Guitarist Laurence Juber Coming to the Muck in Fullerton

By John Roos

Laurence Juber has drawn critical-acclaim for his fingerstyle guitar playing. Check out this quote from Guitar Player Magazine: “The melodies, textures and harmonies he coaxes out of an acoustic guitar are absolutely spell-binding.”

High praise indeed. What matters most to the British-born, Studio City-based Juber—who toured as lead guitarist in Paul McCartney’s Wings from 1978-80 and has released 25 solo acoustic guitar albums—is to be valued as a musician first, and guitarist second. It’s easy to understand why when you consider the depth of his musical education and wide range of recording experience.

Juber was classically-trained as a teenager while on his way to earning a degree in music at London’s University’s Goldsmith College and performing with England’s National Jazz Youth Orchestra. Since his short but invaluable 3-year run with Wings, Juber has become a highly desirable studio session and movie soundtrack player with two Grammy awards to his credit, including Best Rock Instrumental for “Rockestra” (1980) and Best Pop Instrumental for his arrangement of the Pink Panther theme on “Henry Mancini: Pink Guitar” (2005).

“I didn’t set out to specifically go after only the guitar crowd,” said Juber—better known as LJ--by phone during a recent break at his recording studio. “In America, fingerstyle guitar primarily refers to Kentucky-bred style of Merle Travis and Chet Atkins.” (For the uninitiated, fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails - or picks attached to fingers - as opposed to flatpicking, which means plucking individual notes with a single plectrum, commonly called a "pick").

“But I’m rooted in the British folk-baroque tradition of Pentangel, John Renborn and David Graham,” Juber continued. “I was also greatly influenced by the early-60’s folk scene that included Donovan, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Later, the ragtime and jazz guitar playing of Stefan Grossman and Django Reinhardt intrigued me so I became grounded in the idea that I could get up in front of an audience and play a complete musical statement on a single acoustic guitar . . . . to give a very pure performance.”

It was his decades working as a studio musician that put LJ’s grand vision into practice.

“I played and recorded with great drummers (Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr), bass players like Paul (McCartney) and brass and orchestral sections, so the sounds of other instruments are baked into my musical DNA,” offered Juber. “The effects of multiple parts going on at once is where my style is based so you hear bass, rhythm and melody. Melody is king and has to lead things.”

It’s that reverence for melody that initially attracted Juber to pop music. He bought his first guitar at age 11 during the same week in 1963 that the Beatles released “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” In addition to playing with McCartney in Wings, Juber has also performed with Ringo Starr and the late George Harrison.

Juber, who’s lived in California now for 36 years and became a U.S. citizen in 1988, released last year “LJ Can’t Stop Playing the Beatles,” his third collection of solo acoustic arrangements of Beatles songs that followed “LJ Plays the Beatles” (2000) and “LJ Plays the Beatles Vol. 2” (2010). Interestingly, the driving force behind these Fab Four tributes is Juber’s wife, Hope.

“I had done a few Beatles arrangements but Hope insisted on me doing an entire album,” Juber recalled. “I agreed but with the caveat that she do the producing.” Hope Juber, the daughter of the late Sherwood Schwartz (TV-series producer and creator of “The Brady Bunch,” “Gilligan’s Island”) is a musician/writer/actress/producer in her own right.

Putting your own stamp on songs by the best pop band in the world while remaining true to their essence must be no easy task.

“These are great songs and it is hard to create convincing arrangements of them,” agreed Juber. “It’s quite challenging but Hope was my foil while I bounced ideas off her and she gave me the kind of constructive feedback I was looking for.”

“Strawberry Fields Forever,” for instance, is difficult to play solo acoustic because of the studio production effects used in recording the original song.

“The first thing I had to do was figure out what key the song was in,” Juber explained, “and how it would work on just the guitar. It was kind of a process of discovery, really. I thought about trying the altered tuning that I use (DADGAD) and once I did, it was like one of those transcendent moments of serendipity. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.” (For a peek into LJ’s creative process, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQBm9miYHrM)

Juber’s latest project is creating an album/transcription book to be titled “The Evolution of Fingerstyle Guitar.” Scheduled for release sometime next year, the collection will feature selections going back to the 16th century that he said are “normally called classical or baroque but I don’t subscribe to that (terminology) necessarily.”

In fact, Juber just finished recording one tune titled “Spanish Fandango,” arranged by Henry Worrell and published in 1866. And what better instrument to play it on than his 1893 Martin 1-21 guitar.

“It’s a very influential piece of music with some roots in country-blues, and this guitar has a very particular sound to it,” explained Juber. “It’s lovely because I’ve recorded a few songs using this guitar and depending on how the strings respond to my fingers, it can produce a very dramatic, dynamic sound that will truly amaze you.”

*Laurence Juber performs Thursday at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern Ave, Fullerton; (714) 738-6595. 7:30 p.m. $12.50-$25.00; www.themuck.org.

Photo by Nancy Clendaniel.