Al Di Meola talks Recording with Paco de Lucía

okay so you mentioned casino but we skipped a big record Gypsy yeah okayy was a combination of Steve and Lenny right and Barry miles on keyboards and yon Hammer yes and that was a huge record huge huge record yeah Mediterranean Sundance was everyone knew that it was it became a hit single yes so Paco you know we discovered Paco on on the first RTF tour mhm that I did with them in in Europe and when we hit Spain you know the Buzz were like there was a buzz about jao in Florida there was a buzz about Paco in Spain and uh you know so I said oh man I got to I got to go to a store and get some of these record so I went to this Macy's of Spain called elor and glaz I go into the record department and I picked up three or four of his albums I came back to this house or I think it was this house and I played it and I and I was just blown away with this um advancement that he had made you know it it was more articulate than I've ever heard more syncopated more of everything more influences and uh it set it set it apart from a lot of the other guys that were out there he was like a successor to saas but he was the guy even then he was the guy he's still the guy still the guy you you know and there's a whole Legion of players that that that you know Paco was considered okay now had you seen Paco play live before you had you guys played together did he come to just from the record so so he comes over from Spain because my record contacted his record company okay and and I was of a certain popularity then say they thought it would be good for him to get exposure sure so he wasn't known in North America so you're meeting him for the first time when he over to this record electric ladyland Jimmy Hendrick Studio yeah so he comes in doesn't he doesn't speak much English at all and he has a friend who was with him an interpreter yeah and uh and uh he was very nervous you know and I guess I was nervous too but I remember him being more nervous and and we just uh he couldn't loosen up so the first day uh his friend comes over and he goes you know Paca can't play unless he has some weed and so my friend Michael the guy that that delivered the tape the chick who was the the Woodstock hippie guy that was always high said well I can I can take care of that so Michael goes out gets some good stuff for Paco we go in the next day and he's really relaxed and one take and I'm telling you and it was a special take it was one of those moments you go out this a magic in this that I haven't experienced before and at the very end if you listen to that track you can hear Paco with the end going and everybody in the control room I'll never forget the image of everybody waving their hands you know like four or five people in there just going wow that's the one you know okay wait so how far apart were you guys sitting were you facing each other when you're were playing yeah pretty much maybe another foot just like that you know and it was really good interpo yeah that's what really made it great and and we both had a pretty good understanding even though he comes from a traditional Flamingo and I have a Latin background that we understood this thing which is the most important thing right talk about that Al about the UPS versus the Downs right it's it's it's being able to feel the the the upbeat yeah you know what I mean and and and rock we feel so much of this yeah the down yeah but in this music it's this yeah uh uh uh uh uh uh and if you if you have that feeling in the way that you syncopate you know so many things can happen musically if you're on the same wavelength of that kind of thinking you know what I mean we brought a lot of that into the guitar Trio some years later when uh when we did Friday night in San Francisco okay so let's talk about that was that your record it was my record company it was your record company and John had moved to Warner Brothers was on phonogram so we split up to territories okay well mostly CBS which became Sony had it here and I think they had it in Japan and in phonogram had South America and Europe did you put the tour together knowing that you're going to do a recording at the end of it was there was how did that happen don't remember but I do know that we recorded and behind that wall I have a lot of 2in reels of a lot of the shows that started in Scandinavia went down through a lot of City through Germany into France Belgium and they were all back there but it was the last shows of the that tour that ended in California and then we did the last two shows were in San Francisco we had a Friday and a Saturday night and when we heard the last shows and we knew when we played those last shows those were mind- blowing shows yeah and Friday night went on to sell 7 million records yeah of a live record which is insane yeah it was insane then everybody had that record I mean that was they yeah it's still a very popular record it still sells very well yeah in this kind of weird environment and now we have a Saturday night one coming out yeah talk about that well that the the tapes were behind the wall for 40 some AR years you know and that some of them almost rotting right so we had them restored at Skywalker studio in California George Lucas's place and uh they brought out brought out all the best quality of of of the record and uh I had it remixed once again that would come out in June and the good thing about it is all different pieces from Friday night it's the ones that didn't wind up on Friday night let me ask you this you've made a lot of Records over the years do you ever go back and listen to those old records yeah yeah periodically yeah yeah and what do you does do does it seem like another lifetime at this point yeah oh yeah yeah I mean you're such a different player now than you were then it seems like it but my my rule of thumb and making a record is like I have to get it so that I want to hear it over and over right if you record it and you just didn't get it right you don't want to hear it you just feel like I'd rather not hear it that's a sign that you don't have it right so right you know what I mean if you want to hear that because you're proud enough of what you've done you want to hear it over and over yeah you got it you got it so I think for the most part I'm really happy with what I have of course you can always say I you know I could do this better now and I Came Upon that that kind of thing with the Saturday night thing I said oh my God I wish I had a Harmony here I wish I could change but John was the one long distance because we we did this through the whole coid 2020 Year John said no no no no you don't change a thing I said well I can't change it anyway it's a live record no if it's a mistake I love it keep the mistakes in there keep it all in you I love that that's that's that's the real deal I said oh okay wow interesting cuz that's not the way Paco thought Paco wanted everything perfect back then you know right and I was a guy in the middle I just happy to be here no I asked you this about those guys were older than you John is John's 12 years older right and Paco was what he's like six or seven years older had he yeah and did that really have any effect on you as a yeah I was the kid man and I you know I I was the one that got you know beat up a little bit you know so I had to work hard it was a healthy competition you know really was we were playing to impress one another on the stage the audience got the benefit of us but you every night you're bringing your aame you're trying in to bring we all tried oh look we you know it was a great error we had no cell phones to distract us we had no computers yeah we only had our room to practice to prepare for that night to to wonderfully beat the out of one another yeah you know and and but in a good creative way actually and that's what it was well what I love about about that record it's so easy to tell everyone apart everybody has a different style yeah it's not just the panning of how especially especially my guitar was was a steel string they both were Nyon that's right it was my idea to split us channelwise so that you could hear who's on and guys on this side and John was in the middle primarily and that was smart because if you're all playing at the same time inter playing right it could be a mess if you have everything stereo that's right you know and I like and I got this from you know who from the Beatles right yeah of course everything right I love I love the split channels yeah I love when they put Ringo all the way on one side I thought that was totally cool yes and in my world it's even cooler because I have percussion so if you have a drummer and a percussion player playing alternate rhythms or counter rhythms yeah you can't put it together no it gets messy yeah but you got a lot of Separation if you put them far left far right this is what astounded me about your playing too is that you could go from playing fullon to where you'd be muting notes and it was and it had a such a different the articulation was so different yet it didn't slow you down at all when you mute strings like when what even gave you the idea aide to do that was it from playing electric guitar yeah because electric guitar uh two two reasons one when I was younger and the neighbors downstairs in the next yard yeah I didn't really want them to hear me play so I would mute my string so I got kind of got used to the Palm on the bridge muting but I like I also like the fact that the notse popped they really and I also really gravitated towards players that were articulate yeah my favorite players articulate players like Gonzalo like chick you know yeah you know uh and Paco you know I just love that kind of thing as the other kind of thing right if you're playing let's say a lust Pole or a guitar with a lot of amplification and a sustained setting and you go down low it's pretty messy that's right so I would try to clean that up by muting so that you don't have this this wash of sound yeah if you know what I mean it cleans up the wash in a sense so that kind of became a thing

Channel: Rick Beato 2

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Keywords: al di meola, john mclaughlin, paco de lucia, friday night in san francisco, al di meola mediterranean sundance, al di meola elegant gypsy, al di meola paco de lucia john mclaughlin, john mclaughlin interview, Rick Beato, Interview, Rick beato interview, paco de lucia flamenco, Guitar, Guitar playing, flamenco guitar, latin guitar

Id: 91i0mlJzlNs

Length: 11min 4sec (664 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2023