In 1980, Paco de Lucia and Al Di Meola collaborated and produced an ensemble track
composed of Di Meola's "Mediterranean Sundance" from his 1977 album Elegant Gypsy with
"Río Ancho". It was performed live in San Francisco on December 5, 1980, and the set was
released by Columbia as Friday Night in San Francisco.
The collaborative version of the song consists of a relatively simple lyrical harmonic
progression adorned by a flamenco rhythm. However, it poses technical difficulties due to the
speed and precision required of Di Meola's picking on the steel-stringed guitar, playing
melodic phrases, and to Paco de Lucia's fingerpicking on the flamenco guitar, as well as the
exact matching of Di Meola and de Lucía's solos which frequently consist of them both
playing a rapid set of matching or corresponding notes. They resort to many guitar
performance techniques and fingerstyles, such as drumming guitar tops, strumming, bare
thumb plucking, palm muting, tremolo picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs, sweep picking,
vibratos, and glissandos. The collaboration was an instant success.