Al Dimeola, John McLaughlin, Paco Delucia - Friday Night in San Francisco Live 12 06 1980
Al Di Meola, guitar [click here to see other products featuring Al Di Meola]
John McLaughlin, guitar [click here to see more products featuring John McLaughlin]
Paco de Lucía, guitar
Composed by Al Di Meola, John McLaughin, Paco De Lucia, Luiz Bonfa
1LP, standard sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33RPM
Size : 12”
Stereo
Live
Record Press : RTI
Label : Impex Records
Recorded at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, December 6, 1980 by Tim Pinch
Engineered by Al Di Meola, Katsu Naito & Roy Hendrickson
Mixed by Roy Hendrickson
Produced by Al Di Meola
Mastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering
Originally released in July 2022
Tracks:
Side A:
- Bill Graham Introduction
- Splendido Sundance
- One Word
- Trilogy Suite
- Monasterio de Sal
Side B:
- El Pañuelo
- Meeting Of The Spirits
Reviews :
“A previously ‘lost’ companion recording to Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia’s iconic 1980 live album Friday Night In San Francisco is due to be released in July.
Saturday Night In San Francisco, as the name suggests, captures the following evening’s (December 6, 1980) performance at the city’s Warfield Theatre, a set that was previously thought to have been left unrecorded.
Reportedly, Di Meola and his team took on the task of reviewing the 16-track tapes from the San Francisco sets and have now been able to put together a previously unreleased eight-track collection from the December 6 show.
“For 40 years, I’ve had the other night that no-one knew about except for the people that went to the show,” Di Meola revealed in a recent Guitar World interview. “In fact, even John didn’t remember we played a second night!”
“But I have the tapes, and I had them professionally baked to have them restored. And it turns out they’re phenomenal. And we played all different tunes. On the first record I had a song called Mediterranean Sundance. This night there’s a song called Splendido Sundance. And there’s three unaccompanied solo pieces. So you’re not getting the same record twice... I'm looking forward to people hearing it.”
The original Friday Night... record set a high-water mark for the three musicians’ repeated collaborations and has been described as “the most influential of all live acoustic guitar albums”.
That record and show have gone down in legend as a masterclass in virtuosic interplay. The album also sold over seven-million copies and helped further cement the reputations and commercial appeal of the three formidable guitar talents – not to mention the instrument itself.” Matt Parker, Guitar World, April 29, 2022
Jazz writer Walter Kolovsky has said that Friday Night in San Francisco “may be the most influential of all acoustic guitar albums.” LPs of it have been a demonstration staple on turntables around the world for over 40 years. To celebrate the lasting impact of this singular album and the legendary concert that it represents, Impex Records is proud to announce the long-awaited follow up: Saturday Night in San Francisco.
Working with hours of original 16-track live session tapes, Al Di Meola and his team have brilliantly curated this musical tour-de-force, bringing to life for the first time on LP the explosively virtuosic final performance of Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco De Lucia at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco, December 6, 1980. In the exclusive essay by music historian Charles L. Granata, Di Meola says of that final night: “It’s exciting because the audience was right there with us, savoring every single note of music. And, we were ripping. It was crazy good!”
Impex worked carefully with Di Meola, mixing engineer Roy Hendrickson (SPIN Studio), and mastering engineer Bernie Grundman to recreate the sonic magic of Friday Night in San Francisco so these never-before-released solos and trios burst out of your system with striking clarity, dynamics and technical brilliance. “Crazy good,” indeed.
“Loose and spontaneous, this (mainly) live album is a meeting of three of the greatest guitarists in the world for an acoustic summit the likes of which the guitar-playing community rarely sees. Broken up into three duo and two trio performances, Friday Night in San Francisco catches all three players at the peaks of their quite formidable powers. The first track features Al di Meola and Paco de Lucía teaming up for a medley of di Meola's "Mediterranean Sundance" (first recorded by the duo on di Meola's classic 1976 album Elegant Gypsy) and de Lucía's own "Rio Ancho." It is a delightful performance, full of the fire and inhuman chops that one expects from two players of this caliber. However, the two guitarists obviously have big ears, and they complement each other's solos with percussive, driving rhythm parts. There is a laid-back, humorous element to Friday Night in San Francisco as well, best witnessed in di Meola and John McLaughlin's performance of Chick Corea's "Short Tales of the Black Forest." Rapid-fire licks from the pair soon give way to atonal striking of the body of the guitar, running picks along the strings, etc. Before the farce is completed, they have played a blues and quoted the Pink Panther theme. It is funny stuff, and it serves to dispel the image of the trio, especially di Meola, as super-serious clinicians more concerned with technique than music. The other great piece of evidence against such a narrow-minded claim can be found in both the quality of the compositions featured on Friday Night in San Francisco as well as the sensitivity and dynamic variation brought to the performances. A perfect example of this is the sole studio track, a McLaughlin composition entitled "Guardian Angel" (the opening theme of which is taken straight from "Guardian Angels," a song that appears on McLaughlin's 1978 Electric Dreams album). It is a fine piece, and one that features a haunting melody as well as some of the best solos on the record. All in all, Friday Night in San Francisco is a fantastic album and one of the best entries in all of these guitarists' fine discographies.” AllMusic Review by Daniel Gioffre
Ratings:
AllMusic : 4.5 / 5 ; Discogs : 4.76