Friday Night in San Francisco

Friday Night in San Francisco is a 1981 live album by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía. It was described by jazz author and critic Walter Kolosky as "a musical event that could be compared to the Benny Goodman Band's performance at Carnegie Hall in 1938 … [it] may be considered the most influential of all live acoustic guitar albums".^[4]

Friday Night in San Francisco
Live album by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucía
Released	1981
Recorded	December 5, 1980 ("Guardian Angel" recorded May 1981 at Minot Sound, White Plains, New York)
Venue	The Warfield, San Francisco, California
Genre	New flamenco jazz
Length	41:02
Label	Columbia/Sony Music Entertainment
Producer	Al Di Meola John McLaughlin Paco de Lucía
Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucía chronology
Friday Night in San Francisco (1981) Passion, Grace and Fire (1983)
John McLaughlin chronology
Belo Horizonte (1981) Friday Night in San Francisco (1981) Music Spoken Here (1982)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[3]

All the tracks except "Guardian Angel" were recorded live at the Warfield Theatre on 5 December 1980, in San Francisco; "Guardian Angel" was recorded at Minot Sound, in White Plains, New York.

Track listing

1. "Mediterranean Sundance / Rio Ancho" (Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía) - 11:31
2. "Short Tales of the Black Forest" (Chick Corea) - 8:43
3. "Frevo Rasgado" (Egberto Gismonti) - 7:55
4. "Fantasia Suite" (Al Di Meola) - 8:50
5. "Guardian Angel" (John McLaughlin) - 4:01

Personnel

• Al Di Meola – acoustic steel-string guitar
• John McLaughlin – acoustic nylon-string guitar (played w/ flatpick)
• Paco de Lucía – spanish guitar

Charts

1981 chart performance for Friday Night in San Francisco

Chart (1981)	Peak position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[5]	100
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[6]	5
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[7]	22
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[8]	48
US Top LPs & Tape (Billboard)[9]	97
US Top Jazz LPs (Billboard)[9]	6

2014 chart performance for Friday Night in San Francisco

Chart (2014)	Peak position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[10]	66
French Albums (SNEP)[11]	154
Italian Albums (FIMI)[12]	55