Al Di Meola - Consequence Of Chaos

Guitar great in jazzy collaboration

When you have, among others, Chick Corea on piano and Steve Gadd on drums, you know you’re in for a fusioneers’ mix of electric jazz and rock. The New York guitar maestro certainly delivers on the 15 tunes here. The jazzy element is suffused with Iberian guitar flavours on San Marco, and the discordant Africara Suite, while a Latino lilt shapes the accordion and syncopated percussion of Turquoise, topped by Di Meola’s guitar lines. A couple of less savoury moments include the Charlie Brown piano of Tao, the bongo fest that is Hypnose, and Cry For You, a disjointed acoustic guitar and piano duet. But Just Three Words adopts a classy synth air a la Vangelis, and the aptly-titled nine-minute Tempest mixes Steve Vai style licks with piano, before the dreamy synthscape of Storm Offshore and a sweet acoustic trio round things out.

Telarc | CD 83649

Reviewed by Tim Jones
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