- Jazz fusion guitar legend Al Di Meola has signed with The Kurland Agency for worldwide booking representation.
- The deal consolidates his global touring business under one agency, spanning both Kurland's domestic and international divisions.
- He continues to be managed by Stephanie Di Meola.
- The signing lands mid-way through his 2026 "Guitarchitect Tour," a career-retrospective run marking five decades on stage.
Grammy winner Al Di Meola has signed with The Kurland Agency for worldwide live music and touring representation.
The Boston-based agency’s domestic and international teams (Ted Kurland, Jack Randall, Jamie Ziefert, Dan Peraino, Brad Aiken, Nicholas DiSpagna, Brian Reid, and Dylan Gagnon) will now handle his bookings across every market, while Stephanie Di Meola continues to manage his career.
Born in Jersey City in 1954, Di Meola studied at Berklee before Chick Corea recruited him, at 19, into the pioneering fusion group Return to Forever. He launched a solo career in 1976 with Land of the Midnight Sun, followed a year later by the gold-certified Elegant Gypsy.
His 1981 acoustic summit with John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía, Friday Night in San Francisco, sold more than two million copies and remains a genre landmark.
Over a discography of 30-plus albums, he’s built a catalog that blends jazz, flamenco, tango, and Middle Eastern influences, earning a Grammy, multiple Guitar Player Magazine awards, and the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Miles Davis Award.
He’s not slowing down. His 2024 album Twenty Four is fueling “The Guitarchitect Tour,” a 2026 run spanning North America and Europe that includes a stop at London’s Barbican Hall on June 25 as part of its Summer Jazz Series.
Founded by Ted Kurland in 1975, The Kurland Agency built its reputation on a jazz-heavy roster that has included Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, and Béla Fleck, later broadening into blues, folk, and world music.
The agency has been active on the signing front all year: bluegrass Hall of Famer Tim O’Brien joined for worldwide representation back in March.
Takeaways
For an agency built on jazz royalty, landing one of the genre’s most technically dazzling and enduring guitarists is a statement signing; and it comes at a moment when live music agencies are increasingly racing to lock down full worldwide mandates rather than splitting artists across regional reps.
For Di Meola, folding his entire global calendar into one agency mid-tour suggests a team betting on momentum, not a pause.
Does a single worldwide agency give veteran touring artists better festival and routing leverage than split regional deals? Will Kurland’s expanding roster pull in more legacy jazz and fusion artists looking to consolidate?
