Laurence Juber has established himself as one of the most gifted and versatile fingerstyle guitarists on the scene. Name the style, and Juber is all over it. On Mosaic, his latest melody-and groove-packed offering, Juber demonstrates his mastery of steel-string acoustic, nylon, electric, and 12-string guitars. This is pop music in the good sense of the word, upbeat and catchy, from a guitarist with the chops to turn the most jaded head." - Acoustic Guitar
Since cutting his teeth as a sideman for none other than Beatle legend Paul McCartney, Laurence Juber has launched a vanguard solo acoustic career that to date has spanned six CDs. Mosaic, his latest features eleven cuts of Laurence’s trademark jazzy, melodic excursions, this time around augented by a four-man rhythm section, consisting of Domenic Genova (acoustic bass), Mike Jochum (drums) and Jo Pusateri and Steve Reid (percussion).
A hallmark of this CD, in addition to LJ’s fine playing and beautifully recorded guitars, is the orchestrated arrangement sense with regard to the rhythm section. The bass, drums and percussion help the tunes to build, weaving in and out, creating textural variety beneath Laurence’s stunning fretwork. In addition, he occasionally doubles and harmonizes his acoustic lines with a little electric guitar spice, stepping out of the me-and-my acoustic characteristic of so many solo releases these days. Yet, each composition stands alone, offering the purists among us much to sink their teeth into.
Two particularly ear-catching tunes are "When Harry Got To Heaven" and "Strange Bedfellows". The former is a softly-spoken (or played) ragtime piece that sounds like a time-honored Joplin standard, with an ear-twisting modulation thrown in for good measure. "Strange Bedfellows", on the other hand, is a jazzy, bluesy, two minutes and twenty three seconds of toe-tapping, steel-string pleasure, with some tasty brush work lurking in the background.
Mosaic offers a mini-smorgasbord,
if you will, of what is going on in the acoustic world these days: new age-esque
two-handed tapping ala the late Michael Hedges, altered tuning explorations, ragtime, folk
and jazz. But does it all with exquisite melodicism and taste. And yes, Juber manages to
make it all hang together. Simply put, this album will make the list of recommended
listening for the most hardened fingerstyle critic."
- Fingerstyle Guitar
Laurence Juber’s music bears the indicators of an apprenticeship spent in rock, jazz and pop - an unerring tunefulness; muscular, string-rattling chops; fluid, expressive phrasing; a compositional sensibility that forms compact statements by eschewing the extraneous; and a finger-spanning grasp of groove that informs even the gentlest of ballads with a rhythmic vigor.
But Juber is nothing if not a musical omnivore, and his catholic tastes, versatility and adaptability not only have elevated him from band guitarist to in-demand film/TV session player, they’ve also fueled his drive to seek new and varied means of fulfillment as a solo artist. The aptly named Mosaic brandishes that restless muse in perhaps the most assertive manifesto of Juber’s solo career.
The album does well to open with "Cobalt Blue", whose implied string-bass pulse, bluesy theme and hipster percussives makes it the closest thing acoustic music comes to producingt a "car/driving" song. That and the very next track "The Sparky Paradox" (which Juber augments with electric guitar) explain Juber’s appeal to rockers who otherwise sniff that acoustic guitar music is too "wimpy". Juber has hard rock not only on the resume but in the blood and amp-addicts recognize players who have the goods.
Unlike many unpluggers however, Juber has a long relationship with the acoustic axe. On "Mosaic" and "Missing You More Than You Know", he demonstrates the songcraft that makes his instrumentals so evocative and self realized that the addition of lyrics would only adulterate their impact. The Latin/gypsy sensuousness of "Stolen Glances", the Demento-ish ragtime of "When Harry Got To Heaven" (dedicated to the late Harry Nilsson)and the country-jazz fusion of the self-descriptive "Strange Bedfellows" attest to the breadth of Juber’s eclecticism. Both the title and the construction of "You Can’t Go Back" seem a delayed response to Stevie Winwood’s "Can’t Find My Way Home".
Juber’s late 70’s tenure in Paul McCartney’s Wings notwithstanding, his singular insight into the Beatles songbook is obvious in a poignant rendering of "Rain" that turns Lennon’s sneering, distortion-drenched broadside inward, exposing its melancholic underpinnings. Like his reworkings of the Beatle’s "Martha My Dear" and Hendrix’s "Little Wing", "Rain" is a showstopper in his live appearances. But Mosaic proves that the recording studio is no less a platform for Juber’s talents. - Taylor Guitars ‘Wood & Steel’
Mosaic is a listeners dream - Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists