Here's some of the reviews that have come in on
"Mosiac":
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
