By Chip Lovitt
A few columns ago, I asked the question: Is instrumental guitar music a genre only guitar players can love? In the feature, I wrote about how a single guitar can produce a symphony of sounds, even without vocals. For many of us, it’s a special pleasure hearing what a great guitarist can do with a lone guitar, with or without an amp, as he or she explores the sonic possibilities and potential of this instrument that we love.
I got another demonstration of that recently when I, along with about 75 other guitar music fans, got to see British-born fingerstyle guitarist Laurence Juber in action at a small club in upstate New York. Juber, a two-time Grammy winner, is known to some as the lead guitarist for Paul McCartney and Wings in the mid-to-late 1970s. However, he’s also known as a master acoustic fingerstyle guitarist and one of the foremost practitioners of DADGAD tuning.
It’s been said that the guitar is a “portable orchestra.” You’ve got bass strings to thump out the beat,
middle strings to add color and depth, and high strings to pick out a melody. Juber’s skillful playing provides ample proof that the guitar is indeed a portable orchestra. At the show I saw, Juber utilized the full capabilities of the acoustic guitar with dazzling results.
Besides his precise fingerpicking and unusual tunings, Juber has a lot of techniques and tricks in his musical tool box. He uses slapping, tapping, ascending and descending bass runs, classical guitar elements, and harmonics all over the fretboard (and not just those at the 5th, 7th and 12th frets). In one impressive demonstration of his skill and precision, Juber used his right (strumming) hand to tap the bass strings behind his fretting hand, which utilized pull-offs and hammer-ons to complement those tapped bass runs. Using his right hand, he also complemented his chord work by slapping and tapping the various parts of the body of his guitar to beat out drum-like, percussive sounds. Combine all that with Juber’s mastery of DADGAD tuning (and a CADGAD variation) tuning, the result is as unique and original an acoustic guitar style as one will hear today. (Juber joked that he is also considering using an ADDADD tuning, which he says is “great for very short tunes.”)
Now all this technique and fancy fingerwork may be impressive, but it wouldn’t mean all that much without strong melodies and songs to go with them. Juber’s got no shortage of those in his catalog. Besides his own original compositions, Juber showcased a variety of tunes from his most recent CD, “I’ve Got the World on Six Strings,” a tribute to the great songwriter Harold Arlen. Among the tunes he did were “Get Happy,” “Stormy Weather,” “Over the Rainbow,” and a delightful romp through “If I Only Had a Brain” from the movie The Wizard of Oz. He then segued into a Chet Atkins-style fingerpicking demonstration on the jazz standard, “All of Me,” followed by a delightful version of Henry Mancini’s “Pink Panther Theme,” (the tune that won him one of his Grammy awards), complete with those sliding bass note riffs from that tune’s famous introduction.
His two-plus hour show also featured Fab Four cover tunes from his wonderful LJ Plays the Beatles CD, including “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Things We Said Today,” “In My Life,” “You Won’t See Me (in CADGAD tuning), and a beautiful rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” He also did a lovely version of Eric Clapton’s “Layla.”
Juber also provided an ample helping of tunes from his recent One Wing CD, which features instrumental versions of Paul McCartney and Wings hits such as “Band on the Run,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Mull of Kintyre,” and “Another Day.”
I have to admit I always found Wings tunes—with some exceptions-- somewhat lightweight compared to McCartney’s Beatles tunes. But when Juber played those tunes on his signature Laurence Juber model Martin guitar, somehow the strength of McCartney’s melodies became much more apparent and appealing to me. It may be heresy to some McCartney fans, but as a fanatical fan of instrumental guitar music, I found Juber’s treatments of those tunes to be better than the original vocal-based tracks.
At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I had to drive a round trip of about 100 miles to catch the show, but it was quite worth it, as Juber’s show was one of the most enjoyable instrumental guitar gigs I have seen in years.
*Photo's Courtesy of copyright 2002 by Kenna Love
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