Speed, Strings, and Something to Prove
Di Meola stretches out here, balancing firepower with genuine melodic feel.
By the time Al Di Meola recorded The Way In (1994), he had already done most of what a guitarist could reasonably brag about — the blistering runs on Return to Forever records, the acoustic fireworks of the Friday Night in San Francisco session, the Latin textures of Elegant Gypsy. So what do you do for an encore? You keep pushing, apparently. The Way In finds Di Meola in a mode that's a little harder to pin down than his earlier work — electric but thoughtful, fusion-leaning but not showy for its own sake.
The record draws on the World Sinfonia sensibility he had been developing, but it's less purely acoustic and more willing to let the electric guitar back into the room. There's a warmth here that his most technically aggressive work sometimes sacrifices. Di Meola still plays fast — that's not something he ever really turns off — but the arrangements give the music room to breathe. The band is tight, the rhythms have that Latin-inflected pulse he's always gravitated toward, and the whole thing holds together as a coherent listen rather than a collection of showcase moments.
Is it essential Di Meola? Probably not the first album you'd hand someone. Elegant Gypsy and the Friday Night collaboration are still the entry points. But The Way In rewards listeners who already know those records and want to follow where he went next. It's a guitarist working seriously in his own language, not reinventing anything but not coasting either. For fans of his acoustic work who wondered whether he could translate that focus back to electric, this is a reasonable answer.
Who's playing
Jeff Berlinbass
Gary Willisbass
Frank Gambaleguitar
Jeff Richmanguitar
Al Di Meolaacoustic guitar
John Abercrombieguitar
Steve Lukatherguitar
Vinnie Colaiutadrums
