasn't my point. People like to point fingers and say "ahhh, he's just a fast wanker, that's all he can do, he can't play soulfully"; that's a reflexive attitude. It's also a very popular one, which is why it's banal - it takes less thought than the first bozo who was intimidated by fast guitar players, and decided to figure out how to tear it down by inventing this pop myth.
http://www.mp3.com/chipmcdonald
_________________________
www.chipmcdonald.com (tagline inlieu of having a representational page of downloadable music for the moment...) / "big ass windbag" - Bruce Swedien
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#1337509 - 05/06/01 02:06 AM
Re: DiMeola?
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murph
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We've all seen plenty of wankers and plenty of... non-wankers, I guess.
I saw DiMeola during the Tirami Su tour. For about a half hour in the middle of the concert, he played his acoustic by himself, no band. Sure, he was technically brilliant--- he did things on that guitar that people don't even fathom on an electric. He also had the entire crowd lost in his playing. I've never seen an audience that quiet (with the exceptions being at some of my gigs, but this was a big crowd, mind you). It was probably improvised, although he started with Mediteranean Sundance, then moved on. It was full of fire and passion, and he felt every note... or at least gave that impression. It was pretty incredible. If you like that sort of thing...
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#1337510 - 05/06/01 05:37 AM
Re: DiMeola?
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Skip_dup1
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My comment never mentioned anything about fast vs. slow playing-more to do with phrasing, but I haven`t heard his more recent material. It sounds like
he`s more into values-meaning, in a nutshell, when to hang on notes, etc.
But equally dumb are the statements, `he`s playing fast, that`s his only skill`, and `people who say that are lousy players` or `don`t know what`s good`.
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#1337511 - 05/06/01 02:25 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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Lee Flier
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murph,
Actually I really like listening to DiMeola just play acoustic. I still can't take a whole lot of it at once, but I do think he's really good at that and it's very moving stuff.
--Lee
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#1337512 - 05/06/01 08:14 PM
Re: DiMeola?
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Tedster
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Probably just boils down to the ol' "Time for every purpose under heaven" bit...
To everything, turn turn turn
There is a season, turn turn turn etc...
A time for Al...a time for King
A time for Limp...a time for Wes
A time for Stevie Ray Vaughan
A time for Kottke and Julian Bream....
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