Dave Liebman Group, Gary Peacock, Barry Miles, Richie Cole, Eric Kloss, Larry Coryell, Bireli Lagrene
A native of Jersey City, N.J., Juris took up guitar at age 10 during the summer of 1963. Accordion, he notes, was a far more popular instrument than guitar at that time. All that would change the following year when Beatlemania washed up on the Jersey shore.
Juris got his first electric guitar on Christmas of 1964, and by the mid-’60s he was playing cover versions of Jimi Hendrix, Cream and the Temptations material in rock and R&B bands around his area. He discovered jazz in his late teens and subsequently studied with Philly jazz guitar legend Pat Martino.
In 1975, Juris made his recording debut on alto saxophonist Eric Kloss’ Bodies’ Warmth (Muse). He later gigged with fusioneer Barry Miles before hooking up with alto-sax burner Richie Cole, appearing on two hot, boppish offerings in 1977’s Alto Madness and 1978’s Keeper of the Flame. In the early 80s, Juris immersed himself in acoustic guitar, performing duets with Larry Coryell and Biréli Lagrène, and by the late ’80s he joined bassist Gary Peacock’s group.
For the past 10 years Juris has been hitting the road hard with the Dave Liebman Group. “The band started out where we had keyboards,” says Juris, “and then Dave decided that he just wanted to go with the guitar. So my original role was kind of like a second horn, and the guitar is very cool for that. But now that’s completely changed to where I’m more of a colorist and chordal accompanist while also doing a bit of the second horn thing.”
The Liebman gig affords Juris quite a bit of freedom. “Dave is into doing a wide variety of stuff and he pretty much gives me the green light to do whatever I want,” says Juris. “He likes the fact that I can go through different styles in a given set and he also likes the effects for some of the electric Miles stuff that we do [culled from On the Corner, Get Up With It and Dark Magus, all recordings made during Liebman’s tenure with the tumultuous Miles Davis bands of the early ’70s]. So I carry a RAT pedal for a touch of distortion and I also use my Roland GR-50 guitar synth for colors and textures on some tunes. We also do some Jobim music in that band so he likes me to play the nylon-string acoustic on that stuff.”
“My DV Mark DV40 212 affords me the necessary tone and portability for all my musical needs,” says Vic. “The reverb and overdrive are an added bonus. Having a tube amp like this is indeed a dream come true.”
