The album “Friday Night in San Francisco” is a classic that transcends genre boundaries. The fact that the sequel is now available as a sound carrier the next day should make numerous music fans euphoric.
On Friday, December 5, 1980, music history was written in front of a good 2,000 spectators at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco. But the three guitarists sitting on stage played more for themselves than for their audience. They were far too happy that their summit meeting had taken place, and when they strummed their acoustic instruments together, it must have had something to do with competition. This did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audience, which later expanded to include more than two million record buyers. On the contrary. It corresponds to the greatness of the three guitarists that their power games do not primarily determine the listening impression, but that they put their amazing skills at the service of a common cause that they had previously defined on a tour.
The Briton John McLaughlin had risen to become the guitarist par excellence of the jazz and fusion era, and not just since his collaboration with Miles Davis on his electrically amplified albums from the late 1960s. He also liked to integrate Indian elements into his playing. The Spaniard Paco De Lucía was the master of a renewed flamenco guitar that incorporated other elements. The American Al Di Meola, who had replaced Larry Coryell, who had previously completed the trio, was much more than just a substitute with his mixture of pop and jazz. The live album “Friday Night in San Francisco”, which then brought together three duets and two trios, became the most successful of all recordings with acoustic guitars and a classic beyond genre boundaries, which fascinated jazz and classical listeners alike and rock fans alike, had their central instrument but in the popular arena, to date, it has never signaled its arrival as a solo instrument beyond all barriers with such virtuosity as a soloist.
That was not a matter of course, as classical music and jazz essentially got by without the guitar for a long time. This only changed with the new bands of Miles Davis, in whose slipstream a large number of fusion bands set out to dally with rock, which would hardly have worked without the guitar. In this context, McLaughlin set the tone with his Mahavishnu Orchestra.
So far the story is known and still has its place in every well-stocked record and CD shelf. We are only now finding out that there was a sequel on Saturday. Impresario Bill Graham greets the audience as “rarely privileged”, and right from the start the fire of fury, melody and joy of playing is back between all drawers. A completely different program was offered than the day before, making one wonder why the material collected from those two memorable nights was not released on double LP. There are prophecies of friction between those involved, but this may be part of the legend.
However. The recording slumbered in Al Di Meola’s archive for more than 40 years. Only now is it available with the same sound quality and has been painstakingly reconstructed and is on the same level as the classic from the day before. It all starts with this lightning-fast new flamenco sound, whereupon McLaughlin, Di Meola and De Lucía present their individual finesse in three solo pieces, and then pull out all the stops together for three more pieces. Again, temperament and sentiment at an improvisational upper limit are palpable. “What made the trio so successful on stage was that we wanted to impress each other,” recalls Al Di Meola.
The album Al Di Meola, John McLaugh-lin, Paco de Lucía: “Saturday Night in San Francisco” was released by Earmusic (Edel).