© 1976 Sony
Elegant Gypsy is the second album by Latin jazz fusion guitarist Al Di Meola. This was a follow-on album to Al Di Meoloa's debut release, Land of The Midnight Sun. The distinctive music in this release is a speedy fusion of Jazz and Rock, with lightning-fast guitar riffs intermixed with lyrical acoustical passages.
The songs include explorations of latin music themes, including acoustic genres like flamenco. Chick Corea, Jan Hammer & Paco de Lucía play with Meola in this album. Elegant Gypsy won an annual award for Best Guitar Album in Guitar Player Magazine.
Many consider Al Di Meola to be the father of modern day shred movement.
Jazz / Fusion
Land of the Midnight Sun is the first album by Al Di Meola, released in 1976. The complex pieces (which include the three-part "Suite-Golden Dawn," an acoustic duet with Chick Corea on "Short Tales of the Black Forest" and a brief Bach violin sonata) show Di Meola's range even at this early stage.
Classical / Flamingo / Fusion
Friday Night in San Francisco may be considered the most influential of all live acoustic guitar albums. Though some have criticized it for its muscular tendencies, the recording certainly captures the excitement of the event itself. In a world of electric guitars, it was quite unusual to hear a crowd go absolutely ballistic over acoustic strumming. It is not so unusual today, and this record is one major reason for that.