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 Lucia
teaming up for a medley of
di Meola
's
"Mediterranean Sundance"
(first recorded by the duo on
's classic 1976 album
Elegant Gypsy
) and
de Lucia
'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
as well, best witnessed in
John McLaughlin
's performance of
Chick Corea
"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
, 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
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
'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,
is a fantastic album and one of the best entries in all of these guitarists' fine discographies. ~ Daniel Gioffre