GET BACK

Back in 2012, Al Di Meola walked through the doors of London’s fabled Abbey Road studios to record an intimate take on a selection of Lennon and McCartney classics. Due to an extraordinary set of circumstances involving an 1830s Martin guitar, this correspondent was present for one of those original sessions and having experienced Di Meola’s masterful nylon-string arrangements up close it came as no surprise when the resulting anthology, All Your Life, quickly became one of the best-selling guitar records of the following year.

Now, following several albums of original compositions including 2018’s extraordinary Opus, Di Meola returns to the music that inspired him to play the guitar in the first place with a new album of Beatles arrangements, this time with a full band sound, titled Across The Universe – The Beatles Vol 2. We caught up with Di Meola during a European tour to find out more about his approach to arranging some of the world’s best-known melodies.

“Well, it’s interesting,” he says with understatement, of tackling the world’s most famous back catalogue. “These are songs that we all know and love, and I’m very passionate about The Beatles. After doing the first record and being