Saturday Night In San Francisco: Live 12.6.80

Wow, once again I'm simply blown away by the sheer jaw dropping talent of Messrs De Lucia, Di Meola and Mclaughlin. This is the perfect follow up to one of the greatest guitar albums ever to have been recorded -Friday night in San Francisco. This is every bit as impressive and the perfect companion to Friday night. The virtuoso playing of all three guitarists is, once again, almost beyond comprehension of us mere mortals- simply stunning. The sound quality is simply amazing and, to my ears, of an even better fidelity than 'Friday night'. The restoration of the tape - it has been lying in Al di Meola's basement for 40 years, is astounding and thankfully we can now bask in it's sonic glory. Undoubtedly this album will be held in the same reverence as 'Friday night'- and rightfully so. This album explores even further guitar majesty including some baroque playing as well as their more familiar sounds/styles. The trio were as much on fire here as they were on the previous night. Overall I might even prefer this album to Friday night due to the extended range of styles it protrays and an absolute killer version of John Mclaughlin's 'Meeting of the spirits'. An absolute gem of an album featuring probably the greatest guitarists of our time. The record itself is of a deserving solid heavyweight, beautifully presented in clear vinyl. Honestly can't rate this album highly enough, if you like virtuoso playing of the highest level then you absolutely need this in your collection. Five stars all day long!

Superbly recorded live, with 3 great guitarists working together to produce a unique result. Just fantastic.

I actually prefer this to the classic Friday Night… album.However there are two different vinyl versions, the EU and US (Impex Records). IMO the EU EAR Music version is sonically inferior, albeit cheaper in the UK. There is a good article explaining the reasons on the SHF.

This is one of THE greatest audiophile quality recordings of all time. The sound quality is sensational, exceptional! Of course the three featured artists are icons in their field. The original Friday Night album was released over 40 years ago and it had perfectly captured that December evening in 1980 when the 3 virtuosos played that legendary concert. That original recording is considered one of the most important and influential of all time. Now on the 40th anniversary of the event Di Meola has reclaimed the master tapes of the SATURDAY night concert that followed. It had also been recorded but no one ever got around to mixing the tapes and releasing the album. The tapes were is good condition, were restored and now we finally get to hear that final night. The performances are truly electrifying. The musicianship is on genius level. The sound quality is unequalled. The SACD format was created for moments like this. When the performance the recording and the recording format comes together and creates lightning in a bottle. Audiophile perfection.

To be honest, if you are a fan of Friday Night then you have probably already bought this. I've played the first album thousands of times and this is just as good.What is welcome is how different this is; first, we get solos rather than duos. The big beast here is Meeting of the Spirits (and I'm sure I read somewhere that this epic is actually slightly edited!)We get one of Paco's compositions for trio and it is as blistering as anything on FNISF. Al's solo even includes the Bach Sarabande which he played on his first solo album. Then we get a beautiful encore courtesy of the Samba Orfeo from the third trio album.The sound is excellent and there is nothing not to like about this.

You need this L.p.. apart from what could be a small click, scratch, at the end of side two. This is a great album or cd. I recommend this without a doubt. You will also need the Friday Night one too. Needs to get a reissue on vinyl . Buy it.

Would you expect anything less from these guys?Amazing quality, scores, playing, its 'Friday Night....' all over again, but a day later!

If you've got Friday night in San Francisco, get this to complete the magic , and if not , get this to hear 3 meastros playing at their peak