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Reviews: Di Meola/McLaughlin/DeLucia: Friday Night in San Francisco

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Reviews: 7

Review by Marc P March 1, 2003 (6 of 7 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
What can one say about this album except that it is a classic?
Man one can only think what it must have been like to see these guys play live. It must have been a trip. Three great guitar players all at their peak, and performing live on the same stage.

The first time I ever heard this album was at my local audio store. The guy who owns the store knew I was into guitar music and was mostly rock oriented. I told him I liked all kinds of music but I just didn’t know what to look for.
Well he had a copy of the Mastersound Gold CD series and he played it for me. I thought I died and gone to heaven. This was amazing, and it opened up a whole new musical world to me.
The album has been a favourite of mine for about ten to fifteen years. And I was very happy when my JSACD arrived. Playing it gave me the same feeling it always does, in one word “Wow”.

Sound quality is amazing. It’s one of the best live recordings I own.

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Review by JW May 22, 2003 (11 of 11 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Whip out the ol' credit card, steel the proceeds of your garage sale, do whatever, but get this JSACD :-)

Is this the best guitar recording ever? John McLaughlin, Paco DeLucia and Al DiMeola play trios and duets live in concert, offering up a menu of flamengo music and Latin/Spanish tunes with a jazzy influence.

If you know this album from CD but always thought something was missing, well this is the one you've been waiting for. If you want to hear a guitar 'light up your room' look no further. You can hear EVERYTHING. You can hear when the pick hits the string. You can hear when the steel E-string hits the fretboard when really plucked hard. The sound reaches out at you and it's so palpable that you want to try and grab them.

I have never heard this performance at this level. My reference is the old redbook CD. There is a complete absence of treble harshness. No listener fatigue with this disc at high volumes. And this disc is best listened to at higher volumes in my opinion. It really gets you 'there'. What this level of quality brings to the listening room is very important. I felt transported to the performance. The microdynamics on this disc allow you to hear the interplay between these guys. The slight hesitation before the next note is played in order to keep the tension, the solo that goes on just that little too long sometimes.

This is a live performance and you can hear it. It's a bit 'showy' at times. Too many tricks some peple might say, but hey, who's complaining... I remember Mclaughlin saying in an interview once that he felt they were doing something special that night and that he was especially pleased with his solo work on the 'Frevo Rasgado' track (I think this was an interview in Guitar Player, not sure).

Gripping stuff!

Jw

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Review by DeSelby February 6, 2005 (1 of 10 found this review helpful)
Sonics:
stereo sonics: very clear sound

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Review by der inschinör May 18, 2006 (3 of 5 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
For years I owned the "standard" CD. I listend it after buying and then it went into the drawer.
When searching for SACDs I remembered this CD and bought it as SACD.

What can I tell you about it?
This SACD is absolutely fantastic.

The livelike feeling is brought through your stereo as if you would be there in San Francisco.

My recommandation:
Buy this SACD, take a good glass of wine and take place in front of your stereo.
You will feel like a time traveller!

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Review by putmess February 1, 2007 (0 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Nothing more to say: buy it, you'll never regret.
Perfect and amazing music.
Super-super sound really unbelievable.
If you close your eyes, you believe you are on stage surrounded by the artists.
It's a must.
This recording is a milestone which is very, very hard to achieve for new comers.
(SACD Stereo mode listening)

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Review by Whitehall February 3, 2007 (2 of 9 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Are you guys talking about the same SACD? The title, artists, and cover look like the same.

However, I found it stunningly boring and purged it from my collection quickly then sold it on the used market. The wife concurred on the artistic evaluation so I don't think I'm being quirky.

No complaint about the sound quality, but the content was a disappointment. Of course, people will have differing opinions on these matters but please be advised that the praise above is not universal.

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Review by analogue March 3, 2009 (7 of 7 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
This is a classic acoustic guitar album from the late 70's and a real audio treat. I have both the regualr version and the japanese import. I would have to say that the import is superior in every way. The thing we can never know is (in Japan)if they simply remaster the same source the American's use of if a brand new transfer is done from another source.

Japanese vinyl records and cd's have always been prized and praised for their superior quality but this comes with a hefty price tag too. Japanese sacd';s are not cheap. I can also attest that NOT ALL import sacd's are better than their American counterparts. And some Japanese imports are a little dry for my taste...some Miles Davis sacd's come to mind.

For this release the Japanese import seems to have a slightly thicker bottom end and a richer tonality to the strings. Each guitarist seems to have slightly more presence behind him. There is also a slight better resolve to three dimentional placement of each guitarist in the recorded sound field. While the musicianship is extraordinary there is a lot going on musically as this is an interplay between three great acoustic guitarists. It can get confusing at times. To say the first track is busy......is a vast understatement. The strumming of the strings can get quite loud and powerful and your speakers will get a great workout at times. In my humble opinion I believe that there could have been less of an experimental approach to this album and more of a controlled melodious one. A mixture of both would have been better. Some comments I have heard claim that the interplay can be very chaotic and confusing. This is a valid statement as well.

In addition while the recording is excellent and is a classic album in every sense of the word there could have been slightly more air around the instruments. There is a very slight constriction .

If you can afford 40 dollars I would highly recommend the Japanese Import of this terrific album. If not the American sacd is still a worthy purchase. All in all this is a wonderful album.

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