LAGQ: Latin

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Latin, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's homage to the music of Latin America and Spain, opens weakly with a tune called "Fragile," a bit of melodic fluff composed by Sting. After that's safely out of the way, however, the four virtuosos go on to play much more satisfying works by such composers as Leo Brouwer from Cuba, Astor Piazolla from Argentina, Egberto Gismonti from Brazil, and Joaquin Rodrigo from Spain. The music ranges from the passionate, earthy flamenco of "Sevillanas" to the austere, almost abstract tone poem "Cuban Landscape with Rain" and on to the jazzy harmonies of "Forrobodo." The most exciting piece is the six-movement "Carmen Suite," which the quartet plays with a thrilling blend of passion and precision. But no matter how disparate the music, the impeccable technique, musical intelligence, and emotional delivery of John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, and Andrew York find the common thread to tie it all together. --Michael Simmons

LAGQ: Latin, Music, Georges Bizet, Leo Brouwer, Aaron Copland, Egberto Gismonti, Eduardo Martin, Astor Piazzolla, Sting, Spanish Traditional, Andrew York, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (LAGQ), James Walker, John Dearman, Scott Tennant, Tim Timmermans, 20th/21st Century Orchestral Work with Descriptive Title, Chamber, Chamber Music, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Artists, French Romantic Opera, Latin Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music, Opera, Orchestral, Vocal, Vocal Music

LAGQ - Guitar Heroes (Multichannel Hybrid SACD)
Average customer rating:

LAGQ Guitar Heroes by the LAGQ

A Guitar Grimoire for 6 string enthusiasts

LAGQ - Guitar Heroes (Multichannel Hybrid SACD)

Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Los Angeles Guitar Quartet | ( L ) | Featured Performers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Dark Side of the Moon 30th Anniversary Edition

Friday Night in San Francisco (Stereo SACD)

Telarc SACD Sampler: Sound and Vision

David Chesky: Area 31 [Hybrid SACD]

Time Out

ASIN: B000294RMG
Release Date: 2004-06-22

Tracks:

Icarus
B & B
We Know You Know: Reverie For Mahavishnu
Pluck, Strum And Hammer
Letter From Home
Uarekena
Aire Para Un Dia (Mood For A Day)
Gyspy Flower
Pop
El Baile De Luis Alonso
Lament And Wake
Let's Be Frank
Blue Echo/Country Gentleman

Customer Reviews:

LAGQ Guitar Heroes by the LAGQ.......2005-03-24

This was the Grammy award winner in classical crossover for 2005. It is great if you appreciate the innovators in 20th century guitar music. Listen to The "Assad Duo" and a rock remedition of a Michael Hedges tribute" Lament and Wake which stand out. Both these songs got great reviews as arrangements by the newspaper critics. Get the multi channel version if you have a a top notch audio system with the speakers to show off the enginneering. If you just want "pretty" background music this is not an album for you.

A Guitar Grimoire for 6 string enthusiasts.......2004-08-14

This is an exciting display of 6 string prowess that really isn't classical, yet will inevitably become a classic. It is an amazing tour de force worthy of the California Guitar Trio. The efforst here focus on composers and players who are heroes to this quartet, and it is a compendium of the best: McLaughlin, Hendrix, Metheny, Towner, Howe, Rheinhart. Each and every selection is brilliant whether they are essaying Norman Blake or Frank Zappa. York, Tennant, Kanengiser and Dearman command their instruments with power and discipline, and the finessse and passion leaps off the strings. The fretwork is a tribute to each of the heroes honored, and indeed this is truly an honouring of great fretmen. The digital encoding of the disc is such that you get a very precise definition of who is playing spacially from right to left. Very impressive, as you would expect from Telarc.
Their take on Towner's "Icarus" is both timely and quite a creative adjustment of the tempo. Steve Howe's "Mood For A Day" undergoes a makeover as a flamenco tour de force, and it actually comes off even more amazing than Howe's various re-workings of this abstemious wonder. At times, the compositions are those of the heroes, at others it is the LAGQ's composition evoking essential qualities of the personalities honoured. It works beautifully on all accounts. If you are a fan of acoustic guitars, or even of any of the guitarists honoured here, you owe it to yourself to pick this up.

Average customer rating:

An Outstanding Hommage to the Greats of All-Styles of Guitar
LAGQ: "Decent"
Fails to translate into much pleasure for average listeners
I Should Have Known Better
Totally satisfying

LAGQ's Guitar Heroes

Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Latin Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Best of L.A.G.Q.
LAGQ: Latin
For Thy Pleasure
L.A.G.Q.
L.A. Guitar Quartet: Evening In Granada

ASIN: B00020PVUC
Release Date: 2004-06-22

Tracks:

Icarus
B & B
We Know You Know: Reverie For Mahavishnu
Pluck, Strum, And Hammer
Letter From Home
Uarekena
Aire Para Un Dia (Mood For A Day)
Gypsy Flower
Pop
El Baile De Luis Alonso
Lament And Wake
Let's Be Frank
Blue Echo/Country Gentleman

Amazon.com

These guys are amazing. This CD is for everyone, regardless of "favorite" musical tastes. Classical, pop, new-age, country, whatever: the LAGQ's virtuosity is stunning, and the sounds they make are engaging, clear and clean (and aided by recording engineers who should win the Nobel Prize for recording, were there such a thing). Nominally, this CD is inspired by the heroes of the four members of LAGQ, but that's only a piece of information: What they do with music by, or indebted to, or inspired by their "heroes" is the issue, and it's never less than original, by turns lovely (the Pat Metheny piece), reckless and innovatively busy (Jimi Hendrix's "Pluck, Strum and Hammer"---with gorgeous harmonics), flamenco (Steve Howe's "Aire para un dia," totally re-conceived), and kitchen-sink (Frank Zappa's "Let's be Frank"). Even the infuriating John McLaughlin is well represented. The recording is vivid and the artists are identified from left to right, speaker-wise. And the Chet Atkins piece that closes the CD is nothing short of delicious. What is this uncategorizable CD? A joy---that's what. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews:

An Outstanding Hommage to the Greats of All-Styles of Guitar.......2006-06-25

It goes without saying the the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet is in fact the BEST performing guitar ensemble in the world right now. The quartet always impresses me with their variety, technique, musicianship, ensemble playing and innovation. The playing and material on this album reflects just that. The variety reflects many different styles: contemporary classical, rock, jazz, avant garde, new age, bluegrass, country and flamenco. The technique is spotless, the musicianship is incredibly fine tuned the group plays together perfectly and the selections are fresh, new and very interesting. It's a true treat to hear nylon stringed classical guitars playing tribute to their greats and the greats of their electric counterparts.

To talk about highlight tracks on this album just wouldn't be fair. There are too many. The cover of Ralph Towner's "Icarus" is exciting in its use of special guitar techniques, its Brazillian flavor and Andrew Yorks amazing improvised solo. The bouncy tribute to Norman Blake and David Bromberg is fun and incredibly enerjetic. The hommages to McLaughlin and Hendrix are provocative, strange and haunting. Following those two abrasive, dissonant cuts is a beautiful transcription of Pat Metheny's Letter from Home and Sergio Assad's very cool composition "Uarekena." The disc also features a flamenco reworking of Yes's "Mood for a Day," a tribute to gypsy great Django Reinhard, a Romeros quartet piece bubbling with Spanish flair, the extended technique ridden Michael Hedges tribute, an avant garde nod to Frank Zappa and a bouncy country influenced salute to Chet Atkins. Every cut is strong and is oozing with LAGQ perfection and nuance.

The other cool thing about this album is that it is mixed in stereo. The players are mixed across the speakers so that the arrangements can be aurally analyzed much easier. This album is a must have for any fan of the guitar... not just classical players.

LAGQ: "Decent".......2006-02-21

Bought this album because I thought the last tune on it was very catchy. The rest of the album didn't seem so great, possibly because my girlfriend wouldn't shut up and listen to it. I am going to listen to it some more without her. It is all instrumental, all guitar, and just not bad.

Fails to translate into much pleasure for average listeners .......2006-01-31

LAGQ's CD "Guitar Heroes" begins with their take on Ralph Towner's classic Icarus. This choice proves an apt one, for like this mythical Greek hero, LAGQ strives to accomplish something great and wonderful, but instead crashes to earth.

In fact, the CD begins with much promise, leading with the soaring cover of Icarus and the well-done homage to Blake and Bromberg "B&B." Then the McLaughlin and Hendrix tributes founder badly before the band achieves stability with a pair of unexciting but listenable tunes in honor of Pat Metheney and the Assad Duo (I always thought it was the other way around, Duo Assad).

A rather horrid homage to Steve Howe and a lackluster one for Django Reinhardt are countered by the brief but clever Duane York, a nice yoking together of slide and classical styles. The tip of the cap to Los Romeros is OK, but then the overlong, often irritating tributes to Michael Hedges and Frank Zappa do not add any luster to either of these late guitarists' legacies and set the CD on a terminal downward spiral.

The nice tribute to Chet Atkins that concludes this set is not enough to restore altitude and the whole effort essential crashes to earth.

No doubt the performers had a great time recording this CD for their grasp of technique and nuance proves solid. The problem is that the concept of "Guitar Heroes" fails to translate into much pleasure for average listeners like me.

I Should Have Known Better.......2005-04-05

I'm a fan of Classical Guitar. I heard about this quartet and sought them out, buying "Guitar Heroes". I should have read the Amazon review more closely. If I had I would have earned these pieces are in a dissonant rock-style with little or no melodic form. A far cry from what I envisioned. I write this to warn other innocents who might be looking for melodic music in a classical style. I didn't read the review closely enough, but you should.

Totally satisfying.......2004-12-12

I can't think of any recent collection of music that I enjoyed more than this album by the LAGQ. "Guitar Heroes" is amazing right from the beginning and never ceases right through the last track. The performances are solid, always musical and often mesmerizing. The songs and arrangements are impeccable and thoughtful, never pandering or taking the easy route to illuminating a particular guitar hero. After listening to this album, you want to hear more of the LAGQ, and also more from their "heroes". For that alone, this offering is a tremendous success.

Average customer rating:

Best CD since Labyrinth
Disappointed
Reconsider
Latin Licks
this album rocks

LAGQ: Latin
Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Latin Music | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Best of L.A.G.Q.
L.A. Guitar Quartet: Evening In Granada
LAGQ's Guitar Heroes
For Thy Pleasure
L.A. Guitar Quartet: Dances from Renaissance to Nutcracker

ASIN: B00006J9SZ
Release Date: 2002-09-24

Tracks:

Fragile
Hasta Alicia Baila
Fuga Y Misterio
Forrobodo
Cuban Landscape With Rain
La Trampa
Paisaje Mexicano
Danza De Jalisco
Sevillanas
Syzygy
Aragonaise
Habanera
Seguidilla
Toreadors
Entr'Acte
Gypsy Dance
En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor (Based On The Second Movement Of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez)

Amazon.com

Latin, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's homage to the music of Latin America and Spain, opens weakly with a tune called "Fragile," a bit of melodic fluff composed by Sting. After that's safely out of the way, however, the four virtuosos go on to play much more satisfying works by such composers as Leo Brouwer from Cuba, Astor Piazolla from Argentina, Egberto Gismonti from Brazil, and Joaquin Rodrigo from Spain. The music ranges from the passionate, earthy flamenco of "Sevillanas" to the austere, almost abstract tone poem "Cuban Landscape with Rain" and on to the jazzy harmonies of "Forrobodo." The most exciting piece is the six-movement "Carmen Suite," which the quartet plays with a thrilling blend of passion and precision. But no matter how disparate the music, the impeccable technique, musical intelligence, and emotional delivery of John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant, and Andrew York find the common thread to tie it all together. --Michael Simmons

Customer Reviews:

Best CD since Labyrinth.......2003-06-01

Fantastic. I was very pleased with this CD. The playing was fantastic as expected. However, what I like most is the arrangements. The arrangements are not typical of Classical musicians. No doubt this is because of Andrew York and John Dearman's versatilty in a wide range of musical styles. Also, it doesn't hurt that Bill Kanangiser and Scott Tenant are among the finest Clasical Guitarists in history.

Disappointed.......2003-04-10

I'm a big fan of LAGQ but am somewhat disappointed with this CD. The playing is near flawless as usual, but I was expecting a more interesting selection of Latin pieces. One of the few exceptions on this CD is Aaron Copland's "Danza de Jalisco," which is arranged and performed marvelously by LAGQ. This group puts on some of the best concerts out there, but I find that many of their recordings lack the same excitement. The CD "LAGQ" (1997?) is an exception, with its variety and energetic performances.

Reconsider.......2003-02-15

Probably fine for the guitarist wanting to appreciate some good licks, but not pleasant or soothing music for listening. I gave mine away.

Latin Licks.......2003-01-31

This cd is awesome!!!

No wonder LAGQ: Latin was nominated for a Grammy as Best Classical Crossover Album.

this album rocks.......2002-10-12

the LAGQ again give us some suprise with this recent release. This is the second best version of Carmen Suite (second only to Romero's, but much better than Segovia Quartet's).
The whole album is full of Latin style and spanish favor.