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Ricardo -> RE: Saturday Night in San Francisco (Jul. 6 2022 6:43:30)
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OK, got my vinyl copy in the mail tonight while I was on the gig, so I spent all night studying this thing. Here is the scoop…good news and bad news.
First good news, The package is really nice with a booklet that has interviews photos and stories…some stuff we already know and some new insights. I will let other people read that thing on their own but three points.
1. They admit that fans are aware that the YouTube video shows Saturday night, and are sort of claiming this disc is simply the enhanced audio of that show (from Tim Pinch’s mobile truck). As a high end audio label that is a minor issue for them, the idea being the special mastering process etc is what we have purchased as “audiophiles” one and all. No matter that we should already be familiar with all the music on here.
2. Al says they added Guardian Angels to Friday night disc so McLaughlin had composer credit, but “poor paco” had not composed any music on Friday Night. If you don’t understand why that is an infuriating statement, lets just say Paco DID compose music on there. Totally get why there was a fight later on regarding that track. Al still performs Rio Ancho live and must think himself the composer of it, even though it was recorded a year before the two even met! Not to mention Entre dos Aguas is the bulk of med sun.
3. There are photos of the tape reel covers and it seems some were damaged or not clearly labeled. Also it seems that some of these tapes were baked back in 1994 at Power Station…which is very curious. Also, Pinch reveals that he was running two tape reels in order to over lap as he ran out of tape during a song…while he was eating burgers in his truck, admitting they could be “spliced together” later….that could very well be part of the confusion going on between the nights. Perhaps the splicing of Med Sun was unintentional back in the day, a result of mislabeled tape reels? Or an attempt to fix an overlap error or tricky spot that occurred on Friday? So now on to the actual recording…
I went over this record several times with a fine tooth comb. As I already knew Splendido Sundance is a different night than the video version, and it is great playing IMO. Very exciting.
Now, the bad news….
Everything else is from the video concert in terms of what was being performed. Yes, that is right…we already have seen and heard this music. However, everything except for Tres Hermanos and Paco’s solo has been heavily edited. They call that one El Pañuelo so Paco’s family can get the royalty….the tune was co-written by McLaughlin for a trio gig with Carlos Santana, but perhaps Al finally wanted to give Paco some credit ironically. Most Paco fans know it as Chanela. Sometimes a lot of editing was used, and very carefully. McLaughlin’ a solo piece I thought was different at first until I noticed some detail…then I checked the video and sure enough it is all hacked up. Al’s solo is the most obvious pull from the video, however it is also cut down in spots. Obviously the video is not mixed (guitars remain flat, and Al’s guitar is missing from the spectrum on the trio pieces), so the sound is much improved in that sense. And the edit job on Meeting of the spirits fixes all the mistakes and makes it very enjoyable, perhaps the best piece on the record. Normally that one is kind of boring on video, but this edit job cleans up the rough spots and makes it pretty exciting sounding. If anyone knows the video version the ending was really bad, and the way they fixed it without actually re-recording anything was brilliant honestly. [:D]
I assume the bonus track on the SACD is going to be the buleria paco plays in the video (mostly La Tumbona).
So we are left wondering whether Splendido is actually from Friday like Frevo and Fantasia etc. Or perhaps it was a different venue (Tim Pinch admitted to taking that truck to Reseda and Santa Monica as well)? We may never know.
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