Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
         Guitar Heroes

*  Towner: Icarus
*  York: B & B
*  Head: Reverie for Mahavishnu
*  Johanson: Pluck, Strum, and Hammer
*  Methany/Small: Letter from Home
*  Assad: Uarekena
*  Howe/Kanengiser: Aire para un Dia (Mood for a Day)
*  Dunne: Gypsy Flower
*  York: Pop
*  Gimenez: El Baile de Luis Alonso
*  Hirschelman: Lament and Wake
*  Johanson: Let's Be Frank
*  Dearman: Blue Echo/Country Gentleman

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
TELARC CD-80598 Total time: 61:17

Summary for the Busy Executive: Fancy pickin's.

There's very little written for a guitar quartet, so the LAGQ depends
on transcriptions and commissions.  So far, they've achieved a nice
success with more than a dozen albums to their credit.  I would also
say that they've achieved artistic success as well, although I've yet
to hear a bona fide masterpiece among their commissions.  Still, they are
a real chamber group, rather than a gaggle of four good guitarists.  One
hears a clarity, balance, and conscious shaping in their work which comes
from a collaboration born of careful listening to one another.

This is a "concept album."  It pays tribute to the LAGQ's artistic idols,
who mostly seem to come from the pop and jazz end of things: Django
Reinhart, Pat Methany, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Chet
Atkins, and so on.  I must say I enjoyed the performances more than the
works, although the works aren't by any means dreck.  I had a good time
with the program, but I can't say that any of it has stuck with me.  It
strikes me as a CD for those who enjoy superior pop and cross-over.  I
must say I like this more than Yo-Yo Ma's silk-road stuff.

The sound is Telarc's usual quite good and contributes to one's overall
enjoyment.

Steve Schwartz