Al Di Meola at Koerner Hall

The TD Toronto Jazz fest is in full swing this week with music providing a groovy soundtrack to get summer in the city started. Veteran guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola brought his impressive guitar skills to the stage of Koerner Hall Tuesday night.

This tour has Al revisiting his Electric Years, reuniting with his black Les Paul which he said hasn’t been in use since his time with Return To Forever. He recollected how he loved seeing Return To Forever when they would come to New York and it was his dream to play with them one day. After a friend turned him on to LSD, he recorded a demo that even he couldn’t believe how well he had played on. That friend harassed Chick Corea until he listened to the demo tape. The rest is history. Launching into Beyond The Seventh Galaxy, balancing between elegant phrasing and hard, crunchy tones, the audience was ready for a wonderful evening of music.

Considering Al had a heart attack recently, he was in excellent form and really enjoyed sharing a history of his career with the audience. Perhaps realizing his mortality. When his face wasn’t contorted while he was in guitar shredding mode, you could see him projecting a big smile. Truly enjoying himself and the interplay of his bandmates. Walking through an almost chronological setlist of material that ranged from the aforementioned Return To Forever, hitting checkpoints from his solo career including Casino and Elegant Gypsy, his time playing with Paco Delucia and John McLaughlin as well as sharing Ava’s Dance In the Moonlight which is the single from his latest album being released later this summer.

I had unfortunately missed his previous Toronto concert dates so I was elated that I still had an opportunity to see this legend in person. I for one am grateful that we still have this icon on the planet sharing his gifted talent.

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Be sure to check out the Toronto Jazz Fest website for more information on all things Jazz Fest!