Laurence Juber, known as LJ to his many fans, is perhaps the greatest fingerstyle guitarist alive as well as a top-notch composer and arranger for the guitar.
CLICK HERE FOR MY REVIEW OF LJ's CD Guitarist.
CLICK HERE FOR MY REVIEW OF LJ's CD I've Got the World on Six Strings.
CLICK HERE FOR MY ANALYSIS OF LJ's COMPOSITION "Love at First SIght".
CLICK HERE FOR MY REVIEW OF LJ's CD Wooden Horses.
CLICK HERE FOR MY REVIEW OF THE DVD TO LJ's Wooden Horses.
LJ began an illustrious performance career playing in the studios of his native London, as well as for West End shows. LJ may be best know for his three-year stint with Paul McCartney in Wings, from 1979 to the dissolution of the band in 1981. Highlights of his tenure as lead guitarist were the album Back to the Egg and winning the first of his two Grammies for the Rockestra Theme.
Moving to America, LJ began to concentrate on solo fingerstyle guitar, as well as establishing himself as the first-call guitarist in the highly competitive Los Angeles recording studios. After a series of very successful CDs as both a soloist and with a trio, he won his second Grammy for Pink Guitar, a compilation of Henry Mancini tunes each recorded by a different guitarist. LJ's masterful version of The Pink Panther gets the CD off to an impressive start and sets the tone for the entire set.
You can get the details of LJ's bio, his discography, current tour dates, and much more at his personal web site: http://www.laurencejuber.com. There he also gives generously of his time interacting with his fans on his forum.
Rather than rehash the material from LJ's site, I will concentrate on two of his major aspects: 1) the brilliant guitarist who has raised the bar for anyone playing fingerstyle guitar; and 2) the composer who is writing what I consider to be the finest solo guitar music in any style.
I plan to provide critical reviews of some of LJ's best CDs, along with analyses that I hope will help the listener to hear what I feel makes this music great. I will also point out some of LJ's contributions to guitar technique, as well as interesting features that I hope will make these compositions more interesting to play - if that is possible. (See the links at the top of this page.)
One further contribution to acoustic guitar playing from LJ is his signature guitar from Martin. Rather than just slapping his signature on a stock model, LJ worked with the craftsmen at Martin to produce a truly wonderful instrument that combines some of the best features of a custom instrument at a price that real musicians can afford.
Thanks to the Twelfth Fret in Toronto for the photo!