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The Guitar Maestro - Live & Wailing @ Ronnie Scott’s

Placing Jeff Beck in a musical category is nigh impossible. The guitarist has performed with legendary Rock bands and singers, played the Blues, experimented with Jazz & Fusion, jammed to Techno and has simply experimented, pulling sounds from his guitar and out of his amps that would almost seem impossible. Anyone who has ever seen Jeff Beck play live knows what I mean. He may not move around doing wild Hendrix or Angus Young moves, but watching him play, especially if you are a musician (or an aspiring musician) is just mind boggling.

And speaking of live, Jeff has a new disc out called Jeff Beck: Performing This Week… which features himself alongside Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Jason Rebello (keyboards) and Tal Wilkenfield (bass). I’m not sure what has happened with his second guitarist, Jennifer Batten except maybe she took the time to record her third solo album and release a couple of books. It’s a shame because her typically outlandish appearance and her own superb playing style seemed to be a perfect compliment to Jeff’s work.

That’s not to say that the English guitarist can’t hold his own. The way he pulls certain tones from his guitar, the technique and ambiance of the sounds and how sometimes it doesn’t even sound like a guitar, and possibly even like talking has been a major influence on many guitarists for the past 40 years. I’m willing to bet that Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Eddie Van Halen (among many others) learned, or at least had their interest piqued, by that special style of playing that Jeff has.

This 16 track CD was recorded live at Ronnie Scott’s, a jazz club in London. that pulls in a lot of big name talent in the Jazz world. (Ronnie is a Jazz saxophone player who founded the club in 1959 with another saxophone player named Pete King.) You’ll be able to check the club out when the DVD and Blu-Ray discs come out of this performance sometime in 2009.

Jeff begins the show with “Beck’s Bolero.” If you aren’t familiar with his own work or his covers of other great songs, the names for the instrumental pieces pretty much tell you what the song is going to feel like, and a Bolero it is in Jeff’s own way with a Strat strapped over his shoulder.

This is followed by “Eternity’s Breath,” and then “Stratus” a song that will give you a feel for what I mean about how the guitar’s timbre and the music’s textures can seem so unlike a typical guitar sound coming out of the amps. The amazing part that musicians will note is how Jeff manages to accomplish the sounds while playing live and the control and mastery of the guitar it takes to accomplish those sounds, all without a pick - just his fingers.

Jeff then performs Stevie Wonder’s, “Because We Ended As Lovers” followed by Tony Hymas’ song, “Behind the Veil” and then Jan Hammer’s “You Never Know.” If you aren’t up on your “Beckology,” he played with Hammer (best known to the masses for the Miami Vice Theme) for a short period of time in the ‘70s.

“Nadia” is the next song, which goes from the somewhat mellow piece that it is into “Blast From The East,” a ripping boogie-woogie type Blues tune that lays down some serious licks. The song doesn’t end so much as Colaiuta’s percussion pounds and stomps its way into the next track called “Led Boots.”

This is followed by a third Hymas written tune called “Angel (Footsteps),” a nice little piece of Jazzy music. [Hymas played on three of Beck’s albums along with Stanley Clark].

Then the guitarist kicks into some more of his own material, including the raucous Fusion piece called “Scatterbrain” before launching into an old medley of “Goodbye Pork Pie/Brush With the Blues.” Then it’s own to more spastic fun with “Space Boogie”  and “Big Block.” If you are a fan of Steve Morse, The Dixie Dregs, Eric Johnson or other similar guitarists, you’ll dig songs such as these two if you’ve aren’t familiar with Jeff’s lengthy discography.

A signature tune that Jeff has played for many, many years, and one that I think I have seen him play live all 5 times that I’ve watched him in concert, is “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles. His translation of the classic song that ends the Sgt. Pepper album is such a great piece of music and brings not only images of the band to life, but almost feels like John Lennon is standing over Jeff’s shoulder and giving him a nod of approval. It’s a beautiful piece.

Jeff ends the show with “Where Were You” a quiet piece that relies on his whammy bar, control knobs and harmonics as he puts the evening to rest for a spectacular evening of music.

The CD also comes with a nice eight-page booklet that gives a little insight into the man and his along with a couple of nice photos. Any Jeff Beck fan will want Performing This Week… in their collection. Any aspiring musician, especially guitarists, should get a hold of this disc, as well. Learning power chords/bar chords is nothing. This is real talent.

Check out the link to his site at the top of this interview for his homepage and to hear samples from the new disc.

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