Guitar Maestro’s Second Album of Beatles Covers Following 2013 Acoustic Tour De Force All Your Life Boasts Full Band Sound!
Al Di Meola’s ongoing fascination with complex rhythmic syncopation combined with provocative lyrical melodies and sophisticated harmony has been at the heart of his music throughout a celebrated career. A bona fide guitar hero, perennial poll-winner, and prolific composer, he has amassed over 20 albums as a leader while collaborating on a dozen or so others with the likes of the fusion supergroup Return to Forever (with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White), the celebrated acoustic Guitar Trio featuring fellow virtuosos John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia, and the Rite of Strings trio with bassist Clarke and violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. And while his dazzling technique on both acoustic and electric guitars has afforded him regal status among the hordes of fretboard fanatics who regularly flock to his concerts, the depth of Di Meola’s writing along with the soulfulness and the inherent lyricism of his guitaristic expression have won him legions of fans worldwide beyond the guitar aficionado set.

Di Meola’s 2013 release All Your Life was an acoustic tour de force that found him revisiting the music of a seminal influence – The Beatles. “I really credit the Beatles for the reason why I play guitar,” he says. “That was a major catalyst for me to want to learn music, so their impact was pretty strong.” Now following several albums of original material including 2018’s Opus, Di Meola returns to that formative influence once again with his second Beatles covers collection, Across the Universe, this time with a full band sound.

“After doing the first record and being overwhelmed by the response, I wanted to return to The Beatles’ back catalogue but this time do it with fuller production,” he told Guitar. “Also, in some cases where The Beatles had originally recorded two-minute versions of those songs, I wanted to be able to write some parts and develop those ideas, as I did on Strawberry Fields Forever and Norwegian Wood. Norwegian Wood was basically a two-minute piece exactly – it’s just melody/bridge/melody/bridge and it’s over – and it’s beautiful! You can play it anywhere and everyone knows it! Of course, in my world, there are no lyrics so I feel the need as an instrumentalist to bring more to the essence of the piece in terms of composition and that’s what you hear on this record.”