Al Dimeola is one of the best Guitarists of All Time by: Tim Igielski
Al DiMeola has had a solo career simultaneous to and following his part in the legendary band Return to Forever. Most guitarists play a basic melody and get to break out into short solo that can be complicated or intricate. However most guitarists have material that is under five minutes length in total time. Al DiMeola plays intricate, complicated guitar pieces that can last much,much longer than the few minutes it usually takes to get through an ordinary 'pop' or 'rock' piece. The fusion jazz that he is so good at integrates rock, jazz, blues and classical styles with lots of latin sounds mixed in. On top of this, Mr. DiMeola is one of the hands-down, fastest guitar players I have ever seen. Not only fast, but spot-on accurate and can do this for over-extended time periods. Most people have probably not listened to his music or did not know who was playing that fantastic guitar piece and never found out, if they did hear him. I recommend seeing him live or checking out one of his DVDs. Many picks for the greatest guitar player of all time seem to have been based ( by others) mostly upon popularity of a well known artist. If you check this guy out, you will see that he is truly one of the very best!
