JEFF BECK(UK) - DVD-live

Jeff Beck biography
Born June 24, 1944 in Wallington, Greater London, England Jeff Beck is one of the "Big Three" guitar gods who came from the mid 60's band The Yardbirds (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page the other two) Although never quite becoming as popular as his contemporaries Jeff has maintained a huge amount of respect among guitarists worldwide by diversifying into many different genres. He has experimented with blues rock, heavy metal, and jazz fusion and more recently, dabbled with techno, creating a blend of heavy guitar rock and electronica.

Starting as a session guitarist in the early 60's Beck was in a group called The Tridents, before being asked to join the Yardbirds in 1965. Although only recording one album with them it was during his tenure with the Yardbirds that they recorded most of their hits. Beck left the Yardbirds partly for health reasons and partly for his on going problem of not getting along with people in general after 18 months.

In 1967 Beck formed a new band, the Jeff Beck Group, which featured him on lead guitar, Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Micky Waller on drums. This group produced two albums, Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola the following year that are considered the two most influential blues/rock albums in Beck's career. That group started the blues/rock format that Led Zeppelin would perfect two years later. After Stewart and Wood left the band to join Faces (then The Small Faces) Beck went on to form a second. incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, which featured Clive Chapman (bass), Max Middleton (keyboards), Cozy Powell (drums), and Bob Tench (vocals). With this group Beck used the blues as a basis but piled on heavy amounts of R&R and R&B to the music. They released two albums: Rough and Ready (1971, produced by Jeff Beck) and The Jeff Beck Group (1972, produced by Steve Cropper). The song Going Down is the one most remembered from this era.

After this second Jeff Beck Group disbanded in 1972, Beck formed the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, with former Cactus members Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass. This group failed to attract much critical or popular attention even though the nature of the music was geared for that and soon split up, although they did have a minor hit with a version of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" (Beck had earlier played lead guitar on Wonder's Talking Book album). They also released a Live album which by some accounts is better ..

PROG REVIEWER

Holy crap, there's a new Jeff Beck live DVD out there!.

...I thought as I saw this at the record store. This is why it's important to keep those local independent brick and mortar record stores open: you'll never know what you'll find browsing.

As near as I've been able to find out, Jeff Beck (THE Beck, not that other guy) hadn't been touring in a long time, but rather was sticking to special performances. To make up for it, sort of, he did a week's worth of shows at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in late November 2007. I've never been there, but it looks a little large as some jazz clubs go but still reasonably intimate. I'm pretty sure you don't need binoculars to observe any performances there.

Jeff has assembled an interesting set of musicians, the oldest being Jeff himself (b. 1944), Vinnie Colaiuta (1956) on drums, Jason Rebello (1969) on keys, and Tal Wilkenfeld (1986) on bass. Vinnie I know best from association with Zappa, Jason's new to me but I found out has worked with Sting, Tal (new to the music scene) hails from Australia and judging from her performance she is someone to really keep your eye on. Guests appearances by Joss Stone, Imogen Heap, and Eric Clapton, heyyy.

The set list, not really the proper term as it must have been culled from all the shows, is an impressive collection of material spanning Jeff's career so far. Original stuff includes Beck's Bolero {is this not actually a cover?}, Led Boots, Scatterbrain, Angel, Blast From The East, Rollin' And Tumblin'. Also some nice covers thrown in for good measure including Eternity's Breath!, Cause We've Ended As Lovers {never really seemed like a cover to me}, People Get Ready, A Day In The Life, You Need Love). You also get some interviews as bonus material and the DVD booklet is a nice read. 21 tracks altogether, mixed in Dolby 5.1 and DTS surround sounds with a 16:9 video format, I might add.

Wish I was there but this is the next best thing. It's one hell of a way to experience one hell of a guitarist. It's a live assortment, but due the quality and quantity I am rounding this one up.