Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia • Saturday Night in San Francisco
Musically, this album is fully the equal of Friday Night, not surprising given that this captured the very next night, which was the final night of the tour. However, it might be even better, as all three musicians knew this was going to be the last night of the tour. While the jokes and humor that slid in and out of Friday Night’s performance are largely absent from Saturday Night’s, we are treated to Di Meola, McLaughlin and de Lucia concentrating on the performance itself, laying down the absolute best each had left -- and that is saying something. Unlike Friday Night, where the five tracks were trio sets, here you get four trio selections as well as four solo performances -- one each by Di Meola and McLaughlin, and two by de Lucia that are fascinating in their own rights for the insights they give into how each artist approached the trio sessions. Sonically, Saturday Night In San Francisco leaves nothing to criticize. All the aspects that made Friday Night such as success are back -- and maybe enhanced, as far more care went into the transfer to analog LP and DSD than was probably put into Friday Night. The sound of the three acoustic guitars is distinct and yet still an organic whole. If you close your eyes, you can almost see what your ears are hearing. The sound of the fingers on the strings of each guitar are clearly delineated, even in the trio performances, when the tempo is at its peak, and I really enjoyed the way the sound of the Warfield Auditorium’s acoustics is woven into the overall presentation. If you are interested in the complete history of this recording, and how it went from basement storage to finished product, and who was involved, then the informative booklet gives chapter and verse of how this project came about and is truly well worth reading. My only nit to pick is that who plays when is not noted anywhere in the liner notes, nor is it noted who is sitting where in the trio sessions -- though golden-eared listeners may be able to pick out each by his playing style. It was not until I downloaded the CD layer into iTunes that it showed me that after the two trio tunes that open the album, there are three solo tracks by Di Meola, McLaughlin, and de Lucia, then two more trio tracks, followed by a de Lucia solo performance that closes the album. But I am willing to bet that sharp-eared listeners will be able to identify each track. (I was not able to do this until I knew who was who, at which point the styles suddenly made perfect sense to me.) Other than that, this SACD is about as perfect a disc as
I have in my collection and one I will be returning to repeatedly. With it available on
vinyl and SACD, high-resolution download, and Tidal 24-bit/192kHz MQA stream, we are
reminded why Impex is a preeminent reissue label. Even though it took forty years to makes
its debut, Saturday Night In San Francisco is the perfect follow-up to its
classic predecessor. Bravo to the Impex team, which put in two long years to bring this
music to our ears. They nailed it. |
ow do you follow a million-selling album forty years
after its initial release? In the case of Friday Night In San Francisco, the
guitar master class from Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia, you suddenly get
notification that tapes from the final performance of the trio from the same tour exist
and have been lying dormant in Di Meola’s basement. Friday Night was a huge
hit the world over, so when Di Meola located the tapes from the final night of the show in
San Francisco, he cast about for someone he knew to be both dependable and caring to
release them. After making sure Sony (which had dibs) was inexplicably not interested, Di
Meola and company placed a call to Abey Fonn of Impex Records and sprung one of the more
surprising questions on her. Would she be interested in issuing these tapes? I doubt it
took her long to say yes, conditional on the quality of the tapes, which had been stored
in a crawl space.