Pedro Javier Gonzalez : Guitarra 3- Tribute to the Beatles : CD

BEATLES: Michelle, Penny Lane, The Long and Winding Road, When I'm Sixty-four, Get Back, Here, There and Everywhere, I Need You, Yesterday, And I Love Her, Revolution, Drive My Car, I Will, Help, Eleanor Rigby, Tomorrow, Norwegian Wood, If I Fell, From Me To You,Let it Be, Medley.

Pedro Javier Gonzalez

Konga Music ;CXCD216

I reviewed some time ago, this player’s Guitarra 2 which was a wide mixture of many different composers and writers, but all still very well – known to the huge majority of you. This latest double CD is similar in style in the sense that there are a number of other musicians who are on every track who are unaccredited, but like the previous collection they are wonderful arrangements and do stick really closely for the most part to the original Beatles tracks. Born in Barcelona, Gonzalez has, over the years played a huge variety of musical styles and played alongside many artistes and has released 14 albums,

The main factor about this pair of CDs is that the arrangements are certainly not schmaltzy and awful like so many albums of this type. The playing by Gonzalez is exceptional, and there are wonderful details that keep you constantly interested. If you are a lover of the music of the Beatles, then you will simply love this huge list of recordings, for there really are no boring, uninteresting tracks here.I am not going to go through any more individual tracks, because they really are a superb listen, and anyone who likes wonderful guitar music and particularly hearing the guitar fronting some excellent arrangements, and then this CD pair is definitely one you should go searching for. The recordings are clear and very well done throughout too. But finally , and perhaps the most important thing about the arrangements is that Gonzalez makes sure that they follow the original recordings as accurately as possible, so that all the guitar riffs, or intros etc that you know are always there in his version, which to me is what really makes these recordings superb. A double CD set to go hunting for !

Chris Dumigan