Al Di Meola Vinyl Record Albums

Al DiMeola (born July 22 ,1954 ) is an American jazz fusion guitarist.

DiMeola was born in Jersey City, New Jersey . In 1971 , he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts . In 1974 he joined Chick Corea 's band, Return to Forever , and played with the band until they broke up in 1976 .

DiMeola went on to explore a variety of styles, but is noted for his Latin influenced fusion works. He is a four time winner as Best Jazz Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine's Reader Poll.

In addition to a prolific solo career, he has engaged in successful collaborations with bassist Stanley Clarke , violinist Jean-Luc Ponty , and guitarists John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía .

In the beginning of his career Di'Meola was famous of playing faster than other electric guitarists at that time. He was one of the first (well before Eddie Van Halen ) who introduced rapid guitar playing with distorted sound (already on some Return to Forever albums such as No Mystery ,1975 , and Romantic Warrior ,1976 ). His early albums had big impact on Yngwie J. Malmsteen . Later Di'Meola intentionally took distance to rapid speed playing and distorted sound.