Customer Reviews

LAGQ Brazil

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"Brazil," the newest release of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, is the first to be made since the departure of Andrew York, and the arrival of newcomer Matthew Greif, and it must be said, Greif more than carries his guitar in this Grammy-winning company of John Dearman, William Kanengiser, and Scott Tennant, who's also well-known and sought-after as a soloist. This acoustic guitar entry is the group's 4th record on Telarc; it was recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, Marin County, California. They are probably the most accomplished and recorded guitar quartet since the Romeros, three decades ago. The quartet is joined, on this record, by Katisse Buckingham, flutist, on the famous first cut, "Mas Que Nada,"and on "De Sabado pro Dominguinhos;"Kevin Ricard on percussion also joins them on the latter cut. The young and lovely, 3-time Grammy-winning, 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; and again later on "Sambadolu," by the well-known Marco Pereira.

Andres Segovia, world-famous Spanish guitarist, who had a lot to do with bringing the guitar repertory, particularly the Latin repertory, to wider attention, once described the guitar as an orchestra seen through a reversed telescope; that is, it had little dynamic range. But the intricate, inventive, flexible playing of this group can fill any hall: I was once lucky enough to see them here, in Wilmington, North Carolina, performing with the cognac-voiced Luciana Souza, and I state this without fear of contradiction. Some of the cuts on this album sound more jazzy than Latinate to my ear, and on her second set with the group, Souza flirts with scat singing, an art I've never appreciated. But her first, 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.