Guitar virtuoso Al Di Meola and his new band, World Sinfonia, will kick off the New Year with a US tour and live album release.
The coast-to-coast outing is set to launch Jan. 10 in New York City and wrap Feb. 8 following a three-night stand in San Francisco. Stops include Austin, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and a four-night engagement in Seattle. An extensive European tour follows. Stateside dates are listed below and those overseas can be found at Di Meola's website.
Fans can get a taste of what to expect from the live shows when
Di Meola and
World Sinfonia release "
La Melodia Live In Milano" in America Jan. 8. The album features four songs by
Di Meola, one each by
Ennio Morricone and
Andrea Parodi, and two by tango master
Astor Piazzolla, for whom
Di Meola admits he has been "
carrying a torch" his entire career.
Di Meola said his shift from jazz-rock to the romantic style is perfectly natural.
"Although the tango developed in Argentina, it was born in the region of Italy where my parents are from, Napoli," the guitarist explained in a press release. "This music connects to my roots. As long as I'm playing music, it will be part of my repertoire."
Di Meola has been busy this year, touring his solo work and reuniting with groundbreaking jazz-fusion group Return To Forever. The Grammy-winning outfit, which also features keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White, mounted a major North American/European run over the summer and released an anthology set.
Di Meola, who is just about to wrap his own European tour, has been supporting a couple of releases: last year's "Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar, Vol. 1: Music of Astor Piazzolla" and 2006's "consequence Of Chaos," which made it into the Top 10 on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart. Last fall, he also released his first electric DVD, "Speak A Volcano - Return To Electric Guitar."
Tour dates are below:
01/10 - New York, NY - The Concert Hall
01/14 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap
01/15 - Annapolis, MD - Rams Head
01/16 - Fairfield, CT - Stage One
01/17 - Huntington, NY - IMAC Theater
01/18 - Sellersville, PA - Sellersville Theatre
01/22 - Austin, TX - One World Theatre
01/23 - Scottsdale, AZ - Martini Ranch
01/24 - Las Vegas, NV - Santa Fe Station
01/25 - Agoura, CA - Canyon Club
01/27 - Portland, OR - Aladdin Theater
01/28 - Bend, OR - Tower Theatre
01/29 - Seattle, WA - Dimitriou's Jazz Alley
01/31 - Seattle, WA - Dimitriou's Jazz Alley
02/01 - Seattle, WA - Dimitriou's Jazz Alley
02/03 - San Diego, CA - Anthology
02/04 - Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy Theatre
02/05 - San Juan Capistrano, CA - The Coach House
02/06 - San Francisco, CA - Yoshi's
02/08 - San Francisco, CA - Yoshi's
Thanks for the info to Livedaily.com.
