AL DI MEOLA — Land of the Midnight Sun (review)

AL DI MEOLA — Land of the Midnight Sun album cover Album · 1976 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
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.

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Poetry of Place (from the exhibit by painter Karen Allen) Jazz Related Improv/Composition
CHRIS DINGMAN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Hiwar World Fusion
ALEPH QUINTET
Buy this album from MMA partners
Stefan Keune, Steve Noble, Dominic Lash : Black Box Jazz Related Improv/Composition
STEFAN KEUNE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio : Dream A Dream Avant-Garde Jazz
SATOKO FUJII
Buy this album from MMA partners
Jazz Suite Outcome Of Choice Avant-Garde Jazz
PAUL DUNMALL
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Nitty Gritty
RUSS SPIEGEL
js· 2 days ago
Never in a 100.000.000 Dreams
SUPERSISTER
js· 2 days ago
Love is a Fire that Burns Unseen
PETER MADSEN
js· 3 days ago
Nostalgi
RIGMOR GUSTAFSSON
js· 3 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us