'She's a fantastic artist and a really great person. 'Luciana inspired us a lot,' says Kanengiser.

It's their bag, and they're so great at it because they grew up there.''īut it was Souza, who toured with the quartet in 20, who encouraged the guitar foursome to take the plunge and finally cut an album of Brazilian music. Our thinking was, ‘This is what the Assads and so many other great Brazilian composers and arrangers do. But we avoided recording Brazilian music for a long time. Some of our most prominent guitar influences are Brazilians. 'We've always loved Brazilian music,' says Bill Kanengiser, whose unique arrangement of the classic 'Mas Que Nada' serves as the album's opening salvo. Souza joins LAGQ for Sergio Assad's 'Medley' of Jobim tunes and a quartet version of Marco Pereira's 'Sambadalu' (originally a duo which Pereira performed with Luciana on her 2005 album, Brazilian Duo's II).

LAGQ Brazil also features the rich and engaging voice of Luciana Souza, the São Paulo-born jazz vocalist and composer and three-time Grammy nominee. 'He doesn't have a big ego, but he delivers the goods when it's time to play. 'Matt is incredibly laid-back and very positive,' says guitarist Bill Kanengiser, who co-produced LAGQ Brazil. In addition to being an accomplished and award-winning classical guitarist, Greif has also played with many famous non-classical and jazz musicians, including Chet Atkins. The new album marks the LAGQ debut of guitarist Matthew Greif, who replaces long-time member Andrew York and joins founding members Bill Kanengiser, John Dearman and Scott Tennant. Recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, CA, LAGQ Brazil features the music of Sergio and Odair Assad, Marco Pereira, Hermeto Pascoal, Baden Powell, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Heitor Villa-Lobos and others. This fall, the quartet explores the guitar's rich Latin heritage with the September 25, 2007, release of LAGQ Brazil. For nearly three decades, the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet has forged an unmatched reputation for making brilliant and compelling music - both on stage and in the studio - with little more than four acoustic guitars, an uncanny musical vocabulary and a boundless spirit of musical innovation and cross-cultural adventure.

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