Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar – Vol.1 Music of Astor Piazzolla

“Diabolic 1. Devilish; fiendish; outrageously wicked.” This is how the Argentinian genius Astor Piazzolla defined his own, pioneering music. It was in reference to his attempts to take his country’s tango music into a new era by bringing a modern vision to the standard elements of this highly refined genre. In this album, Al Di Meola pays homage to his mentor with eight songs that are anything but wicked or fiendish. Instead, they add further refined textures that bathe the listener in soothing flashbacks to the golden era of tango music.

Piazzolla revelled in the fact that he broke all the rules in the book to advance tango onto another plane, one that has been universally praised for its audacity and vision. Yet, as Di Meola reminds us in the sleeve notes, his transgressions were initially received with scepticism bordering hostility. Yet, some 14 years after the accordeonist’s untimely death from thrombosis, Piazzolla’s compositions only strike listeners as harmonious collages of technically demanding works.

Under Di Meola’s experienced fingers, the perenity of songs like “Tangate del Alba” and “Tema de Maria” are anything but devilish or wicked. It is more the seduction than the fiendish quality of Piazzolla’s artform that Di Meola promotes here. The widely-travelled American guitarist has amassed remarkable width in the 16 years since his landmark exchange with Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin, which resulted in their album “Friday Night in San Francisco”. “I would say I have given extra texture to my orchestrations,” he told me over a Paris meal in November. It has allowed the 52-year-old to tackle his Argentinean hero with more aplomb than his 2002 work “Flesh on Flesh”. That was when he released interpretations like “Fugata” that revealed Piazzolla’s ability to change the metrical accent in music. Arguably, Di Meola did not reach the crossover range, somewhere between Havana and Buenos Aires, of his mentor.

Yet, the accordionist was not interested in flouting dazzling techniques as forms of exercise. His emotional engagement is another trademark that crosses his 500-plus recordings. Di Meola has at times been accused of sacrificing subtlety for speed. This album could nip that reputation in the bud. “I need to work on compositions that never sacrifice emotion for the technical rigours of guitar-playing,” he explained. “If I can appeal to the heart and the brain at the same time, that’s fine.” A comment Astor Piazzolla would probably have applauded, especially when hearing Di Meola’s interpretation of “Adios Nonino” which the Argentinian composed for his father.

November 2006

Daniel Brown

Artist website