In 1976, I had the pleasure of writing the liner notes for "Flamenco Guitar Improvisations" an LP by Carlos Lomas, a brilliant flamenco guitarist whose blazing technique has always been matched by an astonishing creative sensibility. I knew Carlos from New York and also from Malaga, Spain, where he had been playing professionally and also teaching flamenco to a kid called Tomatito who is now one of the three or four true giants of the art.

So in early 1979, when Carlos told me he wanted to make a new record, I was delighted. And I knew the right place to do it. At the time, I was teaching very traditional flamenco music to Lance Quinn, a phenomenal rock player and all-around guitarist who worked as a recording engineer and session man at New York's famed Power Station recording studio. Lance generously agreed to arrange for some studio time late at night when high-profile sessions were over.

And so a few nights later, I stood waiting for Carlos to come to the side entrance. Sure enough, a taxi rolled up and he emerged with his guitar case - and another case with an Arabic oud. Then someone else got out, carrying a violin case. Then someone else with a drum kit, someone else with a five-string banjo, and someone else with a strange case I'd never even seen before. For a moment, I felt like I was a kid at the circus, watching endless clowns emerge from a tiny automobile. Finally the flow stopped and the taxi drove off. Then another taxi rolled up, and someone got out with an electric bass case, followed by someone with a cello case, and someone with a sitar case, and various other people with darbakah and nay and steel-string acoustic guitar cases.