Friday Night in San Francisco is a live album, released on August 10, 1981, by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. It was described by jazz writer and critic Walter Kolosky as “a musical event that could be compared to the Benny Goodman Band’s performance at Carnegie Hall in 1938 and may be considered the most important of all live acoustic guitar albums”.

All tracks except “Guardian Angel” were recorded live at the Warfield Theater in San Francisco on December 5, 1980. “Guardian Angel” was recorded at Minot Sound, in White Plains, New York.

Relaxed and spontaneous, this live album is a meeting of three of the world’s greatest guitarists in an acoustic summit rarely seen in the guitar community. Split into three duet performances and two trios, Friday Night in San Francisco captures all three musicians at the peak of their very impressive powers.

The opening track finds Al di Meola and Paco de Lucía playing a medley of di Meola’s “Mediterranean Sundance,” first recorded by the duo on di Meola’s 1976 debut album Elegant Gypsy and de Lucía’s album Rio Ancho. It’s a delightful performance, full of fire and relentless guitar passages that reflect the caliber of these two musicians. However, the two guitarists clearly have too big an ear to limit themselves to their own playing, and complement each other’s solos with percussion and a strong rhythm. There is also a lighthearted element to Friday Night in San Francisco, best evidenced by di Meola and McLaughlin’s rendition of Chick Corea’s “Short Tales of the Black Forest.” The pair’s fiery guitar licks soon give way to atonal body strokes as their fingers run along the strings, and before the piece is complete, they play a blues and reference the Pink Panther theme, essentially joking around and wanting to dispel the image, especially of third Al di Meola, of being overly serious musicians who are more concerned with technique than music.

The other big piece of evidence against such a narrow-minded claim can be found both in the quality of the compositions presented on Friday Night in San Francisco and in the sensitivity and dynamic range they displayed in their performances. One such example is the album’s only studio track, a McLaughlin composition titled “Guardian Angel”, the beginning of which comes directly from Guardian Angels, a song that appears on McLaughlin’s album Electric Dreams. It is a nice track, characterized by a beautiful melody and includes some of the best solos on the album. Overall, Friday Night in San Francisco, through which we will then hear “Mediterranean Sundance”, is a fantastic album and one of the best entries in any of the discographies of these artists.
 
Tracklist

1. Mediterranean Sundance / Rio Ancho 11:31
2. Short Tales Of The Black Forest 8:41
3. Frevo Rasgado 7:55
4. Fantasia Suite 8:50
5. Guardian Angel 4:00