An Elegant Night at Paul's Mall
with:
Al DiMeola: guitar
Stu Goldberg: keyboards
Eddie Colon: timbales
Eric McCann: bass
Lee Pastora: congas
Chuck Burgi: drums

Paul's Mall
Boston, Mass. U.S.A.
April 23, 1977 (2 shows! the last of 3 nights in a row there)
Source: 1st generation audience tapes
total runtime: 137:03 (minutes/ seconds)

1st show 64:15
1: tuning 1:09
2: the wizard 8:41
3: midnight tango 8:01
4: race with the devil on the Spanish highway 10:48
5: piano solo (Stu Goldberg) 8:27
6: Mediterreanean sundance > ? 6:58
7: elegant gypsy suite 11:22
8: band introductions :48
9: encore: flight over Rio 8:01

2nd show 72:48
1: the wizard 9:00
2: midnight tango 7:52
3: race with the devil on the Spanish highway 10:11
4: acoustic duet (DiMeola and Goldberg) 10:22
5: DiMeola acoustic solo 8:19
6: elegant gypsy suite 12:19
7: dark eye tango 7:24 (end applause spliced)
8: encore: flight over Rio 7:20

lineage:
Sony stereo cassette recorder/ built in mikes? >
master cassette > my cassettes (Maxell UD and TDK-SA 90's, trade) >
tascam 112 > soundforge (16/44 wav) >
flac 6 (sb's aligned) > torrentially yours.
a this and that production.
do not sell this recording.
share freely, losslessly and gaplessly.

A couple of songs cut in at the beginning and are missing a
couple of seconds, but it's close to a complete recording.
this recording was first seeded in 2008,
reseeded in 2010 with a flac > wav > flac (sb's aligned)
reconversion to remove the sbe's (and track times).
this version is a fresh 2018 transfer of the 1st. gen. cassettes,
without all of that extra lineage.

Comments:
This is 1 full night, 1 of 3 with this group for this run at
Paul's Mall just when Al has released his eventual 1977 Downbeat
Reader's Poll choice for Album of the Year, "Elegant Gypsy".
(also a huge hit for Guitar Player magazine readers).
These sets both include a very hefty dose of that, pretty
similar setlist for each show (seperate admissions). It was recorded
on one of the little Sony recorders, in stereo, not alot of seperation
but it's up close and personal, you can hear all instruments well
and the versions are nicely extended and jammed.
I met Al at this show, he actually let me record his show,
but the Paul's Mall staff said I couldn't.
I got this tape in trade a few years later, which is probably better quality
than what I would have had if I had recorded, so all worked out good there.
I have heard rumors of a 1976 Al DiMeola FM broadcast from Boston,
(over WCOZ radio) of his 1st solo tour (Land of the Midnight Sun)
after R.T.F. but never heard it. This is his second solo tour, but
the one that made Al DiMeola famous as a solo artist. There is a Toronto
FM broadcast of this great tour, but I have not heard about one from
Boston during this run of shows (WBCN would broadcast a set from
either Paul's Mall or Jazz Workshop, usually every Thursday I think,
in the early 70's, maybe it varied some..). I think this is the night
I saw, I know on 4/22 I couldn't because Weather Report was playing
down the street at the Berklee P.C. I think any fan of Al would be
happy to hear this couple of sets. Don't know if Stu Goldberg was in
this whole tour but he is in all of both these shows. In the second show,
they sound like they're going into Midnight Tango (for a second time in
the show, just 1 reason I don't generally like 2 show gigs, when the band
only knows one set's worth of songs, but this one was a goodie.)
but then go into the Dark Eye Tango, which wasn't recorded yet.
Al's got so many tangos it's no wonder even he can confuse them sometimes.
It's almost 2 full CD's of some fine playing by Al just when he was hitting
his peak (if like I, you prefer your Al D. electric!) There is some acoustic
playing here too, but the highlights are (for me), the Wizard, Race with the
Devil and Elegant Gypsy suite. The Flight over Rio encore will get the blood
flowing pretty good too. Thanks to Peter P for the recording. He did a nice
job of it. This recording has seen some circulation on tape, maybe with
tracks out of order. this should be in correct order direct from my 1st gen. tape copy.