Al Di Meola age: How old is Al Di Meola? – Italian-American guitarist Albert Laurence Di Meola is 69 years old. He was born on July 22, 1954, in Jersey City, New Jersey, into an Italian family with roots in Cerreto Sannita, a small town northeast of Benevento.
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Di Meola grew up in Bergenfield, where he attended Bergenfield High School.
When he was eight years old, he was inspired by Elvis Presley and the Ventures to start playing guitar.
His teacher directed him toward jazz standards. He cites as influences jazz guitarists George Benson and Kenny Burrell and bluegrass and country guitarists Clarence White and Doc Watson.
At the age of 19, Chick Corea hired him to replace Bill Connors in the groundbreaking jazz fusion ensemble Return to Forever, which also included Stanley Clarke and Lenny White. He attended Berklee College of Music in 1971.
He collaborated on three albums with Return to Forever, all of which debuted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop Albums list in the United States. This helped the group achieve its greatest commercial success.
Di Meola started making solo albums in 1976 when Return to Forever was breaking up, showcasing his expertise in jazz fusion, flamenco, and Mediterranean music.
His Graceful Gypsy album from 1977 was certified gold. Along with Paco de Luca and John McLaughlin, he recorded the live acoustic CD Friday Night in San Francisco in 1980.
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Di Meola started using the Synclavier guitar synthesizer in his works in the middle of the 1980s. He spent the majority of the following two decades learning about acoustic music and world music, with the exception of the sporadic electric guitar forays on albums like 1991’s Kiss My Axe.
Di Meola received an honorary doctorate in music in 2018 from Berklee College of Music, his alma mater.
Di Meola had a heart attack in September 2023 while onstage in Bucharest, Romania. He was treated for segment elevation myocardial infarction after being admitted to a nearby hospital.
What is Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction?
ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a type of heart attack that is caused by a complete blockage of one or more coronary arteries, leading to transmural myocardial ischemia and myocardial injury or necrosis.
The blockage is usually caused by a thrombotic occlusion developing from an atherosclerotic plaque in an epicardial coronary vessel.
STEMI is the most acute manifestation of coronary artery disease and is associated with great morbidity and mortality.
The symptoms of STEMI include central chest pain that is classically heavy in nature, like a sensation of pressure or squeezing.
STEMI is suspected when a patient presents with persistent ST-segment elevation in two or more anatomically contiguous ECG leads in the context of a consistent clinical history.
Immediate and prompt revascularization can prevent or decrease myocardial damage and decrease morbidity and mortality.
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