Al Di Meola in Largo Saturday: ‘We’re just going to wing it, man’

One of the best jazz guitarists in the world performs in Largo Saturday.

Al Di Meola, whose fiery fretwork with Return to Forever in the 1970s virtually defined a generation of electric jazz fusion, has shows at 4 and 8 p.m. at the Central Park Performing Arts Center.

The first half of each concert will be devoted to solo guitar from every river, creek and tributary of DiMeola’s long and eclectic career, which has included deep immersions in Latin and world music, both acoustic and electric.

For the second half, the guitarist will be joined by Tampa’s own Gumbi Ortiz, a percussionist who’s been in several of Di Meola’s expansive band projects over the decades.

“There’s no rehearsal,” Di Meola laughs in a phone call from his home in Miami. “We’re just going to wing it, man, because we had almost 30 years’ collaboration. So he’s part of my history.

“If anything, we’re gonna have fun with that part of it. And then I’ll bring in the serious sh-t, you know?”

A good percentage of said sh-t will likely include music by Argentinian legend Astor Piazzolla, classics from the Return to Forever and solo Di Meola catalogs, and Beatles songs.

Across the Universe, the New Jersey native’s second Fab Four tribute album, is his most recent recording. It was released on Friday, March 13, 2020, the very day theaters were closed and gatherings were banned.

Di Meola, a lifelong Beatles fan (“I live and breathe that music”) first honored the band with All Your Life in 2007. That album, recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, was all acoustic.

This new one features full band arrangements, with Di Meola alternating between acoustic and electric guitar. Sometimes on the same song.

He was in his home state, in the middle of band rehearsals for the Across the Universe tour, when all his gigs disappeared.

And that’s as good an explanation as any for why this veteran musician, who’s spent more than half his life on the road, wants to get out and play. NOW.

Although he composed 10 or 12 new pieces in lockdown, “I’ve lost all momentum,” Di Meola says matter-of-factly. “I think for every artist, no matter who you are, even an actor, you’ve lost momentum. Whatever groove you were in, if you were in a groove, you don’t have that groove any more.

“So to regain it, you don’t know what it’s gonna be like till you go out there. I had 12 to 15 months of built-up fear that, you know, am I going to fall right back into it or not?”

The pandemic, he believes, won’t be a factor. Seating is socially-distanced at Central Park, and masks are required.

“I’ve had both shots, so I’m not fearful of getting it. And I think half the people in the audience if not more might have had the shots. I don’t know … look, it’s certainly still out there, and it’s not like I’m doing a tour. I’m doing three dates and nothing till the fall. Maybe next year. That’s it.”

After Saturday’s opening shows in Largo, Di Meola and Ortiz will play at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre and the Old School Square Pavilion in Delray Beach. Although Central Park Performing Arts Center is a theater, the other venues are open-air venues.

He broke up the monotony of isolation with a series of “house events” called A Fine Taste and Music. Last August, Di Meola explains, he was at home, cooking for some friends. “I can make some really great Italian dishes,” he says. “We were feeling really good, so I said to my wife, ‘You know what, do a livestream, right now while I’m making it.’ All of a sudden, we got this huge response. From all over the world, just every country you can imagine.

“One hundred percent jokingly, I said ‘And if you’d like, you can fly out here and I’ll do it for you in person.’ After that we read the comments, and there were a bunch of people that were saying ‘Great! How much?’ And I said hey Steph, I think we just came upon a phenomenal idea. And we quickly picked up 10 amazing gigs without leaving the house. For a lot of money, by the way. It was not cheap.”

Three packages were made available to fans, each including dinner preparation (you in your house, Al in his), a lengthy back-and forth conversation, and a private concert from the Di Meola home studio.

“The best one included you go home with a guitar signed,” he says.

Up next is a 1980 recording with fellow guitarists John McLaughlin (who, with his Mahavishnu Orchestra, was the only real competition for Di Meola and Return to Forever back in the day) and Paco de Lucia, who died in 2014.

It’s a sequel, of sorts, to the trio’s platinum-selling Friday Night in San Francisco live album.

“This is Saturday night,” explains Di Meola. “We almost forgot that we did a second night. And I was the one that wound up with all of the two-inch reels. And I’ve had them in my tape vault basement for 40-whatever years. Periodically, every 10 years or so I would bring it up, but we never got anywhere.

“This time I finally got through to John. I said ‘John, these tapes are not going to last another 10 years. If we don’t do something now to preserve them … we should consider putting them out.’ So I had them professionally baked, to make sure that the sound was there. It’s signed, sealed and delivered right now.’”

A documentary film about Di Meola’s life and career is also in the works.

Return to Forever, 1976, clockwise from left: Al Di Meola, Lenny White, Stanley Clarke and Chick Corea. Sony Music

Although the “classic” Return to Forever lineup reunited for a 2008 tour, relations between the guitarist and founder and keyboard player Chick Corea were strained at best. Di Meola has long maintained that Corea, who lived in Clearwater because of its proximity to Church of Scientology headquarters, allowed both religion and ego to come between them.

Corea died last month in Clearwater. The two never patched things up.

“We had a falling out,” says Di Meola. “I’ve tried to re-communicate with him. Surprisingly with Scientology you’d think he would be into communicating, ‘cause that’s their whole thing.

“But because Chick has passed, I only have wonderful, amazing things that are truly honest to say about my time playing with him, and all the times we’ve collaborated. And what he’s meant to me as a mentor and everything, it’s all great.”

Still, Di Meola promises his forthcoming autobiography will go in-depth on many things, including that frosty relationship with his old friend. “Because it’s all part of what made the journey what it is – good and … interesting,” he says. “I won’t use the word bad.

“But there’s definitely some enticing things – why do a book if you don’t talk about it?”

Tickets are available here.