Los Angeles Guitar Quartet - LAGQ's Guitar Heroes (2004)

A great concept and a grand conceit, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's disc entitled Guitar Heroes is a disc of radically rearranged and reimagined adaptations, transcriptions, and extrapolations of the quartets' players own favorite guitar players. The arrangements are tremendous, the transcriptions are terrific, and the extrapolations are amazing. Who would have thought that Jimi Hendrix's manner of playing could sound so refined, or that Steve Howe's Mood for a Day could sound so exquisite, or that Chet Atkins' echo effects could sound so ethereal? And who would have thought that the music of Frank Zappa and Django Reinhardt could be so superbly recomposed and yet so true to the soul of the music? But the astonishing virtuosity of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's playing makes believers of everyone and the astounding reality of the sound of Telarc's recording makes everyone believe that they are sitting in the same room.