I finally caught up with Al Di Meola’s The Grande Passion. Ever since I bought my Ovation guitar I have been more interested in the albums DiMeola made with his acoustic group World Sinfonia. For one I can relate to them better since I am exclusively playing on the Ovation and have not touched my electric for over almost a year. Also, this album is heavily infused with Tango influences and in particular the compositions and playing of Astor Piazzolla, a legend of Tango at an equal footing with greats such as Coltrane in the impact that he had on his contemporaries. As a matter of fact, along with this album I also bought Piazzolla’s Tango Zero Hour. I have not had a chance to listen to it yet but what is an interesting story is that I met one of the producers for that album while walking my dog around my neighbourhood. Their label specialises on Latin fusions. Check out their site: www.americanclave.com. Amazon has a sample of the music on the Grande Passion as well as commentary. Here is a direct link to a free download for Double Concerto.

DiMeola’s playing is great as usual but in many ways more passionate, perhaps due to Tango which is a very passionate and rhythmic form.