Mediterranean Sundance

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“Mediterranean Sundance”

Song by Al Di Meola
Released	1977
Genre	Jazz Fusion
Length	5:14
Label	Columbia

"Mediterranean Sundance," is the third track on Al Di Meola's second album Elegant Gypsy. It, along with "Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil", are the only two entirely acoustic songs in the album. However, unlike "Lady Of Rome, Sister Of Brazil" which is an acoustic solo by Di Meola, "Mediterranean Sundance" consists of an acoustic guitar duet with flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía. The song blends jazz and flamenco influences into a complex acoustic piece.

[edit] Composition

Written in 4/4 time, the song begins with a duet between Di Meola and de Lucía and then progresses to feature each guitar player taking turns playing rhythm and soloing, and occasionally soloing together. The two chord progeressions of the song are: Em-D-C-B7, and Am-Bm7-(Bbm7)-Am7-B7.^[1] Paco de Lucía uses Bbm7 to transition from Bm7 to Am7 during the song.

The song contains no lyrics, and instead relies upon a lyrical acoustic melody on top of the rhythm track. The song itself is extremely difficult to play due to the speed and precision of Di Meola's picking on the steel-stringed guitar and De Lucia's complex finger picking on the nylon string guitar as well as the exact matching of Di Meola and De Lucía's solo's which frequently consist of them both playing a rapid set of matching or cooresponding notes.

[edit] Additional Releases

In the early 1980's, Di Meola replaced Larry Coryell in the acoustic guitar group, The Guitar Trio, which also consisted of De Lucía and guitarist John McLaughlin. The Guitar Trio recorded an extended combination "Mediterranean Sundance" and "Rio Ancho" in the album Friday Night in San Francisco.