*** The Guitar Trio by Paco de Lucia, Al di Meola, John McLaughlin – Has Weird Jamming that Is Boring

This album is one of those bills that you would think because of the names of the musicians on it, that it would be impossible to go wrong.  Nothing could be further from the case.  Jam number 1 on The Guitar Trio goes nowhere, and isn’t intriguing.  Check out track 1 if you want to see how boring complex guitar work can be.  Jeepers, I never knew people so gifted could play such boring music.

In fact, when I first got this one, it was way back in high school and after listening to it, I thought maybe I’d eventually love it, so then I listened to it at college, and it didn’t impress me more than a slew of random notes would.  Now, in my 30s I decided to dust it off again and give it another chance, and once again this one only registers a fizzle of excitement.

The Guitar Trio’s tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 are okay, but not super special.  Definitely worth listening to, but probably not worth purchasing, as these tracks are only enough to redeem The Guitar Trio album to its 3 star rating.

Perhaps, the reason I have been so critical of this album is that there are 3 guitars on it that pretty much all sound alike, such that there is not much diversity of sound.  The 3^rd guitarist is superfluous, and adds zero dimension to the music.