LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN

I did not pay attention to this album the first time I saw it being displayed at local cassette store in Bandung until I heard Meola's stunning guitar work in Return To Forever's masterpiece album "Romantic Warrior" which I only knew it in 1977. His contribution to "Romantic Warrior" is really significant and lays the foundation of Return To Forever's music. When I purchased the cassette version of this debut album "Land Of The Midnight Sun" it blew me away at first spin. What an awesome jazz-rock music! I was actually curious how would it sound like with Weather Report's Jaco Pastorius being in the scene. After listening to this album I still reconfirms that Jaco is one of the best jazz player even though in this album he plays differently than he was with his Weather Report.

Key attraction point of this CD is the skillful electric and acoustic guitar work of Mr. Meola. I could not imagine how fast he moves his fingers at the guitar neck as the notes and chords produced through this album is very fast and it has many variations. His guitar playing style has created a unique sound and you can identify whenever you hear the guitar sound. Terrific. The music is obviously a jazz-rock fusion in deceptively complex composition and relatively fast tempo. The two opening tracks "The Wizard" and title track "Land Of The Midnight Sun" are truly killer. Mr Meola has also capitalized the musicianship of his keyboard player Barry Miles through a great combination of sound with his electric guitar. Alphonse Mouzon on drums and Mingo Lewis on percussion have also given significant contribution to the album musical composition.

Highly recommended!