jazz rock fusion

Yet one album came out in 1977 that would bring about changes among the ranks of the technical virtuosos. Al Di Meola's Elegant Gypsy. Di Meola emerged from Chick Corea's powerhouse fusion band Return to Forever after two solid but not quite successful albums Where I have Known You Before and Romantic Warrior. Blending heavy rock, Flamenco and Italian Classical music with South American Rhythms, the 23-year old guitarist catapulted onto the guitar scene. Largely because of his incredibly fast picking and strong compositions he was able to attract the attention of even a novice listener.

While fast fusion guitar had been in style since McLaughlin first made news a half-decade earlier, Di Meola's fluid, on-the-beat style, which was as fast as a flamenco player's, but electrified, made jaws drop from coast to coast. In addition to gaining notoriety for the sheer speed of his playing, Di Meola popularized a technique he called mutola. To achieve the mutola effect, he damped his guitar strings with the palm of his picking hand to create a popping tone not unlike the sound of a percussionist's woodblock. While this technique was not wholly original- country jazz great Hank Garland had used it in Just for Tonight from the Unforgettable Guitar of Hank Garland - mutola was still new to jazz-rock and soon became another Di Meola trademark. Even more impressive was his acoustic guitar-duet with flamenco master Paco De Lucia on Mediterranean Sundance. Within this track the two guitarists traded volley after volley of blindingly fast, Spanish-styled solos over chord changes identical to those found in De Lucia's composition called Rumba, from his 1975 album Paco De Lucia En Vivo Desde El Teatro Real.

The flamenco-fusion concept was bought to its zenith by the 1980-83 union of McLaughlin, De Lucia and Di Meola that yielded to fine albums and several sold out tours. Back on electric, Di Meola furthered his stranglehold on late '70s speed guitar with his equally ingenious 1978 record Casino and until the mid '80s was often considered the fastest guitarist alive.

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