Al DiMeola is giving jazz-fusion fans what they want! Four-time winner as Best Jazz Guitarist in Guitar Player Magazine’s Reader Poll, Al Di Meola brings his latest tour “Elegant Gypsy Meets Romantic Warrior Electrictour 2016” to The Ridgefield Playhouse on Sunday, August 28 at 8 p.m. Jazz and Latin fusion pioneer, composer and guitar legend Al Di Meola is a pioneer of blending world music and jazz. Over the past four decades, the bona fide guitar hero has explored the rich influence of flamenco, tango, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, and African music. His latest album, 2015’s Elysium, finds the guitar great blending the lush tones of his nylon string Conde Hermanos acoustic prototype model and a ’71 Les Paul electric in a collection of songs that are at once invigorating and alluring.
Last summer, the Montréal Jazz Festival awarded him the 2015 Miles Davis Award, which honors a great international jazz musician for the entire body of his or her work and for that musician’s influence in regenerating the jazz idiom. In this 109 Cheese and Wine Evening of Art, Wine and Jazz Series performance, ticket holders are invited to a free wine tasting in the lobby at 7:15 p.m. courtesy of 109 Cheese & Wine and an art exhibit by Asúkú Mlulé, a recently resettled refugee, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mlule is sponsored by Art in Common, Inc. a new community outreach charitable non-profit based in Ridgefield whose mission is to promote creativity, increase community awareness around important social issues and foster connection across diverse populations.