Let’s Go To San Francisco

In December 1980, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco De Lucia performed two concerts at San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre. A recording of that first iconic date was released the following year as Friday Night In San Francisco, but the second was thought to be lost. More than 40 years later, tapes of the trio’s companion show have been restored and issued as Saturday Night In San Francisco. Al DiMeola and John McLaughlin recall those magical performances together and reveal the challenges of compiling such a historically important album.

Sid Smith

Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin both remember the first time they came across the phenomenon that was flamenco and classical guitarist, Paco De Lucia. Di Meola was on tour in Spain with Return To Forever and kept hearing the name. “I bought a few of his records while I was over there. When I got back I was completely blown away at how he had elevated the idiom of flamenco by a technique I had never heard of before with a velocity that was second to none and a percussive technique that was a new approach.” John McLaughlin was in the back of a taxi in Paris. “There was this music playing on the radio and I asked the driver who it was and he told me. ‘Paco, who?’…

You're reading a preview of

Prog (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 132

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.