Al Dimeola is very angry

[5thsand4ths]

Anyway, you do this at 21 and try not to be jaded by 50...

I saw Return to Forever on their Romantic Warrior tour at the Queen Elizabeth theatre in Vancouver. It was 1973 or 74 and I was an early teens bass player. The backup band was Larry Coryell. He had Alphonse Mouzon on drums. Mouzon was amazing and nearly stole the night. Overall it was an amazing experience for me, a young bass player, to see Stanley Clarke with Di Meola, Corea and White.

Now, reading Di Meola's rant, I see he had some sour grapes over how his first 3 or 4 albums were popular then many didn't follow his best work to follow. That is how I followed him. I had the albums Land of the Midnight Sun, Elegant Gypsy etc. You can only sit around basements with buddies listening to tunes for so long before life puts one on a different course.

He even ranted about not getting radio time. Time for a reality check. He sounded like that commercial where the guy is complaining about his poor CD sales. Everyone has a window of popularity. Things change. Demographics change.

 

[bassboysam]

so many notes yet somehow boring AF

 

[JimK]

 

[twinjet]

This thread has inspired me to check out some more Di Meola albums. But I think we're all forgetting his greatest masterpiece:

Casino and Elegant Gypsy are probably my favorite of his older works. But don't stop there! Land of the Midnight Sun is great too.

Sequencer was way cool, by the way.

He reminds me of a certain bass player who had trouble with the fact that he wasn't as "popular" as he thought he should be. And I'm reminded of the old adage "cutting off another's head does not make one taller."

Are we talking Jaco? Or someone else?

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

That's why jazz is dying. It stopped evolving and growing with new music. How I miss Miles Davis.

 

[roccobass]

I saw Return to Forever on their Romantic Warrior tour at the Queen Elizabeth theatre in Vancouver. It was 1973 or 74 and I was an early teens bass player. The backup band was Larry Coryell. He had Alphonse Mouzon on drums. Mouzon was amazing and nearly stole the night. Overall it was an amazing experience for me, a young bass player, to see Stanley Clarke with Di Meola, Corea and White.

Now, reading Di Meola's rant, I see he had some sour grapes over how his first 3 or 4 albums were popular then many didn't follow his best work to follow. That is how I followed him. I had the albums Land of the Midnight Sun, Elegant Gypsy etc. You can only sit around basements with buddies listening to tunes for so long before life puts one on a different course.

He even ranted about not getting radio time. Time for a reality check. He sounded like that commercial where the guy is complaining about his poor CD sales. Everyone has a window of popularity. Things change. Demographics change.

Most great technical jazz players won't be heard on big commercial radio anymore. I know it's true around here. Times have changed, tastes have changed and the format meisters have seen to that. The smaller independent public stations (NPR) with DJs who still can program their own shows may play Al's albums. I think internet radio/youtube is his best bet for continued mass media exposure. Hopefully, he won't be as caustic with those guys!

 

[Pacman]

Are we talking Jaco? Or someone else?

Someone else, although they were contemporaries.

 

[mellowinman]

When the world runs out of notes, it will be Al's fault. Just sayin'...

 

[twinjet]

Most great technical jazz players won't be heard on big commercial radio anymore. I know it's true around here. Times have changed, tastes have changed and the format meisters have seen to that. The smaller independent public stations (NPR) with DJs who still can program their own shows may play Al's albums. I think internet radio/youtube is his best bet for continued mass media exposure. Hopefully, he won't be as caustic with those guys!

I heard Snarky Puppy on NPR one day. I was blown away when Lingus came on and there was actual dialogue about the band. Haven't heard them on radio since.

 

[andruca]

Al di who...? Another pretentious crybaby who just can't get over it and thinks the only true peak in music was the time when he was relevant. There's a ton of guys like that. I don't have respect for the kind of attitude, no matter how big you are or how many people you trick into considering your terribly boring stuff. BTW, his peak was Friday night in SF (BTW, with two other down to earth reasonable guys who -specially Paco- never ceased to be amazed by many generations of musicians and the current state of music). I find his "shredding Santana" shtick plain somniferous.

 

[twinjet]

Al di who...? Another pretentious crybaby who just can't get over it and thinks the only true peak in music was the time when he was relevant. There's a ton of guys like that. I don't have respect for the kind of attitude, no matter how big you are or how many people you trick into considering your terribly boring stuff. BTW, his peak was Friday night in SF (BTW, with two other down to earth reasonable guys who -specially Paco- never ceased to be amazed by many generations of musicians and the current state of music). I find his "shredding Santana" shtick plain somniferous.

View attachment 2892903

Consider me tricked, I suppose. I love his older works and tend to agree with the school of thought that today's commercially produced music in the States is mostly unfavorable, though I can be swayed at times.

This rant of his certainly doesn't make me like his attitude, but I separate music from personalities anyway. If we only listened to artists whose personalities and attitudes matched our own I think people would listen to a lot less stuff.

 

[andruca]

This rant of his certainly doesn't make me like his attitude, but I separate music from personalities anyway. If we only listened to artists whose personalities and attitudes matched our own I think people would listen to a lot less stuff.

I do separate both, have in fact in my post. But just in case I wasn't clear, I like neither.

 

[Korladis]

His attitude is like drugs. Someone always points out what the person accomplished in that condition, and I just try to imagine what they could have done if they were operating at full capacity.

Moderation is key. A little shy of sober reduces my self-consciousness enough that I can take risks musically that I might otherwise not consider.

Just read through the article, and I was expecting to be more irked by it than I was for what it's worth.

The very last line, I think, sums things up really well:

"It’s no longer about dazzling people with really interesting, super-adventurous compositions and technique anymore".

I have to say, I'm not all that upset by that. In fact, I'm quite happy about it.

IMO there's much much more to music that reaches people on an emotional level - at whatever level or style of music, than just adventurous compositions and virtuoso level technique. I feel like this is something that is often overlooked by uber talented instrumentalists/composers. Just my 2c.

I've never been that dazzled by technique. A lot of my favorite songs and pieces do not really show off a lot of flashy technique. Guitar solos tend to bore me unless something really interesting is happening underneath them.

I don't care how fast someone can play. That kind of stuff is boring to me. I want music that is moving emotionally, rather than impressive feats of instrumental athleticism.

so many notes yet somehow boring AF

Totally.

Are we talking Jaco? Or someone else?

Jaco didn't live long enough to become a grumpy old man.

 

[Omega Monkey]

Can we get over the myth that only listening to simple/plain music is somehow more noble? Because it's not. It just means you are probably missing out on most of the best sh... Really, it's more like a little kid who won't eat (insert any amazing food here). When you guys say "this bores me" or "cheesefest", what I hear is "I am not advanced enough to appreciate the absolute mastery of instrument and music that is happening here, so I will just say some sour grapes nonsense". Which in that case, it's you guys who are missing out, not Al.

Now, I'm not talking about garden variety shredders like yngwie, I hate those idiots. That's the whole point, Al isn't, and never has been, one of those dudes. An honest and educated assessment would reveal that. Now, he may be missing out on some of the better artists of the last 20 years (although he does have young daughters so I'm sure some stuff filters in to his consciousness), but he can hardly be blamed for saying modern music is crap, since it largely is unless you forage in the wilderness for a long damn time and sort through a bunch of mediocrity to find the good stuff.

 

[devnulljp]

I still think he's an *******

 

[Korladis]

Can we get over the myth that only listening to simple/plain music is somehow more noble? Because it's not. It just means you are probably missing out on most of the best sh... Really, it's more like a little kid who won't eat (insert any amazing food here). When you guys say "this bores me" or "cheesefest", what I hear is "I am not advanced enough to appreciate the absolute mastery of instrument and music that is happening here, so I will just say some sour grapes nonsense". Which in that case, it's you guys who are missing out, not Al.

Now, I'm not talking about garden variety shredders like yngwie, I hate those idiots. That's the whole point, Al isn't, and never has been, one of those dudes. An honest and educated assessment would reveal that. Now, he may be missing out on some of the better artists of the last 20 years (although he does have young daughters so I'm sure some stuff filters in to his consciousness), but he can hardly be blamed for saying modern music is crap, since it largely is unless you forage in the wilderness for a long damn time and sort through a bunch of mediocrity to find the good stuff.

He sure sounds like one of those dudes to me.

Most music of all eras is crap. Old people were saying "most modern music is crap" when Al's music was new.

 

[wilberthenry]

Reading the article and the comments here has been interesting. What strikes me are the following:
-Terrestrial radio is in a death spiral. Most folks I know who truly love music spend almost zero time listening to radio.
-Complaining about lack of radio play from a jazz fusion guy seems strange (the article is 10 years old, and I imagine his views may have changed).
-The music business many of us grew up with is also in a death spiral. Few people (and almost no young people) are willing to purchase recorded music. Algorithms on youtube, spotify, etc. are the new "gatekeepers" of what gets heard.
-Video games are where the majority of young males spend their entertainment dollars and time. Music is less important overall to this age bracket. This is not likely to change.
-As an artist you are largely responsible for who comes to your shows. Hiring more talented publicists to handle the promotion part of the business seems like the easiest fix. If someone of Al's talent and stature cannot draw more than 300 fans, then he needs to fire those who are supposed to be promoting his music and replace them.
-Putting down other musical styles, musicians, or the public's musical taste does nothing to elevate your work and makes you sound bitter and small.

 

[blue4]

Can we get over the myth that only listening to simple/plain music is somehow more noble? Because it's not. It just means you are probably missing out on most of the best sh... Really, it's more like a little kid who won't eat (insert any amazing food here). When you guys say "this bores me" or "cheesefest", what I hear is "I am not advanced enough to appreciate the absolute mastery of instrument and music that is happening here, so I will just say some sour grapes nonsense". Which in that case, it's you guys who are missing out, not Al.

Now, I'm not talking about garden variety shredders like yngwie, I hate those idiots. That's the whole point, Al isn't, and never has been, one of those dudes. An honest and educated assessment would reveal that. Now, he may be missing out on some of the better artists of the last 20 years (although he does have young daughters so I'm sure some stuff filters in to his consciousness), but he can hardly be blamed for saying modern music is crap, since it largely is unless you forage in the wilderness for a long damn time and sort through a bunch of mediocrity to find the good stuff.

Can we get over the myth that skill on an instrument and complication in your music automatically makes it worth more? We aren't advanced enough to appreciate it? Ok then, but doesn't that silly notion answer Al's question as to why he's not on the radio? There's simply not enough advanced musicians.

How about the myth that it's in any way difficult to find good music? Can we finally stop repeating this falsehood? You literally just need a cheap phone and one working finger. Or even no fingers and just the tip of your nose. It's a simple thumbs up/thumbs down system. We're all advanced musicians, yet somehow we can't operate Pandora. It amazes me there are still people out there huddled around the radio and their basic cable TV lamenting the state of entertainment.

 

[Kro]

LOL, of course if you don't like anything remotely ambitious, you're going to think the current music climate is awesome and Di Meola is horrible. Doesn't make it so in either case.

And to paraphrase Dostoevsky, unambitious bands are all the same, ambitious bands are all ambitious differently.

This post stuck with me, and as I was thinking about it earlier this morning, it made me want to play devil's advocate a bit and ask what is ambition as it pertains to music?

One could feasibly sum up one side of this argument as: new music doesn't sound like the old music so I dismiss it. What's more ambitious though, trying to eek out every last shred of refinement in a relatively mature style of music, or forging new paths as many are doing in hip-hop and electronic music - plenty of which is quite good by the way if you dig beneath the surface, and in some cases even if you don't.

I'd argue that many rappers are nothing if not ambitious.

 

[5thsand4ths]

Early Jaco on Land of the Midnight Sun.