FRIDAY NIGHT IN SAN FRANCISCO

From a tour that I witnessed one such glorious concert, comes this solid recording of some of the great trios and duets that this troupe did for a couple of years in the early 80s. I just remember as an audience member who had seen all live of the artists in different bands and formats before being mesmerized by the contrasts in styles and personalities: John McLaughlin with his effusive joy and effortless ease of expression, Al Di with his technical flare and Paco with his Flamenco finger style flashing and flourishing all over the fretboard. I remember being by far most impressed with McLaughlin--he seemed so much more comfortable with so many styles and genres; Al seemed like he was working so hard to impress (to keep up), and Paco was wonderful but not in the same cosmos as the Mahavishnu. The setlist for the show I attended was slightly different and, of course, more expanded. The Al Di songs were the most familiar to me--especially the timeless classic duet that Al and Paco performed on Mediterranean Sundance--and I remember the Chick Corea song being a pleasant surprise (and one of my favorites--I am a huge fan of Chick's song compositions and melodies.) The recording was very good for the time and for the subject (live recordings never seem to please me and live recordings of acoustic instruments is even more suspect) and the song choices certainly captured the essence of a fabulous experience of live music--a collaboration that was ingenious from a promotional standpoint and one that proved to be quite magical in person, as well.