In 1979 and 1980, John McLaughlin toured Europe with the original acoustic guitar super-trio which featured Larry Coryell instead of Al DiMeola. There is a VHS tape of the London concert available commercially. It is called The Meeting of the Spirits. McLaughlin tried to release a live recording of this group but Columbia would have none of it, claiming Coryell was not a big enough name. Larry had some other personal problems at the time which did not help him either. The popular recording industry, especially the very large conglomerates, are a bunch of spineless and gutless wonders so we never heard the original trio on record. (This is not totally true. On Paco's release Castro Marin, the original trio appears on one cut). At this point, Al stepped in. His presence suddenly made the trio commercial. At any rate, eventually we were rewarded with Friday Night in San Francisco in 1981.

Friday Night in San Francisco truly caught these players' energy, technique and humor to a generous degree. Make no mistake. This was a musical event which can compare with the appearance of the Benny Goodman Band at Carnegie Hall. This was really a coming-out party for the acoustic guitar.

There is no doubt McLaughlin is the leader, center channel gives that away, but DiMeola and Paco DeLucia do themselves proud. DiMeola, though one of the world's greatest guitar players, lacks the emotional intensity and overall musicality to match McLaughlin. But, certainly he was in his element as the trio was much influenced by Paco and a Latin leaning, which DiMeola had been dabbling in for years. Not being a jazz player, DeLucia's improvisational work is understandably weaker than the other two. However, this trio was as much in Paco's bag as it was in a jazz bag. The concert is full of call and response, unison playing, heavy chords (courtesy of McLaughlin) and audience screams. This recording succeeds on all levels. You feel as if you were there at The Warfield Theater.

The album's highlight is John's duet with Paco on an Egberto Gismonti piece, "Frevo Rasgado". The beautiful melody and stunning improvisation leads to an absolutely hair-raising finale duel. (Gismonti has recorded a beautiful version of his own tune on piano). The recording's lightest moments occur during a hilarious duet of Chick Corea's "Short Tales of the Black Forest", featuring John and Al in which the two masters quote back and forth from various sources including Hanry Mancini's "Pink Panther". All three players finish the event with a studio version of McLaughlin's "Guardian Angels".

Friday Night in San Francisco is considered the greatest and most influential of all live acoustic guitar albums. Though some have criticized it for its muscular tendencies, the live recording certainly captured the excitement of the event itself. In a world of electric guitars, it was quite unusual to hear a crowd go absolutely ballistic over acoustic strumming. It is not so unusual today and this record is one of the reasons.

Walter Kolosky
smsi@attbi.com

Walter Kolosky is a businessman and jazz fan who lives in South Natick, MA, USA