Solid Air Records Laurence Juber is a Grammy
Award-winning virtuoso guitarist. His solo album, "Different
Times," will be released Oct. 23.
By David Holmberg
Daily Bruin Staff
Virtuoso guitarist Laurence Juber is not simply content to let
it be. For nearly 40 years Juber’s talents as a renowned
instrumentalist have been finding their way onto a multitude of
musical works, ranging from the James Bond theme to the
Monkees.
The Grammy Award-winning musician has played with three members
of The Beatles, professionally with George Harrison and Ringo
Starr, and as lead guitarist for three years with Paul McCartney
and Wings. Juber is also scoring the NBC sitcom “Three
Sisters,” along with W.G. Snuff Walden, and has a new solo
album hitting stores this month.
In a recent phone interview, Juber got a chance to talk about
his life as one of the top musicians in his field.
“I started playing in 1963, when I was eleven years old,
and I never stopped,” he said. “I’ve always been
in the music business, always making a living at it.”
“But I’d say I’m more a composer who plays
guitar,” he continued.
Although he played as a studio musician in London for many
years, his 1978 joining with Paul McCartney and Wings solidified
his career.
“Working with Paul was like getting a master’s
degree from McCartney University,” Juber said. “With
Paul, being versatile is not a problem, because I’m not just
a rock guitar player. For Paul it’s the music, and that
carries over. Playing with him helped reinforce my pop
sensibilities, plus I got to fulfill my childhood ambition of
playing with The Beatles.”
“And I also learned not to carry marijuana into
Japan,” he added.
Juber’s newest album, “Different Times,” is
his 10th solo set and another in his growing line of accessible but
wholly unique solo efforts.
“The album is borderline everything,” he explained.
“It’s pop, blues, jazz, folk; fingerstyle guitar lends
itself to a certain style of music. You try to write a melody you
can hum. But if you could describe the album in words, you
wouldn’t need to play it.”
For his newest set, Juber decided that it would be best to get
by with a little help from his friends, and sought the talents of
bassist Domenic Genova and drummer Peter Erkine.
“I went into the studio with a great rhythm section, and
it was very inspiring,” Juber said. “There was this
improvisational quality. Also, going to Italy recently was very
inspiring, because the Italian language is very musical and
romantic.”
“My previous album was all Beatles covers, and that was my
only album of not original material,” he continued. “I
wanted to get back to original songs and to get back to me being a
guitar player and doing my own stuff.”
The world of Juber’s music is a world without lyrics, and
instead relies upon the music itself to relay its message. Given
the vocal heavy popular music of today’s airwaves, entirely
instrumental albums are a pleasant rarity, although seemingly a
daunting task for the performer.
“I tend to start with something guitaristic,” he
explained. “My wife, Hope, is the person who is hearing it
all the time, and she’ll say, “˜I’m getting this
image,’ and we start to develop it. The title track has a
silent movie quality to it, and so in this way they’re not a
specific story and they’re not quite a tone poem,
they’re an image. There’s this realm of emotional
subtext.”
And while tomorrow may never know where Laurence Juber is headed
next, one thing that does remain certain is that he is getting
better all the time.
Laurence Juber’s new album, “Different Times,”
is to be released on Oct. 23. He will also be playing at McCabes on
Saturday, Oct. 27, and will be holding a workshop prior to his
performance.