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 and throughout his celebrated career that has spanned four decades and earned him critical accolades, three gold albums, and more than six million in record sales worldwide. A bona fide guitar hero, perennial poll-winner, and prolific composer, he has amassed more than 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 Al’s writing along with the soulfulness and the inherent lyricism of his six-string expression have won him legions of fans worldwide beyond the guitar aficionado set.
A pioneer of blending world music and jazz, going back to early Latin-tinged fusion outings like 1976’s Land of the Midnight Sun, 1977’s Elegant Gypsy, and 1978’s Casino, the guitar great continues to explore the rich influence of flamenco, tango, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, and African music with his World Sinfonia, an ambitious pan-global group that he formed in 1991. Their exhilarating world music fusion has been documented on such releases as 2000’s The Grande Passion, featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; 2007’s Live in London, 2011’s Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody, and the stunning 2012 DVD, Morocco Fantasia, recorded at the Mawazine Festival in Rabat, Morocco, and featuring special guests Said Chraibi on oud, Abdellah Meri on violin, and Tari Ben Ali on percussion.
Growing up in Bergenfield with the music of Elvis Presley, The Ventures, and The Beatles, Al naturally gravitated to guitar as a youngster, and by his early teens was already an accomplished player. Attaining such impressive skills at such a young age didn’t come easy for him, but rather was the result of focused dedication and intensive periods of woodshedding between his junior and senior years in high school.
His earliest role models in jazz included Kenny Burrell and fellow Jersey guitarist Tal Farlow, but when he discovered Larry Coryell, whom Al would later dub “The Godfather of Fusion,” he was taken with the guitarist’s unprecedented blending of jazz, blues, and rock into one seamless vocabulary on the instrument.
In 1972, Al enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and by the second semester there he began playing in a fusion quartet led by keyboardist Barry Miles. When a gig tape of that band was later passed on to Chick Corea by a friend of Al’s in 1974, the 19-year-old guitarist was tapped to join Corea’s fusion supergroup Return to Forever as a replacement for guitarist Bill Connors. After three landmark recordings with Return to Forever – 1974’s Where Have I Known You Before, 1975’s Grammy Award-winning No Mystery, and 1976’s Romantic Warrior – the group disbanded, Al subsequently started up his career as a solo artist. His 1976 debut as a leader, Land of the Midnight Sun, was a blazing showcase of his signature chops and Latin-tinged compositions that featured a stellar cast, including drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, bassists Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius, keyboardists Jan Hammer, Barry Miles, and Chick Corea, and percussionist Mingo Lewis. Over the course of six more albums with Columbia Records – Elegant Gypsy, Casino, Splendido Hotel, Electric Rendezvous, Tour De Force, and Scenario – Al established himself as an influential force in contemporary music.
1980 marked the triumph of the acoustic guitar trio with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin. Their debut recording on Columbia Records, Friday Night in San Francisco, became a landmark recording that surpassed the four million mark in sales. The following year, 1981, Al was inducted into Guitar Player’s Gallery of Greats after five consecutive wins as Best Jazz Guitarist in the magazine’s Readers Poll and winning best album and acoustic guitarist for a total of a record 11 wins. The three virtuosos in the trio toured together from 1980 through 1983, releasing the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire in 1982. In 1995, they reunited for a third recording, Guitar Trio, followed by another triumphant world tour.
In early 1996, Al formed a new trio with the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and Return to Forever bandmate Stanley Clarke called The Rite of Strings. Their self-titled debut was released in 1995. Al then recorded with the likes of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Paul Simon, classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco, and Italian pop star Pino Daniele. Over the course of his career, he also has worked and recorded with Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Steve Winwood, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Milton Naciemento, Egberto Gismonti, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa, and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
Al’s 2013 release, All Your Life, was an acoustic tour de force that had him revisiting the music of a seminal influence – The Beatles. He credits The Beatles for the reason he plays guitar. A one-man show of virtuosity, the Fab Four offering features the guitar great interpreting 14 familiar tunes in the stripped-down setting of acoustic guitar.
In September 2023, Al suffered a heart attack while performing in Bucharest, Romania. At the time, he was working on his latest solo studio album, his fourth for vintage German indie label earMUSIC, also the home of Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Joe Jackson and Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, and Steve Vai. The heart attack didn’t slow Al down a bit. Originally conceived as an acoustic project reflecting the challenges of the pandemic era, Twentyfour evolved into a grand production featuring orchestral arrangements and electric guitars brimming with intricately woven melodies. It’s a journey through Al’s music evolution, showcasing his virtuosity and vision.
Following Domus Solis, a 2024 classical collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Alex Sino, Global Music Award winner Terry Heimat, Grammy-winning multi-reed player Ed Calle, and Grammy-winning percussionist Richard Bravo, Al released a double live album, One of These Nights, in February.
When not busy with his music, Al and his extremely supportive wife, Stephanie, host House Events in their gorgeous Old Tappan home, which features a meal made by the couple and also can include a session in Al’s home studio, a private show, a masterclass, and jam playing one of the virtuoso’s own guitars.
Touring fervently, Al’s upcoming shows include Beverly, Massachusetts on March 29; Ridgefield, Connecticut on March 30, The Vogel at Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank on April 1, an Alexandria, Virginia show on April 2, Annapolis, Maryland on April 4; back to New Jersey for a Scottish Rite Auditorium show in Collingswood on April 5; Westerly, Rhode Island on April 6, and, on April 9, a performance in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. A June 29 date at Saratoga Jazz Festival in Saratoga Springs, New York, will be sandwiched by European jaunts.
I spoke with Al about his amazing career, his rich Jersey roots, and the joy he and Stephanie experience with their Home Events, which you can learn more about here.
How and why did growing up in Bergenfield influence you musically?
I used to hang out at record stores, one particular one downtown every day after school. It was a thriving middle-class town. It had great bus service to New York City, so I would take in as much as I could. I would get tickets for different kinds of shows, primarily The Fillmore East. I saw so many inspiring rock acts, and there were jazz clubs in the area.
Growing up in Bergenfield was a tremendous advantage because there were wide choices of great entertainment every night. The influence and inspiration of seeing those acts really helped with my development.
As a teenager, how and why did you gravitate from a rock to jazz guitar?
I was a Beatles freak as a kid. I’m still a Beatles freak, but when they went solo, I became more interested in other idioms. I started on jazz guitar – not by choice, but because my teacher was versed in old school jazz. I was learning scales and chords more related to jazz and standards.
At the same time, I was digging the pop and rock music of the day. At the time, I was 15 years old. I was discovering Miles Davis and Larry Coryell – particularly Larry, the first fusion guy combining rock elements with jazz, and sometimes a little country, as well. That really struck me as something I could get into. Because of my early training with jazz, I saw how I could meld it all together. What started me off was Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew and Larry Coryell’s albums. I was going into the city to see him at 15. That was a new direction for me.
What were the greatest influences on that transition and why?
The elements weren’t pure straight-ahead jazz like Kenny Burrell or Tal Farlow. I liked the fact that Larry knew the school of jazz and introduced all those other elements. As a kid, I could relate to that. I couldn’t relate to the older school as much. It was the excitement of the new idiom that coined the phrase fusion or jazz rock. He was really a forefather of that whole movement; him and Miles actually.
What is palm muting? Why did you develop it, and how has it influenced your work?
When I was a kid, I would practice upstairs in my room quite a lot. Neighbors lived right downstairs outside my window. They were down there all the time in the warmer months. I was shy and didn’t want to play full volume because I would disturb them, so I muted the strings with my palms. Later, that became a useful technique set for full sustain, which pretty much required a lot of volume. So, to play in a low register with a lot of power coming out of the amp, it could be really mushy if you don’t mute strings, especially something that requires technical velocity. That was a whole new style of playing for me. You could hear it, but you could also feel it. The notes would pop as you played more percussively as a result of the hand on the bridge. There’s no cheating. It was like playing an acoustic guitar in a sense: straight out in the open.
How did you come to join Return to Forever?
Chick heard the tape that a friend of mine had given him of me playing with the Barry Myles Quartet. He was a prominent keyboard player with a fusion band from North Plainfield, New Jersey. I left Berklee to join Barry’s group for a year then went back to Berklee. A friend recorded me playing with Barry, and that tape was heard by Chick and his managers. I got a call from him to join the band. I didn’t try out. Return to Forever was my favorite band at the time, so it was a super dream come true.
What impact did you have on Return to Forever, and what impact did Return to Forever have on the musical landscape?
Of the three groups that spearheaded the jazz-rock movement, one was Return to Forever, and the other two were Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Being the new movement of fusion, those three were the most important and very exciting groups. There hadn’t been anything like it before – we’re talking mid-seventies, maybe a little earlier with Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra. They really exploded onto the scene.
The next place to go was something more like progressive rock music and other elements, like Latin jazz. It was a really, really exciting time: the first time a rock audience heard that kind of technique and interplay between musicians. That kind of technique wasn’t heard before. That’s what happened.
Out of the three bands, Return to Forever was the most compositional. Mahavishnu Orchestra was slanted more toward high velocity jam. Their composition was not that involved. Weather Report was a conceptual band that was completely different from both Mahavishnu and Return to Forever, but equally phenomenal in a different way.
Chick saw in me someone completely devoted to practicing. I had the technical skills that he was looking for. He needed someone other than himself that could play those lines. Whether unison or harmony, it just really required someone with developed technique to that point and also could read those lines. Those charts were sometimes four and five pages, and up to 12 pages long. If I didn’t have the ability to read, I don’t think I would have gotten the gig because it was highly compositional. With classical music, you can’t play if you can’t read. It’s the same thing with that band. I had learned to read music when I was eight to 10 years old, so I was a good candidate for that band.
I had to grow with that. I was still a baby. I was 19 years old. In my estimation, I don’t think I was phenomenal at that time. I think I grew when I got thrown into the deep end of the pool, and I had to swim or sink. I was playing with players at a level that already was legendary, so I was in a position to grow faster, and at a much faster pace because I was playing with players at that level. Everyone who plays at a high level is going to grow.
What is your most fond memory of Return to Forever?
Our third record was where I came in. People took very serious notice to a point where I got my own contract on the same label. That record, Romantic Warrior, was pivotal.
When I joined the band, we played Central Park in front of 20,000 people. It was a really big deal for us that started with Carnegie Hall, my first show. Then we went on tour, and then into the studio with new music. This was back in 1974. In the next room at The Record Plant was John Lennon. I got to see one of my heroes. It was really surreal. Here I am playing with one of my favorite bands, and my other favorite band has a member from The Beatles playing next to me. Everything was happening so fast. It was a much better time in music history than the dark days right now. It’s pretty bleak in terms of now, especially with record stores.
I really liked it back then. I had all the time to practice, whereas today with cell phones, we look at them four to eight hours a day – that’s a lot of time that could be spent practicing, but not when you have a phone. We’re constantly checking all the things that are available to look at. It’s unbelievable. Back then, attention spans were wider. Nowadays, it’s like three seconds, and we’re onto the next thing. It’s hard to get a band to focus – really focus, because they’re distracted by incoming things on their phone and networking with so many people. Unfortunately, you can’t go backwards.
Sometimes, fathers will bring their kids to the show, but very seldom. I’d say half the time.
I would say this is the worst time in music history. The dumbing down of music in America is extreme. We have a country and world full of phenomenal musicians and music, but popular music is questionable – highly questionable – and in most cases, sub-par. In comparison, I grew up in the sixties when music was phenomenal: Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles. They were so exciting. And Led Zeppelin – their first album was cool as hell. Then I discovered the early fusion stuff. Larry Coryell and Miles Davis were phenomenal.
I look at what kids are listening to and have become popular in the last 30 years. I guess that’s the mainstream: Beyonce, Jay-Z. Kids look at Jay-Z as a billionaire, but name me one melody from this guy. You can’t. There is none. It’s non-musical.
A lot of pop stuff doesn’t have melody or harmony, like Kendrick Lamar. It’s one note, no tones. When he played the Super Bowl, I couldn’t understand the words. I could maybe get one or two words out of 20.
The Grammys, too, have lost their prestige. It used to be in the sixties, seventies, and eighties that they were very prestigious, but the Grammys now are handed out like candy. Many of the winners don’t have any talent at all, like Kanye West.
It just feels wrong. Even the people who have a great ability, like Lady Gaga; I admire her tremendously, but at the Grammys, she had a big production with a totally forgettable song. Why tune in? They’re tuning in to see a fashion show, and its outrageousness, primarily. They look at the clothes or the lack of clothes, not really tuning in to hear a great song or waiting to hear it again the next day. Back in the day, the Grammys were so good, you wanted to go to the record store, which aren’t anymore. I used to love to go to record stores. They’re gone.
After the Grammys, I’d go to the record store to buy the Record of the Year. Winning a Grammy added a tremendous amount of record sales. It was a boost to the winning artists. Not now. It wouldn’t matter if you won a Grammy with expectations of more record sales because there are no record sales except Taylor Swift and a few others. The record sales are a tiny crumb compared to what they used to be, largely also because music is so accessible via the phone and YouTube. You can hear anybody’s record for free. Sales have gone down so bad. The budgets are so low, you can’t make new records of the quality that they used to. Some productions were so grandiose. To make that record phenomenal… you can’t now.
If you ask somebody on the street when was the last time you brought a record, almost 10 out of 10 will say, ‘Gee, I have to think about it.’ Nobody buys records anymore. They refer to their own records as old records. However, live music will always thrive. Musicians need to play more live, because they otherwise can’t connect.
How did working with Return to Forever influence your 1976 solo debut album, Land of the Midnight Sun?
I was tremendously influenced by Chick’s writing. I loved that whole repertoire, especially the electric realm. I loved it a lot. They were my favorite group.
He pushed me to write music. I really didn’t know if I could. I wasn’t yet a composer at all, but he said that with the way I played, I can compose. He did push me to compose. He pushed Lenny White, our drummer, and Stanley Clarke to compose. I credit him with that, because he did not have to, and he did not have to use our compositions. He was very gracious, very diplomatic in the way he wanted it to feel like a band, and it did. It felt like the band all got to contribute. We weren’t just silently playing his music. I took those charts of his, learned how to do the charts just by following the charts that he had made. My first record, I was just trying to get my feet wet. I wasn’t even sure if it was working. It wound up being the best-selling debut record for my record company. I was riding high because I had become known overnight, joining that band at the top of their popularity level, and then they got even more popular. I joined precisely at the right time. I was really fortunate.
What did you like most about working with Jaco Pastorius and why?
Jaco I knew about when I was in high school in Jersey. He was down in Ft. Lauderdale. Every year we had spring break during my high school years, and kids would all go down to Ft. Lauderdale for a big spring break. That was the town to go to. When I had gone down there, there was a lot of talk about this local bass player. He was mind blowing, so I knew about him before anybody else up here. I met him down there and then invited him to play on my first record. He was just so unbelievable. He had never been in the studio before. His first time was on my first record. He was going up after that to play with Pat Matheny on his record. Word got around. Then he made a solo record and blew everybody away. We never heard anything like that before, and he was playing a fretless bass. He had phenomenal technique, a great feel that was completely contrary to that of Stanley Clarke, who was No. 1 on electric bass at that time. He was this whole other brand new school of player that was completely mind blowing.
Jaco was amazing. I got to tour with him when Elegant Gypsy was out and he was with Weather Report. Before the Weather Report, he was with Blood, Sweat & Tears. Jaco joined Blood, Sweat & Tears because of me. Then Jaco met Joe Zawinul from Weather Report when they were playing in Florida. He said, ‘Hi, I’m Jaco Pastorius. I’m the greatest bass player in the world.’ The thing about it is that he really was.
How and why was John McLaughlin an influence on you?
I knew about what he had done with Miles’ Bitches Brew. He was one of the only white guys on that Miles record. I heard a little bit more on his solo records. Around that time, I saw Mahavishnu play in high school. I think I was 18. It went to their sound check in Hackensack. It was mind-blowing with exciting chops that were beyond belief with everybody in the band. I had not heard anything like that. Chick had heard that. That’s why he went electric.
When I did the guitar trio with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia, it was a really very healthy competition with great interplay. It became very successful.
What was it initially like playing with McLaughlin?
At first, it was cool. I still felt insecure because these are guys that I heard about. Paco’s way of playing was from another world. He expanded from traditional flamenco.
John – I was listening to him five years before that. I was thrust into this trio situation where we were equals. We were really trying to impress each other on stage. It was all about the soloing. It wasn’t so much about composition. It was soloing and how the other guys would react. If Paco or John played a great solo, it was motivation for me to go outside of my comfort zone and play something I never played before. That vibe pervaded through the whole thing. It was, for the most part, a healthy competition, then it became a little more intense and not as super friendly. But that goes the same for a lot of groups. It starts out great, then you have some internal problems.
John wanted to dominate. He had a highly competitive part of his personality. It was problematic at the same time. I was a little disrespected in some ways. I understand why he was like that – playing with Miles was way up there in prestige. I was 12 years younger, that young kid coming in. It didn’t feel great the way I was treated at the time. The only way to get revenge on that feeling is to play to the point where they actually get pissed off, and that’s exactly what happened. Some nights I played better and some nights they played better, but I really did grow.
A couple of guys now want to do another trio. These guys are in their twenties and thirties. I just don’t know if I have the energy to do that.
How did world music, particularly Spanish and flamenco guitar, become important to you?
I’m a percussionist at heart. I’m a better percussionist than I am a guitarist. I used to hang in Latin clubs when I was a kid in New York City. I would absorb and play all the Latin rhythms on my guitar.
My music always has a Latin side to it, which I’m glad about because the rhythms I’m talking about, you’re born to be able to play. You can’t learn that kind of rhythmic feeling at all. You either have it, or you don’t. Harmony and other aspects of music and theory you have to learn, but when it comes to rhythm, you can’t take someone like a classical musician and teach them syncopation. They’ll never get it.
The kind of Latin rhythms, syncopations, you have at an early age. It’s somewhat cultural. That’s what I’ve found.
How has being of Mediterranean descent influenced your music?
I think it’s really great to have that Mediterranean music, be it Spain to Italy to France, all round the Mediterranean, Israel. My parents are from Napoli, the center of music and culture at one point a long time ago. It does rub off.
What do you enjoy most about the Home Events with fans in your Bergen County home?
I like the whole thing. I like to be able to have them come in. What would be cool, even for myself, is to have the ability to go to one of my idol’s homes and have that person – who I’ve listened to their music for decades – be there. To have the ability to go their house, not only to meet them, but to have a conversation with them, watch them cook for two-and-a-half hours there, then go into the studio, get a private concert, and maybe even after that, a lesson or jam. Six hours in a day in someone’s life… I knew right away I’d come up with a unique, original concept that was going to catch on. I bet other artists do it, but no one has.
I can’t do it without my wife. She sets it all up really well. I couldn’t do it alone. I do the first course. She does the second and does all the interacting on the business side. She’s a really great hostess. She’s totally involved, which helps a lot. I really like that it’s an equal partnership. We enjoy having people come to our home. It’s like a museum. They see all these things I’ve collected and done in lifetime and in my career. They get to see my studio and all my guitars. People love it. And the Italian food? That’s a whole other realm.
This summer, A Fine Taste is moving to your residence in Capri as Mediterranean Sundance, the title of a song off your 1977 solo album Elegant Gypsy. Is this the first time you’re doing Mediterranean Sundance as a home event or have you done it before?
This is the third year.
What are you looking forward to most about Mediterranean Sundance and why?
It’s the most incredible food we ever have. We joke about going back and doing home events during the day down at the beach. The restaurants all along there have the most irresistible Spaghetti Vongole. The taste of the clams is beyond imagination. You can’t get them here.
And the mozzarella is the most incredible. It’s a taste that doesn’t travel. All that fresh buffalo mozzarella comes from there, but once they put it on a plane at that high altitude, 70% of the flavor is gone. You go to the best restaurants in New York, and it’s a facsimile of the taste because nothing gets lost there.
I look forward to the food. Also, the scenery is beyond belief. Wow! Our house is way up high overlooking the Mediterranean. It’s mind-blowing. We go there for two weeks.
It’s also very hot – boiling. The humidity is so hot, not that Jersey couldn’t get that hot. It does, as well. I can’t stand humidity. Touring is really hard in some hotels in Italy because they have crap AC.
Having released a double studio album, more recently a live album and soon touring rather extensively, how are you doing in the wake of your 2023 heart attack?
It was not so hard. I had not really suffered before. The heart attack was a complete surprise. It happened in the middle of a show. Luckily, they rushed me to the hospital and were able to deal with it. I was fine before and fine after. I didn’t have open heart surgery. I had a stent through my hand. They snaked that thing all the way up a channel within the body. I don’t know how they do it. It’s like snaking up a small straw hose and connecting with the arteries of the heart. They inject it into the arteries. It looks like the spring from a ballpoint pen holds the arteries open, and you’re good to go. There’s no pain really, surprisingly. I thought I was going to scream, but Novocaine deadened the pain. I thought it was going to be brutal just to keep me alive. I was bracing myself, but I didn’t feel a thing, so it wasn’t a horrible experience. More so, the recovery in the hospital was uncomfortable, but other than that, it was not a big deal. I’ve been touring like there’s no tomorrow.
I’m not taking it easy. I have no restrictions on anything at all. I take a lot of pills every day for the heart. I get monitored very often just to make sure everything is OK, but so far, everything’s been great – perfect. I’m taking great medication, and I’m monitored well. I stay healthy by doing walks in Capri, climbing stairs that are 5,000 steps up and down to the beach. The cardiologist says, ‘Keep doing it. That’s what saved you.’ Even after the surgery, he was like, ‘Keep doing that. It’s really good for you to do that.’ I developed my own natural bypass by doing that, so there’s no restrictions.
What do you like most about your latest studio album, 2024’s Twentyfour?
I started writing that music with the intention of it being solo guitar music. I just let my creative mind go wherever it was taking me. It’d write down in the moment whatever came into my head. I didn’t have to make any runs to the airport to catch a plane because of COVID. I had no interviews. It really felt like total retirement. I got to go really deeper with my writing and with the creative focus. That’s what happened.
This is a major two or three steps up for me as a composer. This record, in many ways, is the best thing I’ve ever done. That would not have happened had there not been that whole COVID period in our lives. I was able to go deeper with the music and higher in terms of my writing capability
Throughout your career, you have fused jazz and world music, including the Latin rhythms of your early solo albums, flamenco stylings in a variety of configurations, and, of course, World Sinfonia. How is Twentyfour different from previous efforts to blend jazz and world music?
You have to just hear it. This record is more of an extension of Cielo e Terra in the eighties. That record was inspired by John Williams. He was a classical guitarist, an avant-garde artist of the 20th century. Another great classical record was 20th Century Guitar (by Julian Bream). I really like that record. It wasn’t your standard classical, Beethoven or Bach. Modern composers were doing very atonal, but really cool compositions. I really thought somebody should do that for jazz. It was far different from the Guitar Trio with all the fireworks, the interplay and technique.
I was doing that kind of writing with music that was different, that was influenced by 20th Century Guitar and by John Williams. Fast forward 40 years to the album Twentyfour – I felt like this was a further extension of what I was doing at that time with all that my influences gained in the last 40 years. I felt like my composing went to a whole new level.
Not that it’s the record for everybody; it’s not a commercial record at all. If we had made a commercial record, we would be set up for disappointment because it wasn’t going to sell, so I made it out of the pure desire to make an aesthetically pleasing record to me. I wasn’t thinking at all about radio or sales. I was thinking about art. To make an art record as a guitarist was really great. It’s really for the serious guitar listener or musician.
What do you like most about working with earMUSIC and why?
They’re like an old-school label. They know all the ropes via the new channels. They also produce vinyl, which is very important. It’s not a label like Sony, which no longer does CDs, cassettes, or vinyl. That big label is only streaming. That’s God awful! I think this German label is far more prestigious. They want to hold onto that tradition. My name is a much bigger deal over there. People have record players and CDs are still selling. I make a record, they put it out on vinyl. It’s beautiful artwork. You still get a taste of the way things were with a label like that. The labels here in the States… forget about it. It’s terrible.
Out of all the guitarists you’ve influenced, which artist means the most to you?
I have no favorites in that realm. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani were big fans. Steve said I was ‘the game changer.’ That’s a very high compliment. We’ve become very good friends. He’d come to shows, leave notes on the windshield. I’d leave notes when I went to see him. He told me what my music meant to him, how much I influenced him. Joe wrote a fan letter. Steve got the letter and showed it to me. They were big time fans of mine before they both made a living.
In the wake of your success, what made you remain a resident of New Jersey and why?
Two-fold. One, was every time I went out to California when I was not married yet, it was a little scary. I was young. I saw that if I did that early on in my career, I would have run into distractions that would have taken away from me solidifying my career, because there are too may great things to do out there, too many events I was getting invited to on a daily and nightly basis. It was far too exciting. It was very hard to turn down going to all these events and shows. The weather is beautiful every day while I’m inside practicing. I might not have gotten off the ground because there were too many excuses other than to develop my music and playing. I thought, ‘New Jersey has shitty weather for three quarters of the year. That’s a good thing that keeps me developing better at my writing and playing.’ That was my thought.
I also happened to have bought a house that is pretty phenomenal even when I was 23 years old. It happened in an unusual way. I got the house at half price. It’s a special place, like an Italian villa in North Jersey. It was the most beautiful place at the time in the 1970s when I saw it being built. I knew the owner. I went to high school at the time he owned it. I never thought that I would be owning it.
Since that time, I added a whole bunch: a studio, a pool, a lot of different things. I moved tons of stuff in, like equipment so I could do my music. If I had nothing right now, I would move to Europe considering the political situation. I definitely would move to Europe. It would be easy to do, but I’ve accumulated so much, I can’t move so easily, and I really like the house. It’s 30 minutes from Manhattan, the greatest city in the world. There’s so much to do there if you want to. There are really no natural disasters, like in California, where there are fires every other month. I don’t fear major earthquakes, like California does, or mudslides or flooding. And we don’t have what they have in the Midwest: tornadoes. This is a pretty safe state. The only thing I hate is the property taxes. That’s way out of control, way too high, and it shouldn’t be. If you have kids in school, you should pay high property taxes. That makes sense because a lot of the property taxes go toward teachers, but if your kids are not in school, the parameters of the property taxes should change. We’ll never get anybody to change that rule, but it’s totally wrong. Jersey is one of the highest property tax states, but some kids are not in public schools. You shouldn’t have to pay for teachers not contributing to your child’s education. My youngest daughter goes to a private German international school in White Plains, so it’s a double whammy. It’s not right.
If you’re 30 years old and have a young child in school, that’s fine, but after you hit a certain age, like 65 or older, the property taxes come down most on people who don’t have kids in public school. It’s not like there’s less money coming to the town. Towns are building up all the time. Since I moved here, there are 5,000 more homes. That’s a lot more property taxes coming their way.
Bob Makin has produced Makin Waves since 1988. Follow Makin Waves on Facebook and contact Bob at makinwaves64@yahoo.com.
