Friday Night In San Francisco was recorded in December 1980 at the Warfield Theatre "SF" and came at the beginning of the following year on the market. Very few people know that the first jazz icon Larry Coryell toured with McLaughlin and De Lucia, Columbia Records but when planning the live album decided against him and Al Di Meola took his place.
When recording to a new path. Both the placement of the musicians, as well as the involvement of the audience were new to an acoustic recording. Both, however, also has a significant share of the popularity of the album, which has now sold well over two million copies.
The fascinating thing about the album is the playful ease, the stunning improvisation and the ingenuity of the three audible Saitenvirituosen. The album never gets boring. Handle combination to handle combination it changes across the musical styles, sometimes loud and dynamic, sometimes melancholic and full of feeling. It is a unique piece of music and the proof that even the craft gold ground has. Walter Kolosky (All About Jazz) writes of a "historic night". What he certainly is right.
Not just for jazz fans and guitarists a genuine Hörempfehlung. My highlight of the five songs is a duet Meola / McLaughlin and her interpretation of Gismonti's "Frevo Rasgado". But that's a matter of taste. I'm saying: Absolute Island Tough.
