Customer Reviews

Brazil

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LAGQ Brazil is the quartet's first release since the resignation of Andrew York last year shortly after the recording of their previous record, "Spin." York has been replaced by Matthew Grief and no one would hardly be able to recognize the personnel change aside from the absence of some of Andrew York's compositions. On this release, it is safe to say that the quartet is starting to move in a little bit different direction. We hear collaborations with other musicians and a more straight-ahead vision without as much genre bending. The result is that on LAGQ Brazil, we get a lot of great Brazilian Jazz influenced tracks featuring great Latin American percussion work, great vocals and some pretty amazing flute work on the first cut. The Jobim medley is absolutely sublime and there are also some great pieces from other Brazilian greats including Villa-Lobos and Paulo Bellinati. The CD is full of the enchanting sounds of Brazil with excellent playing, tight ensemble and fantastic production. The listener will be delighted with the classic LAGQ mix, featuring all four players mixed across the audio spectrum from left to right. Put on headphones and it is almost as if the quartet is playing for you in a semi-circle around you. Fans of the LAGQ will not be disappointed by Andrew York's departure as there is plenty for the guitar quartet fans to indulge in here.

The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's "Brazil," is their first album to be made since the departure of Andrew York, and the arrival of newcomer Matthew Greif. Greif shows himself as more than competent to join this Grammy-winning company of John Dearman, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant, who's also well-known and sought-after as a soloist. The current acoustic guitar production is the group's 4th record on Telarc; it was recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, Marin County, California. The LAGQ is probably the most accomplished and recorded guitar quartet since the Romeros, three decades ago. They are joined, on this record, by Katisse Buckingham, flutist, on the well-known to us first cut, "Mas Que Nada;"and on "De Sabado pro Dominguinhos;"Kevin Ricard on percussion also joins them on the latter cut. Three-time Grammy nominee Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza joins them on the medley of songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose name is practically synonymous with Brazilian music, in this country, at least. She joins them again on "Sambadolu," by the well-known Marco Pereira; they originally recorded this tune on her 2005 album Duos II.

Andres Segovia, the late, world-famous Spanish guitarist, who had a lot to do with bringing the guitar repertory, especially the Latin repertory, to wider public attention, once described the guitar as an orchestra seen through a reversed telescope. That is, it had little dynamic range. But the group's eclectic musical taste, its focused virtuosity, its graceful contrapuntal charisma, can fill any hall, and please any audience. I was once lucky enough to see them here, in Wilmington, North Carolina, performing with the cognac-voiced Senhora Souza, and their sexy, seductive music just blew listeners away. Souza's recorded Jobim medley occasionally arises to such power as to remind me of the Bachianas Brasilianas No. 5 of Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil's best-known classical composer. The quartet has included the composer's "A Lendo do Caboclo" among its offerings on this record: not surprisingly, the track leans toward the classical. The LAGQ can do that, too.