Customer Reviews

The Best of Al DiMeola: The Manhattan Years

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Please don't mistake this for a real "Best of Al DiMeola" collection, for this is not that.

This is merely the best of his 3 albums for Manhattan, "Soaring Through a Dream", "Ciello e Terra", and "Tirami Su". These 3 albums are comparatively weak (except Tirami Su) to Al's other works, but this collection overall is very good.

This is only my second exposure to Mr. DiMeola's work, but I like this compliation better than I liked "Heart of the Immigrants." This involves guitars, percussion, some typical New Age vocalizations (chants?), keyboards and bass. Two of the nine selections are from his earlier CD "Soaring Through a Dream"; three tunes are excerpted from his "Cielo e Terra" album, and four were first issued on the disc "Tirami Su." The overall effect here is a little mellower than Andreas Vollenweider's famous "White Winds" release, but is similar in feeling. Ordinarily, I like "New Age" only in small doses, and non-vocal "New Age" at that. This CD has a nice balance of moods and elements and the vocals neither dominate nor annoy. You might say of it "Smooth jazz meets the Metaphysical" and yet not be demeaning. I would have liked it to offer more uptempo acoustic jazz, but when one is in a certain mood, this CD delivers quality sounds. My copy came at a bargain price, so I am delighted to have it. Diehard DiMeola fans probably have the three original albums on the Manhattan label already. For newcomers, this is a nice introduction to the genre and to the guitarist.

This CD was late getting to me in the mail, but finally arrived. Amazon had already refunded my money, but when I received the CD, I sent a check to Lisa's to pay for it. It arrived in generally good condition. It was a new CD, but there was a small crack in the case from shipping. Great music though, and the CD was in first class condition! As I told Lisa, "All's well that ends well."

Thanks for the refund, Amazon - your reputation is 5 stars, in my view. And Lisa accepted that Amazon had made a refund, a plus in her favor. I gave 4 stars because of the cracked case, but it was a 5 star effort on everybody's part.

This is one of my favorite Dimeola CDs. I love the song "Racing with devil on Turkish highway," similar to "... Spanish Highway." I also loved the songs in Italian, DiMeola does an excellent job of fusing Jazz, Flamenco and Rock. I give it 5 stars. DiMeola is the best. Tony DiGennaro, 14