“This is the last day of my Sixties – holy shit!” he opens the concert at the 30th jazzopen in Stuttgart.
And in fact he then grooves towards his 70th birthday with a five-person band, which he is allowed to ring in after around two hours of guitar acrobatics with his band, wife, young daughter and his audience. Percussionist Gumbi Ortiz joins everyone in singing Happy Birthday, even if, strictly speaking, that comes an hour too early. But the excellent atmosphere leaves no room for sticking to principles.
The master certainly did not seem like a seventy-year-old who is about to retire. He plays racing guitar licks as always and has a congenial band at his side that can keep up with his playing tempo. He duels with Mike Pope on the 6-string electric bass or unison phrases with keyboardist Philippe Saisse and can rely on powerful supporting percussion from drummer Luis Alicea and percussionist Gumbi Ortiz. The latter also throws in a percussion duet, to which Di Meola joins with drumsticks and bongos. Precise, rapid breaks add a special spice to the stage action.
His own style: Di Meola, in keeping with his seventies, draws on numerous elements from his first solo albums from the late seventies: Land of the Midnight Sun, Elegant Gypsy and Casino. With these, he also stepped out of the shadow of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever band, which he joined in 1973 at the age of 19. He developed his own style more and more and drew attention to his versatility unplugged and acoustically with two other guitar cracks: John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia. The live album Friday Night in San Francisco from their collaboration sold millions of copies.
At the Stuttgart concert, however, the electric guitarist was at work, which earned him a loud, spontaneous shout from the audience: “You are the best!”, which Di Meola acknowledged with a smile and two raised index fingers. In the end, the numerous visitors got what they wanted: the experience of being able to experience a guitar legend live. Nobody was disappointed – quite the opposite! After just one encore, the band had to say goodbye due to the city’s ban on late performances. His promise that he would come back next year reconciled them and earned them jubilant applause.
