Al Di Meola has recently highlighted Matteo Mancuso as one of the of his generation. However, he also mentions how important it is for contemporary guitarists like Mancuso to go beyond videos and develop their songwriting technique, to create records with a legacy. “He's good.
He's a phenomenon,” remarks Di Meola in an interview on . “Of all the new guys, he's the one everybody's talking about. Rightfully so.
When I first heard him, I said, ‘Okay, he's lightyears ahead.’ You know, in many ways. He's got an extraordinary technique.
“But what he doesn't have yet, he's not a composer. So everything he's playing in these videos is wow. But it's not against any music.
How is that gonna fit in the music?” Di Meola mentions how musicians had their breakthrough in the jazz fusion era of the '70s by creating records that pushed the envelope. “When people were thinking of me or any guys in the fusion era of the '70s, we were always thinking of the record. When people think of me, they think of , .
..they think of records or songs , you know, and I don't associate him with any record yet,” he asserts.
“And that's a big thing that we're forgetting, that technique is not enough. Even though it's the best of this generation, what he's doing, and there's a lot of great ones. But he needs to develop, he needs a start even, to gravitate towards writing.
Because otherwise, you can only take so much technique, you got to have the music, you know?” In a 2022 interview, Di Me.