Member of Chick Corea's group, Return to Forever, 1974-76; launched solo career; began touring and recording with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin, 1980; founded Al Di Meola Project, 1985; toured with Larry Coryell and Berelli Lagrene as Super Guitar Trio, 1987; maintained dual career as electric guitarist and acoustic guitarist, 1991; formed group World Sinfonia, featuring bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi, percussionist Arto Tuncboyaci, and guitarist Christopher Carrington, 1991.

The prolific Di Meola plans to document his latest batch of new compositions with both live and studio recordings in the coming year with the New World Sinfonia. "What I'm doing now is just completely satisfying, like a phenomenal meal and a great glass of vintage wine. The fusion thing is kind of a blast from the past and is kind of assaulting on the ears. And there's a cool aspect to that, but it's not where I'm going musically as a composer."

Meanwhile, Di Meola may be expanding his world music vocabulary even further after touring Morocco with his New World Sinfonia. "We'll be there a whole week and that will afford me the chance to jam with some of the local musicians there. I'm wide open to that kind of collaboration now. I've done some jamming back in New York at a world music club in the East Village called Drom.

"I have a very successful jam there with a Turkish clarinet virtuoso named Husnu Senlendiric. I find that I have a real affinity for the music of the Middle East. So we'll see how it goes in Morocco. Maybe there's something that can come out of this."

Clearly, there are many chapters yet to come in the story of Al Di Meola. But so far, in his 35 years as a professional musician, he's already established a rich legacy that has secured a place for him in the Gallery of Guitar Greats. Stay tuned.