FunkFreak75 Guitar phenom Al Di Meola's debut album as a bandleader.

1. "The Wizard" (6:46) a song that is forever burned into me brain for the way it blew me away upon first hearing it in 1976. Now, almost 50 years later it still stands up well: for both freshness in sound and power and proficiency as a strong composition. Nice drumming from Steve Gadd but even better percussion work from Mingo Lewis. Great build-up to the five-minute mark but then the crescendo and dénouement don't really live up to the hype until the very end. (14/15)

2. "Land of the Midnight Sun" (9:10) a great whole band groove with great starting melody coming from Al's smooth electric guitar, but then at the 0:45 mark we start the stop and staccato punching that Al becomes so known for before recapitulating the opening theme for the second verse. His playing is so clean and crisp! At 2:03 there is a motif switch into a gorgeous little Latin swing dance piece over which Al's muted soloing and Barry Miles' MiniMoog trade solo shots back and forth three rounds before moving into the stop and staccato punching for some Mingo Lewis conga display. Then we move into a different-key variation of the opening melody, another staccato divertimenti this time extended with some serious lead guitar and backing electric piano. Al does what Al Di does best at 6:20, soaring to Icarus' heights. The motif goes on just a bit too long before finally showing teasing signs of coming out in the final minute. Masterfully done! (18.75/20)

3. "Sarabande from Violin Sonata in B Minor" (1:20) a nice little display of classical feel and restraint for Al on this Bach piece. (4.75/5)

4. "Love Theme from 'Pictures of the Sea'" (2:25) obviously an excerpt from something else Al and company were recording that he liked but not enough to rework or re-record the piece in its entirety. Al's first display of his vocal talents (with Patty Buyukas and axe-buddy Stanley Clarke). It's nice, innocuous with nothing to really fault. (4.5/5)

5. "Suite - Golden Dawn" (9:49) a suite that is sometimes challenging to find connections between the parts, but the sum is nice. All in all it's good but not great (except for the work from the rhythm section). (17.75/20): - a. "Morning Fire" (1:15) opens sounding like Todd Rundgren's "Utopia Theme" only a little more refined. - b. "Calmer Of The Tempests" (1:11) a gentle tropical breeze from Mahavishnu land. - c. "From Ocean To The Clouds" (7:18) a funk-rock piece with liberal percussion and Alphonse Mouzon on drums. Nice trade offs in the duel between Al and Barry Miles' MiniMoog.

6. "Short Tales of the Black Forest" (5:41) an all-acoustic duet between Al and Chick Corea. Makes you comprehend how much of the RTF stuff comes from the keyboard maestro. Still, Al excels at playing with and off of other masters--filling those spaces with his magical flourishes and trilling runs. Chick's piano is recorded a little too far back--as if it's only Al's guitar that's getting mic-ed and all of Chick's piano sound is only being recorded by the grace of what Al's mic can pick up. (9.25/10)

Total Time: 35:11

The impressive debut album from prodigious guitarist Al Di Meola, fresh off of his first three albums with Chick Corea's Return to Forever project. While Al had undoubtedly the pick of the jazz and jazz-fusion worlds from which to use as his studio musicians on he could easily have just used all of his RTF band mates to display his singular compositional ideas. But his did not. While Chick, Stanley and Lenny all made contributions to Land of The Midnight Sun, Al also employed the support of such stalwarts as bassist Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius, drummers Steve Gadd and Alphonze Mouzon, and keyboardist Barry Miles. As was becoming known throughout the music world at the time, a musician had to be highly proficient bordering on virtuosic to hang with Al; what would become evident in the years to come was that there were other challenges to working with the demanding, self-absorbed maestro. While Midnight Sun does not stand up as well as Elegant Gypsy or some other later Al Di releases (I rarely listen to it, choosing 1977's Elegant Gypsy, 1978's Casino, or his 1980s releases over it), it represents an incredibly impressive display of instrumental and compositional skills though I feel a slightly cold arrogance creating some distance between the music and me, the listener. It's hard to argue with Al's virtuosity; the issue, as the years will bear out, is with his ability to engage his audience with something more than his skill and prowess.

4/20/24 addendum: With all the grief over Al's "soul-less" technicality, I have to say that I disagree: there is plenty of heart and emotion here, even in those blistering runs. The true test, for me, is the feel the listener gains from listening to the artist perform on an acoustic instrument and on Land of the Midnight Sun I think Mr. Di Meola accounts for himself in spades.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of multi-dimensional Jazz-Rock Fusion--a rather brilliant display for one's first foray!

Matti P Doing a tribute album of The Beatles songs had been a long-time dream for Al Di Meola, one of the most respected fusion guitarists all time. "It simply was a search to find a way to combine my world (whatever that is) into theirs, as I set out to do when I recorded the solo guitar CD of Piazzolla in 2006", Di Meola writes in his liner notes in which he praises the personal and universal importance of The Beatles, his excitement to work in the Abbey Road studios and his haphazard meeting with Paul McCartney in Hampton in May 2012.

This is a solo acoustic guitar work. Some tunes also feature his co-producer Hernan Romero on hand claps and chaca rhythm. The selection of 14 Lennon/McCartney songs -- no George Harrison compositions included -- is in my opinion fairly nice if not truly ideal. The early catchy hits are mostly absent. Sadly there aren't much from the two final Beatles albums either, only 'Because' from Abbey Road. The selection is emphasized on the c. 1965-67 era; for example four pieces from Sgt. Pepper. The Beatles originals such as 'A Day in the Life' and 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite' are so rich sonically that a solo guitar interpretation may feel rather inferior in comparison.

That's the price to pay when dealing with such well-known and heavily covered stuff. Artistically, this is one the most succesful of the few Beatles cover albums I've listened to. Al Di Meola's skills on the acoustic guitar are awesome, and his arrangements are inspired and as rich as pieces for a solo instrument can possibly be. If I felt somewhat disappointed by the opening track 'In My Life' featuring the hand clapping, during the 54-minute album I began to enjoy the music more and more.

A special mention for 'Eleanor Rigby' which sounds like there was a string section. Elsewhere it's often the ripped-down approach that brings up the song's melodic essence in a fresh way, for example the closing piece 'She's Leaving Home'.

Despite the above mentioned risk of sounding inferior to the original songs, it's a certainty that knowing the compositions helps me to enjoy this album. I mean, a regular solo guitar album of unfamiliar compositions would probably tire me on the long run.

Miler72 I can understand why I stayed away from Al Di Meola solo albums, but looking back, this is a prime example not to judge a book by its cover. 1978's Casino is his third solo album, which sports such a tasteless cover you may expect some horrific lounge jazz/fuzak, but I am happy to say it's nothing of the sort. He continues on the same Latin/flamenco fusion he explored on Elegant Gypsy, so that means if you like that album, you'll have no problem with Casino, although I don't feel the album really brings anything new to the table that he didn't already do on Elegant Gypsy. A good deal of the album bears more than a passing resemblance to Santana, I guess Di Meola was inspired by albums like Caravanserai, Welcome and Borboletta enough to record albums in a somewhat similar style. While I enjoy those Santana albums, I tend to have problems with some of the vocal songs, and Al Di Meola avoids that problem by making it all instrumental (although Land of the Midnight Sun did feature one vocal track, it was surprisingly nice). "Fantasia for Two Guitars" is one of those all-flamenco guitar pieces he tends to include on his albums, but the rest of the album has various help from various musicians, including Mingo Lewis, who, unsurprisingly played in Santana. There's also a version of Chick Corea's "Senor Mouse", which a version was recorded by Return to Forever off their 1973 album Hymns of the Seventh Galaxy. The RTF version naturally didn't feature Di Meola's guitar playing, but instead Bill Connors. Still this version is quite recognizable, but I imagine RTF performing this piece live quite a bit with Di Meola on board. At first I was a bit dismissive of Casino, but gave it another listen and found it actually an excellent album and worth having if you enjoy Latin fusion.

Miler72 Having been blown away by Return to Forever's Romantic Warrior (an album that literally took me years to warm up to, though, but once I did...) and Lenny White's Venusian Summer, I went and tried Al Di Meola's debut album, Land of the Midnight Sun. Like Lenny White's Venusian Summer, he doesn't hire a steady band, just whatever musicians want to appear, but Mingo Lewis of Santana (of the Caravanserai/Welcome/Borboletta-era), Jaco Pastorius, Steve Gadd, Stanley Clarke, even Chick Corea, and others appear. The first two cuts sound a whole lot like Romantic Warrior-era RTF meets Santana, which is no surprise given the members involved. He does a unaccompanied Bach piece on acoustic guitar, and do an atmospheric spacy prog number "Love them from 'Pictures of the Sea'". Surprisingly Stanley Clarke provides vocals here in that spacy prog manner, which does this piece justice. "Morning Fire" is a multi-movement suite, but it's basically one long jam with tons of fretless bass playing from Jaco Pastorius. In fact this was a big reason he ended up a member of Weather Report and became a valuable asset to the band. The last piece is largely Chick Corea on piano and Al Di Meola on guitar, and a rather relaxed piece.

This is truly a great album of Latin-influenced fusion, that I can highly recommend to those who enjoy Return to Forever (naturally) and fusion-era Santana.

siLLy puPPy After his stint with Chic Corea in Return To Forever reached its natural evolutionary conclusion, AL DI MEOLA decided the band had reached its apex and took off for a promising solo career at the age of 22. On his debut album LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN that came out the same year as “Romantic Warrior” he really got to show his stuff. Whereas in the Return To Forever role he was limited to the whims of band leader Chic Corea, on this debut he shines in full solo spender and displays his knack for not only playing guitar at the speed of light making him one of the few 70s shredders, but also illuminated his talents in creating long drawn out multi-part compositions as heard on the astounding three part epic “Suite Golden Dawn.”

While this is a AL DI MEOLA album through and through, he did have a little help with his friends from Return To Forever as well as other musical maestros with each contributing on different tracks, only this time HE was the band leader and got to lead the way. The album starts off with the Santana-esque “The Wizard” which is a percussive laden drum frenzy which introduces the world to DI MEOLA’s unique world of jazz-fusion with his gypsy ethnic flair that shows his blossoming interest in Latin rhythms, Mediterranean cultures and flamenco. While the second title track is a nine minute plus jazz-fusion behemoth that is pretty damned good and displays some veritable guitar maestrohood, it is without a doubt side two of the original vinyl release which constitutes the just shy of ten minute “Suite Golden Dawn” and the closing “Short Tales Of The Black Forest” that are the true masterpieces of this debut release.

On these last two tracks we get some of the most versatile and beautifully constructed guitar music that emerged from the 70s. “Suite Golden Dawn” starts off with that frenetic “Heart Of The Sunrise” feel from Yes and makes me think of what Yes would have sounded like had they gone in the full-on jazz-fusion direction. The track then meanders into soft and loud passages that alternate in perfect harmony until its end. There are also parts that bring the excellent “Fire Garden Suite” by Steve Vai to mind which shows how influential DI MEOLA’s technical prowess and compositional skills would be so influential for guitar virtuosos that followed. The finale “Short Tales Of The Black Forest” sounds like a mini Return To Forever reunion with Chic Corea providing both piano and marimba and easily sounds like it could have been slipped on to the “Romantic Warrior” album and no one would notice. While the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to the brilliance of the second half of the album, the first is quite the entertaining affair save the rather ho hum attempt at a J.S. Bach sonata in the form of “Sarabande” but at 1:20 hardly the focus of the album. Overall, great debut that would springboard DI MEOLA into greater heights.