THE JEFF BECK BULLETIN ISSUE #14

I've got a little story to tell you about Jeff Beck. The year 2000, I think? My brother
and I are in a band called Boo-Yaa T.r.i.b.e. we were playing the The Marquee
Club (Wardour St., London). The owner liked us a lot, especially my brother's guitar
playing, so he told us to come in the next evening, he wouldn't tell us why.
So the next night we came in, we said, "So what's up", he said, "Just sit, have a drink
you will see".
Well two guitarists came in that night to jam together just for the fun of it. Jeff Beck,
and the guy who admits that Jeff Beck is his idol, a guitarist that I played drums for
at one time, and who also was my brother's favorite guitarist for a long time, Gary Moore.
Jeff and Gary were jamming together on that stage, and then the owner of the club
arranged for my brother to jam with Jeff and Gary. Dude, it was the best. I think
he felt the same as when I got to jam with Iron Maiden, they were one of my favorite
bands, and we opened up some shows for them. That was a highlight, and of course
playing for Gary Moore was fun, except for his attitude.
I would have to ask my brother if he remembers the exact date, I believe it was
either in 2000 or 2001, in the winter. I remember that we were touring Europe.
It was just for one song, but the night was really for Gary and Jeff. The owner of
the club really liked the way my brother played, my brother Jeff Marcus is a guitarist,
I am a drummer. My brother is a very very good guitarist, he is also in a band called
Legs Diamond. I remember that he was good enough that they were trading licks,
my brother who is really into both, but especially Gary Moore. My brother was doing
some of his riffs to him, and tried to do a little Jeff Beck riffing as well, but
Beck is tougher you know. He has that Hendrix type of bending of the strings, that
only he knows how to do.
I saw Jeff Beck about 2 or 3 years ago at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles with
Terry Bozzio-the greatest drummer in the world, and Tony Hyams. This was the best
I ever saw Jeff Beck play ever. Tomorrow morning I am going online to buy tickets
to his show here in Los Angeles at the House of Blues.  Bill

Beck's Bolero
Stratus
You'll Never Know
Cause We've Ended As Lovers
You Shook Me (w/Beth Hart)
Morning Dew
Behind The Veil
Two Rivers
Star Cycle
Big Block
Nadia
Angel/Footsteps
Ain't Superstitious
People Get Ready
Scatterbrain
Led Boots
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Brush With The Blues

(1st Encore)
Goin' Down

(2nd Encore)
Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Club setting energizes Jeff Beck's showmanship
Thu Apr 6, 2006 7:23 PM ET

By Erik Pedersen

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The most avid Jeff Beck fans will
tell you they go to his concerts to hear him play rather than to
watch. That makes sense, because he mostly shrugs at being a
commanding showman, preferring to let his guitar do the interacting.

But plunked into a club setting Wednesday at the House of Blues, Beck
seemed energized by the tight quarters and his tight band. He
peppered his playing with tricks and tossed in some honest-to-guitar-
God antics, apparently enjoying himself as much as the colorful crowd
enjoyed him. And if he has lost a step at 61, it wasn't obvious this
night.

Playing the fourth of six dates on a weeklong tour of the Southwest,
Beck sauntered onstage, powdered up his hands and went straight to
work. Using his 1968 classic "Beck's Bolero" as a warmup, he
pinballed across his 40-year career, visiting every square inch of
the guitar, mercilessly deploying the whammy bar and occasionally
throwing both fists in the air as he let a note hang. Before long,
heads were shaking throughout the hall -- either moving in time to
the music or simply wordlessly saying "wow." Probably both.

The biggest curveball, as far as Beck gigs go, was a guest vocalist:
L.A.-based blues rocker Beth Hart, who shared the stage for about a
half-dozen numbers. She strode onstage belting "You Shook Me" and
immediately made some aggressive-suggestive moves on Beck. He backed
away, but she kept coming at him, like some seductress with an agenda.

Hart has an uninhibited charm and fiery, throaty vocal style, but her
hair-tossing histrionics sometimes came just a rung or two from going
over the top. Still, Beck appeared relieved to have someone else take
the spotlight, and their back-and-forth was a pleasing sideshow --
especially during the encore of "Going Down," when Hart hit her knees
to belt out the familiar chorus.

Beck's versatility -- and his iconoclasm -- were most apparent midway
through the 90-minute set during a four-song run. "Behind the Veil"
was a foray into island riddim, complete with some goofy guitar
trickery that charged the crowd. "Two Rivers" was laid-back
melancholia, and "Star Cycle" had a prog-meets-'80s sound fueled by
keyboardist Jason Rebello, who took advantage of his times in the
spotlight. Rebello then rested for much of "Big Block," allowing for
a satisfying power trio rock workout. All the while, hard-working
Vinnie Colaiuta provided booming, sloppy-sure drums, seemingly
following orders to fill at will.

After four decades, Beck still has the ability to thrill. While
unfailing technique is second nature to him, it was a pleasure to see
Beck give just a bit extra on the showmanship side. The result was
one of those nights that even a veteran concertgoer brags about
seeing the next day. And the next.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Either way, the disappearance of the solo from most contemporary rock music has turned this six-string flamethrower into a flame-keeper. Beck, who performs on Thursday at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, isn't consciously campaigning for the guitar solo's revival. He's just carrying the torch by example. A British Invasion original, he continues to play guitar-centered music -- instrumental rock, jazz-rock fusion and, more recently, tracks underlined by computer-generated rhythms.

In a telephone interview Beck, 62, said he "still struggles" to write songs that don't use the human voice. "My problem is finding concise pieces in a rock 'n' roll context that won't bore the pants off of people," he said.

He has many such pieces to his credit, from the royal rumble of Beck's Bolero (1968) to the industrial crunch of Earthquake (2001). In between are quintessential Beck numbers: Definitely Maybe (1972), with its crying slide guitar; Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (1976), a song jazz musician Charles Mingus wrote as a tribute to fellow musician Lester Young; Star Cycle (1980) a cosmic face-off between guitar and synth; and Behind the Veil (1989), a dubby dip in reggae waters.

All these and more are likely to turn up in one of Beck's career-spanning live sets. But he's also giving himself a bit of a break from the all-instrumental discipline. The Beck quintet includes a singer, Beth Hart, who steps up for a handful of songs.

Beck has plenty of history with vocalists, first as a member of the Yardbirds, a formative British rock band that also counted fellow guitar deities Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page as members. The Yardbirds including Beck and Page appear briefly in a nightclub scene in Blowup, the 1966 mod-London murder mystery. Beck's most famous Yardbirds moment might be Shapes of Things (1966), a save-the-world song with impeccable manners, considering the subject, until Beck splits it in half with a chaotic, spiraling feedback solo.

He went on to collaborate with singer Rod Stewart, reprising Shapes of Things two years after the original, doing impossibly deep wah-wah bends on the subterranean blues of I Ain't Superstitious (1968) and playing shivering, soulful notes on their cover of People Get Ready (1985).

But Beck hadn't toured North America with a lead vocalist since the mid-'80s, a spell that ended when Hart joined him for a handful of West Coast dates earlier this year. Beck discovered Hart in Europe and compares her to '60s blues-rock belter Janis Joplin, only "a lot more raucous" and with "a lot more thickness and control in the voice."

He also sounds grateful for the addition. Hart is, according to Beck, a "wild child" who established herself with occasionally "lewd" onstage antics during the West Coast shows -- not all of which went over. "There were some rough reviews in L.A.," Beck said. But with a singer drawing audience attention away from him, "I feel a little freer," he said.

The 20-city tour that begins on Wednesday in Tampa doesn't coincide with a new album. The last release of new Beck material was 2003's Jeff, on Epic Records. He is touring, as he's often done over the years, because he feels like it. Rounding out the band are Randy Hope-Taylor on bass, Jason Rebello on keyboards and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums -- players who can keep up with the Beck battery of complex melodies, time-signature jumps and improvised leaps.

Beck is not alone in his devotion to the elements of lead guitar -- tone, phrasing and articulation. He says that in England nowadays he's hearing a lot of world music, especially from Africa, with "yards and yards of great rhythmic playing ... and articulate guitar playing." A few American rock bands -- including Audioslave and Atreyu -- feature intricate, involved solos of the kind that used to keep amateur players practicing for hours.

But in today's universe of laptop recording studios pre-loaded with every conceivable sound, interest may be flowing away from mastery of the instrument and toward mastery of the software. Beck himself has made what he calls "bedroom techno," with his three most recent albums inspired in part by the work of the Chemical Brothers, Amon Tobin and other luminaries of electronic music.

"They got some of the most astonishingly powerful sounds. I wanted to pirate some of that and put it in a guitar-bass-and-drums context," he said. But he added that a lot of the computer-assisted pop he hears leaves him cold: "The music is becoming forged and phony to me."

He hasn't made an album in three years and has no immediate plans to do so. He said his mind tends to drift, and drifting was OK when he was allowed to make albums in a gradual way -- working out songs on the road and later finishing them up in the studio when the time felt right.

The economics of the music business no longer permit that kind of leisure, he said, and making albums has become a more taxing, all-at-once process.

But he said that once he starts, his record company, Epic, is "respectful enough to leave me alone" until it's finished. He also finds it remarkable that a big label such as Epic -- a subsidiary of media giant Sony BMG -- retains him. As he put it, "How can you sell the stuff that I put out?"

He might have another project in the works -- but he's not sure. It began with a recent phone call from Sir George Martin, the Beatles' legendary studio guide and producer of Beck's 1975 album Blow by Blow. Beck said Martin asked him to conduct a piece of music with 16 string players for a one-off public performance that Martin had in mind. Beck had never worked with a string section before, and said the rehearsal was "a train wreck." The project -- or his part in it, at least -- is in limbo. Told that Clapton once got bad reviews for touring with a string section, Beck said, "I'm so glad to hear that."

"On the road we're gonna have little portable studios and we're going to be writing, hopefully," said Beck, who begins the 20-date tour on September 6 in Tampa, Fla. "That's a good place to do it because you've got hours and hours on the bus where you're a prisoner. You may as well make use of that. With all the laptops and ProTools devices, you can make fantastic demos quite easily now."

"I've got ideas aplenty, and I want to do it with the band so I don't just present them with a finished demo," he added. "They get artistic input."

Beck said this version of his band -- a five-piece with a vocalist (Beth Hart) for the first time in nearly 20 years -- is having a marked impact on the way he's approaching the album, which will be his first studio set since 2003's "Jeff."

And for the first time since the mid-'70s, when he began experimenting with mostly instrumental jazz fusion and electronica, Beck expects to pursue a more straightforward, rock-oriented direction.

"I'm not worrying about having to be too hip-hop or techno," he explained. "I've always believed; three pieces is adequate -- bass, drums, guitar and keyboard for doing the more melodic stuff." Beck said he'll first hunker down with drummer Vinnie Colaiuta to begin building the new songs.

"He's gonna play the way he plays," Beck said. "Just endless, funky grooves, endless kinds of inventive fills, and I'm gonna take the material away that we do and then work on it. So it'll be guitar- and drums-driven. I think that's the best way to go for me."drums-driven. I think that's the best way to go for me."

Reuters/Billboard

True, all remnants of the storm will be long gone by then. But Beck still has the jitters about performing in Florida during hurricane season, compounded by the fact that he'll have to fly across the Atlantic so soon after British intelligence foiled a terrorist attack.

His only hope is that if terrorists do target his plane, his death is quick. He can't swim, the result of a childhood trauma suffered when he was 6.

"I was thrown in some swimming pool, and they held me under for like, five minutes," Beck said in a phone interview from his home in southeast England. "We arrived at the pool, and the elder kids were just leaving, and they just had their fun with us. So that will put you off."

Even if he does make it to American soil, there's the matter of his hearing, which, like that of many of his peers, has suffered permanent damage from all those years of playing full blast in front of stacks of amplifiers.

"Imagine something on the inside of your eardrum that doesn't change in pitch for the rest of the time you're alive," Beck said. "It's like someone injecting air through a small tube, a high-pitched escape of air. When you start listening to it, you can hear all the other frequencies and other noises, and it can be very perplexing ... the head's a noisy place if you listen to it."

Beck laughs at this, as he does most things, and perhaps it's his tendency to see humor in frightening situations that will encourage him to board that flight.

"I just can't wait to get started, because when we have one day off, I get rusty," he said. "You know, when you play every day, you just burn ... and that can only happen with constant playing. One or two days off is a disaster, because you lose the momentum. And we've been off one-and-a-half, two months! (Laughs.) I need to get back pretty quick."

Blow by blow
If you're one of those people who confuse Jeff Beck with the guy who sings "Loser," here's a little history lesson:

Jeff Beck is considered one of the most influential guitarists in rock 'n' roll. After replacing Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds in 1965, he ushered in a hard-rock/psychedelic sound that presaged heavy metal, and his experimentation with fuzz tones, bending notes and feedback influenced everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page.

When The Yardbirds kicked him out (more on that later), Beck formed The Jeff Beck Group, anchored by Rod Stewart on vocals and Ron Wood on guitar. That lineup recorded two classic albums before Stewart and Wood left to join The Faces in 1969. Beck carried on with a new JBG for a few years before eschewing the group format in favor of solo albums and concerts that showcased his penchant for jazz fusion and, more recently, techno.

That choice has probably prevented Beck from enjoying the superstar status of peers such as Clapton and Page. Although several of his solo albums have hit the top 40, his material has been far from radio-friendly (save for a 1985 cover of The Impressions' "People Get Ready" with Stewart on vocals).

For 30 years, he was content with this, of being akin to a god to guitar players and a relative unknown to others, as he continued to experiment with new sounds and pursue his other love, restoring old cars.

Then, in 2002, he was invited to perform a two-hour show at London Festival Hall. He decided to invite some friends (including Roger Waters, Imogen Heap and The White Stripes), and make the show a career retrospective.

"Unfortunately, a thing like that can't be viable for the road, what with the availability (of the other artists), the cost and everything," he said. "But a mini-version of that is what we do at the moment."

Thus, for many fans, the current tour will be the first time in three decades they will be able to hear Beck backed by a full band, vocals and all, performing everything from Yardbirds material to tracks from his last album, 2003's "Jeff."

Joining him will be Beth Hart on vocals, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Jason Rebello on keyboards and Randy Hope-Taylor on bass. Hope-Taylor replaces Pino Palladino, who was recently swiped from Beck's band by The Who.

Said Beck: "Roger (Daltrey) lives about 5 miles away. I was going to fix him up so he couldn't sing."

There and back
If the idea of a woman singing songs made famous by Keith Relf and Rod Stewart sounds strange, Beck promises it won't be. In fact, he says, Hart does Rod Stewart better than Stewart does himself.

"I heard her voice on one of her CDs, and then I saw a performance in Holland that she gave, which was amazing," he said. "She was covering some of our early stuff, and I mean, people's heads spun around."

As for Stewart himself, don't look for a reunion of the classic Jeff Beck Group anytime soon. Beck doesn't appear to think much of Stewart's "American Songbook" CDs of pop standards ("That's what pays the rent, I guess"), and truth be told, he doesn't think Rod the Mod could handle the demands of the JBG material.

"I don't think that will ever work," he said. "He doesn't sound the same, for starts. The thing about those early records is the raucousness of his voice. There's a pained kind of uniqueness about it, albeit there's some dodgy intonation. (Laughs.) But the rawness is not there; it's all smooth now, and it's folly to try to recapture that, which may be why he's stayed away from that."

Beck probably won't be doing many Yardbirds songs on tour, either. Although many stories have circulated about why he and the band parted ways, he says he was sidelined by illness, but the others didn't believe he was sick -- so he got sacked.

Beck got his revenge when The Yardbirds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. During his acceptance speech, he said, "The Yardbirds kicked me out! They did! (Expletive) them!"

"It was tongue-in-cheek, I can assure you," he recalled with a laugh. "But I don't think they were ready ... for the blatant sort of truth that would come out."

Beck plans on recording a new rock-blues album while on the road and wants to release a live CD from the tour. A film biography or career-retrospective documentary may soon be in the works as well. But first, he has to get through this tour "in one piece."

"I don't stop," Beck said. "I put the same amount of effort into it as I did when I was 16, runnin' around like an idiot."

The Stewart-Beck relationship was neatly summed up in January 1994 when Stewart was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and Beck said, "He loves me, and I hate him."

Stewart will release a new album called Still The Same... Great Rock Classics Of Our Time on October 10th, with cover versions of songs by Elvin Bishop, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Bob Dylan, among others.

Beck kicks off a U.S. tour on September 6th in Clearwater, Florida

In between Beck showed why he's called a guitar virtuoso, giving mere mortal players in the crowd reason to either hang it up or go shoot themselves. Beck's command of the fret board, his risky use of feedback to the brink of distortion, have been his trademark since he turned from his early-blues rock roots to the jazz-infused "Blow By Blow" in 1975.

When Beck began the album's mournful "Cause We've Ended As Lovers," an instrumental as full of anguish as anything Eric Clapton can give out in "Layla," people cheered and gave Beck a standing ovation at the end.

The sold-out crowd sat open-mouthed through Beck's guitar pyrotechnics on "Behind the Veil," "Two Rivers," "Star Cycle" and others spanning his 40-year career, but saved its biggest applause for when vocalist Beth Hart joined Beck on stage.

Hart's gritty, Janis Joplin like vocals were more than a match for former vocalist Rod Stewart on "Truth" classics "You Shook Me," and "Morning Dew." Hart's voice soared, Beck matched the top note. When Hart closed in to a grinning Beck, slamming the strings of his Stratocaster in large strokes, it was a moment of, well, pure rock n' roll.

During the encore, Hart returned for a blistering version of "Going Down" from 1972s Jeff Beck Group.

But it was for her return to the stage for "I Ain't Superstitious" that the crowd went wild.

Beck's popularity has never been pop hits, but "I Ain't Superstitious" still gets airplay on FM radio. It's another from 1968's "Truth," Beck's first post Yardbird's album, featuring Rod Stewart's raw vocals, Ron Wood on bass and Mick Waller on drums. It starts with a riveting four-note statement on the guitar to sit up and take notice, followed by two hard wallops of a drum, launching Stewart into his raspiest best. Then the whole thing starts coming apart like the grinding metal of the Titanic going down, being pulled back by the drums but sliding unstoppable into the bluesy hard rock sound that foretold of heavy metal to come.

This "Superstitious" lacked that early, garage-band quality, and if I have one complaint about Wednesday's concert it's that while Beck's stylized playing reaches moments of a sheer, hang-on for your lives rush -- the phenomenal "Scatterbrain" for example -- never did I fear this train would leave the track.

The crowd was there to witness Beck's mastery of the guitar, backed up by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta; Pino Palladino on bass; and Jason Rebello on keyboard. Colaiuta, Frank Zappa's former drummer, particularly shined, threatening to overtake the virtuoso if he didn't look out. Beck, at 62, is still on top of his game.

Susan Morse is the Seabrook reporter for the Hampton Union. She can be reached at smorse@seacoastonline.com

CONCERT REVIEW
Jeff Beck
Sept. 13
Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom

The popular knowledge that Beck hardly embodies the careerist bent of his aforementioned British peers-he has eschewed the middle-of-the-road commercialism of Clapton as well as the cock-rock caricaturing of Page-isn’t to say variations on those styles didn’t appear during the course of his sold-out two-hour set. It’s only that, in keeping with his idiosyncratic nature, this English hot-rod fan prefers to conceive and execute his music on his own terms.

And that may in fact be the source of the animated stage presence Beck displayed throughout the evening. Such drinks-and-dinner theatre as the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom’s doesn’t always lend itself to absorbing the music as it’s happening-with the constant stream of pedestrians, many of who are completely ignorant of how they’re interrupting the serious music lovers in the audience-but it makes it nigh on impossible to be patient knowing you’re guaranteed to miss an astounding lick or dramatic sweep of the guitar when Jeff is on stage these days.

He radiates a lighthearted confidence in what he’s doing that comes from forging a style all his own without the compromise of the marketplace. This East Coast tour of America, close on the heels of a similar West Coast swing in the spring, found the basic elements of Beck’s music more tightly fused than ever. Not surprisingly, his band is just as closely in formation with him as they play it.

Given that, there’s not a lot of collective improvisation going on as drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Randy Hope-Taylor and keyboardist Jason Rebello play along with their leader. In fact, that’s largely what the three do, as Beck himself continues to unfurl his seemingly endless imagination to find-or more accurately, impart-subtlety to familiar songs like “Blue Wind.” Jeff’s two rounds of call-and-response with Rebello were the only jams that took place that had any substance unless you look at the set, progressing as it did almost non-stop from beginning to end, as one long improvisation.

Though this show has remained fairly constant through the spring tour and the early part of this one, there’s no sense of ennui; how could there be with Beck parlaying his own inimitable brand of unpredictability from moment to moment? Colaiuta’s flourishes acted as necessary touch points after such stratospheric journeys as the one Jeff conducted on “Brush with the Blues,” where his deconstructionist jazz sensibility was never more evident.

And it was forging the elements of his past that would appear to be the impetus behind Jeff Beck’s current public appearances. With the ever-so-suggestive presence of Beth Hart on a handful of numbers such as “Ain’t Superstitious” and, in particular, “You Shook Me,” the blues component in Beck’s style comes to the fore much more prominently than in recent years. The techno leanings of his last studio album, You Had it Coming, are nowhere to be found, while the bone-crushing hard rock of his early group albums couldn’t have been more vivid.

Not coincidentally, Truth and Beck-Ola are being reissued in October with bonus tracks aplenty, so it makes perfect sense for Beck to hearken back to that phase of his career. But culls from that period like “Beck’s Bolero” and “Morning Dew” sounded of a piece with the sleek sturm und drang of “Led Boots” from Wired. Jeff Beck’s artistic identity is more fully crystallized now than at any period in the 62-year old guitar hero’s career, as his guitar playing imparts an authority to even the most dizzying solos, such as the one on “Star Cycle.”

The man’s fondness for melody brought a broadened dynamic range to the performance. “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” featured Beck using a feather-like touch he utilized again, to an even greater extent, in the second encore “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” But it was “Angel/Footsteps,” significantly, from the recent vintage You Had It Coming, where Beck found the finest nuance to etch the pretty motifs into the tunes.

Applying the jazz ethos of knowing what notes to leave out is the foundation of Jeff’s discipline. This approach has allowed him to create, over the years, an instantly recognizable tone of his own and it carries a white-hot edge that sears off all sentimentality from balladry like “Nadia,” leaving only the truly poignant in place. It was a fairly educated audience, the aforementioned dilettantes notwithstanding, that responded as respectfully and wholeheartedly to that display of restraint rather than the more obvious theatrics of outstretched arms and abandoned swings of the guitar.

You forgive Beck such showmanship because it appears to be such a natural outgrowth of the joy he finds in playing these days. He constantly prowls the stage, never fails to acknowledge a transition in an arrangement, as on “Big Block,” and was humorous but earnestly praising his band at the evening’s end. And it’s deserved praise even though Rebello seems merely to provide backdrops for Beck’s guitar, though Beck doesn’t defer to him the way he did Jan Hammer thirty years ago. Hart’s earthy wailing is almost but not quite a match for her guitar boss (she demonstrated some admirable restraint of her own on Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come”), while Hope-Taylor and Colaiuta carve out massive chunks of funk that sound like the logical progression from the ground-breaking syncopation that coursed through Blow by Blow, Beck’s first foray into jazz-rock fusion.

Down-to-earth enough to return to the stage for the first encore with his layered mop of hair in holy disarray from a towel-down, Jeff Beck was also sincere enough to again thank his band and wish his concertgoers a safe journey home. Such openness made for marked contrast to the tongue-in-cheek wave of his container of baby powder in the air as he left the stage for the final time; as Jeff Beck tossed some of the stuff in the air while facing his audience, you couldn’t help but think of the substance in metaphorical terms. It was almost like a magic (“Diamond…”? ) dust he had just spent over one-hundred and twenty minutes sprinkling on the crowd, leaving them transformed.

What's more, the 62-year-old blues-rock guitar god hasn't put out a record since 2003's "Jeff," the last in his trilogy of electronic music discs. And he's playing a "greatest hits" set list to boot on his 20-city tour.

Another night, another geezer, right? Not in the least. Although tickets were reportedly a slow sell, with no new product for rock radio to push, the concert proved exactly why hardcore fans of the electric guitar solo keep Beck on their perennial "gotta be there" list when he tours every three years or so.

The man who helped define English blues-rock, practically invented heavy metal and made jazz-rock fusion interesting seems to be turning away from his electronica fixation. His inspiration during his two-hour-plus set, complete with four encore numbers, seemed to come less from the Chemical Brothers than from Buddy Guy.

Those bracing themselves for a nonstop sonic assault were instead treated to a well-paced mix of the crunches and the lyrical. For every pulsating "Big Block" and "Scatterbrain," there was a melodic "Cause We Ended as Lovers" or stunningly beautiful "A Day in the Life," his guitar singing out with a full range of emotions for the Beatles classic.

Beck's clearly enjoying himself, too. The often-taciturn Brit, sporting a '60s mod haircut, sleeveless nylon vest with no shirt underneath and hastily knotted green-and-black-striped tie, was downright animated onstage. At various points he raised both hands skyward in triumph, dipped gracefully to one knee and blew an appreciative kiss to the crowd in response to an ovation.

While Beck worked off and on in recent years with vocalist Jennifer Batten, she never played as big a role in his group as his recent discovery Beth Hart. Beck has compared the Los Angeles-based blues-rocker to Janis Joplin, although Hart's singing is much more controlled. The sexy shouter gave a nod to long-ago Beck mate Rod Stewart with her phrasing for "You Shook Me" and "I Ain't Superstitious," two of the half-dozen tunes she sang during her three jaunts to the stage. Her gyrations during "You Shook Me," while suggestive, were no match for Beck's rude, raunchy guitar, though.

Beck has found three backing musicians capable of pushing him musically, most notably keyboardist Jason Rebello, whose synthesizer work matched the axman's blow by blow for "Star Cycle," and who teamed seamlessly with Beck on the reggae romp "Behind the Veil."

While Clapton is fronting a three-guitar lineup these days, it's hard to imagine another guitarist who'd expose himself to direct comparisons with Beck. And Beck does it all, anyway, as he demonstrated on "Big Block," for which he supplied all the melody and rhythm lines while Rebello took a breather.

It's amazing to hear the range of sounds Beck creates. Starting with the show opener, the regal-sounding shout- out to Ravel, "Beck's Bolero," Beck worked the entire fretboard, even extending the flying fingers of his left hand above the pickups with absolute precision. He seldom uses a pick, alternately popping the strings with his thumb and caressing them with the other fingers of his right hand. It's a technique that few electric guitarists could use effectively, and none with the speed and accuracy of Beck. He takes such adventurous routes to a sustained note, too -- varying combinations of bending, slide and feedback.

Beck, Clapton and another former Yardbird, Jimmy Page, are considered the big three of British blues-rock guitarists, and you can make a case for each one as the best. But the mastery of the electric guitar that Beck displayed Tuesday night brings to mind another possible triumvirate: Beck, Les Paul and Jimi Hendrix. Or just maybe there's no yardstick for his brilliance.

jjohnson@suntimes.com

After completing a hugely successful tour of Japan last summer playing songs spanning his career, Beck decided to give his fans in America the same chance.

This past April, the four-time Grammy-winning Beck played a string of sold-out West Coast dates to amazing reviews by fans and critics alike.

For instance, the Hollywood Reporter wrote after a Beck show: “After four decades, Beck still has the ability to thrill. The result was one of those nights that even a veteran concert-goer brags about the next day. And the next.”

And the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, “ … he produces such a dazzling array of tonal colors and emotional shadings that he ‘sings’ like a master, without ever opening his mouth. Beck is also that rare performer who can play with intensity and taste at the same time. This made his 91-minute set here an almost unqualified delight.”

Sounds like a show not to be missed!

For his show tonight, Beck promises a set that reflects the eclectic musical mix that is his trademark. With a heady blend of rock and jazz to incorporating eastern, classical and blues influences, fans can expect a rare visit to Beck’s extensive catalogue as well as a revealing glimpse of his next project.

Beck is joined tonight by a stellar line-up of musicians: Randy Hope-Taylor on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Jason Rebello on keyboards, and as a special guest, Beth Hart on vocals.

Aside from the special limited West Coast dates this past April, this marks the first time in nearly 20 years that Beck will perform in the U.S. with a singer. The last time, dating back to the early ’80s, was when he played a few dates with Rod Stewart.

For those who are not familiar with Beck, he’s one of the most highly regarded electric guitarists of all time, in the same company as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Hendrix, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and a few select others.

Beck has played in many bands beginning in the 1960s, including the Yardbirds (after Clapton left), The Honeydrippers, Beck, Bogers & Appice, and The Jeff Beck Group (featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and Ron Wood of Rolling Stones fame on bass). Beck also has performed with Stewart on other occasions, including the smoking guitar work on the song “Infatuation.”

Beck has performed with many other greats over the years, including live in a Yardbirds reunion show with Clapton. He also has performed with Sting, Phil Collins, Donovan and Paul Rodgers of Bad Company fame.

Beck recently has performed on Les Paul’s and Cyndi Lauper’s new CDs, as well as on Roger Water’s CD, “Amused to Death.” Beck also performed on the ZZ Top CD “XXX,” and even acted in the film “Twins.”

Jeff Beck:
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: Colorado Convention Center Lecture Hall, 700 14th St.

When those lists of "best guitarists of all time" pop up, his name is always near the top, alongside former Yardbirds band mates Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, or the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and the like.

Yet Beck doesn't fill huge arenas or top the charts because years ago he decided to challenge himself rather than take the expected route of pleasing the audience.

Granted, other guitarists have taken detours, but Beck wandered off into music even the most ardent fans had a hard time following at times.

So despite a respectable crowd numbering in the thousands, the empty seats at the top of the Lecture Hall on Thursday night are the price he pays for keeping himself intrigued and interested for all these years.

And it's a pity if you weren't there, because this tour finds Beck at his most accessible. Playing signature songs from his entire career, he blasted through 90-plus minutes of astonishing, inimitable guitar work.

If nothing else, it was the best-value concert this year. With an average $50 ticket price, fans got pure Beck - no opening act, no filler, no fooling around. Without a word he stormed onto the stage and began the guitar assault. No big screens, no special effects - heck, not even the mandatory give-me-a- new-guitar-every-song shtick. Just a stack of Marshall amps, a white spotlight on him, a crack band pushing itself to higher levels and an emphasis on the rock and blues numbers that have made him a guitar legend, including Beck's Bolero, You Shook Me and I Ain't Superstitious.

His solos go from lithe and fluid one minute to staccato, machine- gun bursts the next. Fit and agile, the Jeff Beck of 2006 bears a striking resemblance to the one of 1971, but with even more tricks up his sleeve.

Cause We've Ended As Lovers was an amazing highlight, with Beck's soloing going from clean, nimble runs up the guitar neck to brusque, grinding blues.

Like much of Beck's music, much of the concert was purely instrumental. For those songs with vocals, he has enlisted singer-songwriter Beth Hart to join him with electric chemistry.

Their version of You Shook Me was riveting, with Hart undoubtedly winning new fans with her amazing voice.

Perhaps the finest moment of the night, however, was Beck's instrumental cover of the Beatles' A Day in the Life. The nuance and shading of his guitar lines were as expressive as any human voice. If fans consider his detours as time in the wilderness, well, it was time well spent.

Jeff Beck
• Grade: A
• When, where: Thursday night, Lecture Hall

The vast majority of the crowd, however, just sat quietly and stared intently at Beck's fingers. It's almost like his fans were afraid they might miss something if they didn't pay complete attention to the star.

In that sense, the gig resembled more a classroom setting than a regular concert. The fans were the students and the instructor was a guitarist for the ages.

The 62-year-old British rock legend, who first made his name as Eric Clapton's replacement in the Yardbirds in the mid-'60s, certainly had a fine crop of classroom aides with him on this night. His terrific band featured bassist Randy Hope-Taylor, keyboardist Jason Rebello and, most impressively, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, who has worked with the likes of Frank Zappa and Sting.

The band also included singer Beth Hart, who helped make this a different kind of Jeff Beck show. Reportedly, this is the first year that the guitarist has toured the United States with the vocalist since he performed with Rod Stewart (a former member of the Jeff Beck Group) in the early'80s.

Hart did a fine job at the mic, channeling the wild spirit of Janis Joplin and cranking up the intensity on some bluesy selections, but she didn't change the overall focus and feel of the show. Even when the vocalist was onstage, the main attraction remained Beck's fingers.

Let's be clear on one thing: It wasn't the most widely accessible show. One doesn't just walk off the street and into a Jeff Beck concert. This was a gig for guitar geeks, and anyone else - especially a guitar geek's spouse - might have found this performance to be a deathly bore.

Beck kicked off the 1-hour, 45-minute show with four straight instrumentals, all of which were colored in varying shades of jazz-rock fusion.

Appearing out of the darkness near center stage, the guitarist opened with a big, bold version of the classic "Beck's Bolero" that was full of the same type of head-spinning drama that fuels Ravel's own "Bolero."

Stepping down from this place of grandeur, the guitarist took a swift left turn and landed solidly with a funky version of "Stratus," during which he typed out notes on his fretboard like someone sending Morse code. The fans, most of whom were sitting at the edge of their seats by this point, definitely got the message.

Following "You Never Know," a blistering modern jazz number that sounded like something straight off a Pat Metheny disc, and a sweet take on the ballad "Cause We Ended as Lovers," Hart entered the stage for convincing takes on "You Shook Me" and "Morning Dew." The latter, a Grateful Dead number, was particularly enjoyable as the band really sold this haunting vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

Once the vocalist departed, the crowd members settled back into business as usual as they watched the guitar hero glide his way through the ska-influenced "Behind the Veil" and then shoot out into the stratosphere for the spacey "Two Rivers," which came across like "Division Bell"-era Pink Floyd.

Fans enjoyed the music to different degrees as Beck continued through "Star Cycle," "Big Block" and "Nadia" - and some were clearly getting things out of the show that others weren't. For instance, there were times when, for no apparent reason, three or four people would suddenly leap from their chairs mid-song to applaud like their baseball team had just won the World Series.

Maybe it was the way Beck had fingered a particular note or completed a certain phrasing - only the geekiest of guitar geeks know for sure.

The main set concluded in fine fashion with such solid selections as "Pork Pie Hat," "Brush with the Blues" and "Blue Wind." Beck, however, saved the best for last as he delivered an epic version of "A Day in the Life" that was so clearly enunciated that one could almost sing the words without ever hearing the Beatles' original first.

The final encore was a moving rendition of "Over the Rainbow" that made it clear we weren't in Kansas anymore. Then class was dismissed for the evening. The lesson, especially for guitar geeks, was clear: Jeff Beck is not to be missed in concert.

Write music critic Jim Harrington at jharrington@angnewspapers.com

In interviews over the years, Beck has good-naturedly put up with exasperating questioning from this guitar-playing reporter on subjects ranging from what size his low E string is to his exact memories of filming the famous club scene with the Yardbirds in Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 mod-London classic, "Blow-Up." This time, we stuck to cars, housing insulation and the fact that he looks essentially the same today as he did on stage at London's Roundhouse in the early '70. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd calls him "the most consistently brilliant" guitarist around.

"People can't understand it," Beck, 62, said of his full head of shaggy black hair. "The last time we were in Tokyo, a jazz drummer I know asked if he could pull it to make sure it's not a wig. I told him he could pull it once, and if he tried it a second time, I'd give him a good kick you know where."

Beck's guitar has provided kicks for five decades, starting in 1965, when he replaced Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds, then in the first Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart, considered the blueprint for Led Zeppelin. In the mid-'70s, Beck changed directions and recorded the groundbreaking jazz-fusion albums "Blow by Blow" and "Wired," both produced by Beatles collaborator George Martin.

Future projects saw Beck veering into straight-ahead rockabilly, funk, techno, electronica and pastoral soundscapes, always marked by jaw-dropping fretwork and white-knuckle conviction. "It's very hard to just stick to one thing," said Beck, who appears Monday at The Grove of Anaheim and Thursday at a special Greek Theatre show in which Martin will oversee a 14-piece string section performing "Diamond Dust" and other material from "Blow by Blow," Beck's landmark 1975 album.

Along with auto restoration, another endeavor of Beck's is his house. It's on a U.K. registry of historic homes and has been put back to its original form, which meant tearing out the insulation and putting in a new roof. Beck helped with much of the manual labor. "We have a huge fireplace, which we need because it gets so cold here," he said. "It was an unbelievable amount of work. That's how I keep in shape. I don't do a lot of sitting around. "People think I'm some kind of multimillionaire. But I'm not. At the same time, I'd probably be exactly the same anyway. I've always been this way. I like doing things myself."

Fred Shuster, (818) 713-3676 fred.shuster@dailynews.com

The British legend has not so much added significantly to his arsenal of unique techniques as he has refined and expanded them-mostly with his pick-less right hand, and most notably concerning his use the tremolo arm. Beck dropped a major Whammy Bomb on the guitar world on “Where Were You” from 1988’s Guitar Shop, and he has developed the approach he pioneered on that track to such a degree that it’s now incorporated to some degree into virtually everything he does-which equates to a wholly unique way of playing electric guitar. He keeps his pinky on the Strat’s volume knob, creating vocal-like envelopes as he plucks either a fretted note or a harmonic with his thumb or remaining right-hand digits, and then manipulates the note up or down in pitch with the whammy bar. For the last note of the reggae-tinged “Behind the Veil,” Beck whimsically substituted a heavenly harmonic, which he let ring out while slinging the guitar around his back and tying his shoe, before raising his arm to signal the segue into “Two Rivers.” Nailing such a dizzying array of tricks proved difficult even for the acrobatic Beck. He narrowly missed the bull’s-eye on a few occasions, but always managed to somehow land on his black work boots. He didn’t play “Where Were You” on this occasion, but he did play an equally ethereal rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and a supremely lyrical instrumental version of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.” The string section accompanied both, and the combination of Beck’s soaring whammy harmonics with the orchestration were the evening’s highlights and show closers.

Other highlights also included the string section, which appeared onstage after an intermission that was so short, much of the middle-aged crowd was caught off guard, forcing them to soak in Blow By Blow producer George Martin’s gorgeous “Diamond Dust” arrangement as they scurried back to their seats. The augmented band played “Scatterbrain” at a blistering pace with the string section sawing away furiously in order to keep up. “Led Boots” also featured stings-an interesting choice considering they are not a part of the original Wired recording, and because it’s rare to hear a string section hammer away at a such a syncopated fusion guitar riff, which they did while Beck went for the jugular during his solos.

The audience was filled with all walks of the music lovers, including guitarist Johnny A., Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins, and amp manufacturer Paul Rivera Jr. Backstage, all searched for superlatives to describe Beck’s magnificent tone, singular phrasing, and age-defying energy. The consensus: Beck is still at the top of his game, if not the top guitar cat on the planet, period.

Complete Set List
Beck’s Bolero 
Stratus 
You Never Know 
'Cause We've Ended as Lovers 
You Shook Me 
Morning Dew 
Behind the Veil 
Two Rivers 
Star Cycle 
Big Block 
Nadia (guest El Shankar)
Angel’s Footsteps 
(Strings) 
Diamond Dust 
Scatterbrain 
Led Boots 
Ain't Superstitious 
Going Down 
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 
Brush with the Blues 
Scottish 
Blue Wind 
(Strings) 
Change Is Gonna Come 
A Day in the Life 
Somewhere Over the Rainbow

One of the standout songs was near the very end and I think it must have been called "Scottish One" because I saw the word "Scottish" on the mixing board posted set list and I found "Scottish One" listed on your website as part of his Japan set list. Do you know the origin of that song? It was perfectly executed last night and was wondering where it came from, if it's a Jeff original or an old song of some other origin, etc.

At any rate, we had him come back for 3 encores, and he didn't seem to be too put out. He and Jason played a beautiful rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow for the third encore. Jeff stayed pretty close to your aforementioned set list, with maybe 1 exception. I believe he substituted People Get Ready for I Ain't Superstitious (sung by Beth Hope). She's an absolute Doll, by the way (i.e., not like some Diva all full of herself, but simply a talented singer, just singing her heart out.

I know the date of that show because of Christopher Hjort's excellent book, Jeff's Book, which I contributed some photos to from various concerts of Jeff's that I have seen over the years. I remember they played all of their Yardbird hits and that Jeff and Jimmy Page had a wonderful exchange on "I'm a Man". I do recall Jimmy's purple velvet pants and that Jeff was more understated in jeans.

I next saw Jeff with his first solo group in Dallas at a club called LuAnne's in July of 68. Only 100 people were there and I sat right behind a speaker at the side of the stage taking photos. Jeff stuck his tongue out at me at one point, as I suspect he was wondering why I was taking so many photos and Rod Stewart bent down and was asking me about my 35mm camera. They weren't that common in those days. What a show that was. Jeff's Les Paul, through his dual stack of Marshall's, was the most wonderful sound I had ever heard. I went out and bought a new gold top Les Paul when Gibson re-released them around that time. But for some reason I have never been able to sound as good as Jeff. A sad fate which I am sure I share with any number of other guitar players who aspire to try and measure up to Jeff's exceptional standards. I got to see the original JB Group one more time in November of 68. I was amused to see that one of my photos from that show was appropriated from Hjort's book, for the cover of a bootleg CD.

I moved to Colorado after that and got to see Jeff with various versions of his group. One memorable group line-up was in Colorado Springs in August of 1972 where he played two shows with Bob Tench, Max Middleton, Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert. The opening act was Argent. The next time I saw him he had moved on to instrumentals sharing the bill with Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. 'Blow by Blow' was out and he moved between a strat and his oxblood Les Paul. I still felt he blew McLaughlin off the stage, but I readily admit I am prejudiced in favor of Jeff. Next I saw him on the 'There and Back' tour and he was at the peak of his popularity, playing to close to 10,000.

When I moved to the Bahamas in 1981 I became friends with the late Robert Palmer who was living here at the time. Robert and I would sit around listening to music till all hours of the morning. Robert knew of my love for Jeff's guitar and one night he put on a cassette he had. He always played things VERY loud and when I heard 'Escape' I was blown away. This was months before 'Flash' was released. Jeff had been in Nassau recording at Compass Point Recording Studio with Mick Jagger. Jeff had left a copy with Robert and had invited him to sing on 'Flash'. Robert had declined though because he didn't like the idea of being compared to Rod Stewart. This was shortly before Robert hit it big with 'Addicted to Love', so it probably took some nerve to turn Jeff down. Actually this is one point that I can make about both Robert and Jeff. Part of the reason I admire both of them, is that they have not played it safe. They have always pushed themselves to try new styles of music and are perfectionists in their craft. I regret that Robert turned Jeff down and sadly now we will never get the chance to hear them together. I feel it would have been a good fit. I can not think of any other guitarist who has pushed the instrument to the limits and varieties that Jeff has.

Seeing Jeff on the Stevie Ray tour and again on his 'Who Else' tour, as well as the You had it Coming and B.B. King tours, all I can say is that he has gotten better through the years. He is a master of his instrument and his music speaks to places in my soul that no one else has ever reached. As I said to you after the Ft. Lauderdale show on the 7th, he has become better with age, like a fine wine. Seeing him in Tampa the night before, what came across is that he is enjoying what he is doing. Beth Hart was great to see and the chance to hear new interpretations of songs that have meant so much to me over 40 years, is a moving experience. Jeff has been attracting the most amazing musicians to his bands for some time now and this group is no exception. The Bootleg CD from the Spring tour that's on sale at the shows is excellent, on a par or better than the old Jan Hammer live CD with Jeff that was on Epic. I do hope he puts out a DVD and CD of these shows and as a career retrospective. Jeff thanked the audience for his career at one point that evening. All I can say to Jeff is thank you for the music of my life. You certainly made my life richer, for your music being such a big part of it. Thanks again Dick. R.E. Barnes

My favorite part of the show was the extended introduction blues licks Jeff played with the band, before Beth walked on stage to sing You Shook Me. I have never heard him play like this before. Basic in the box blues scale. The guitar sound was super thick.

The new Fender Super Sonic Amps were set to the vintage bassman channel. Combining this amp with the Marshall DSL 50 watt, achieve the fullness Jeff has talked about wanting to project over the years. Steve, Jeff's guitar tech, works with a high level of intensity in coordinating guitar / amp / effects.

Japan, Western and European tours gave the band the playing time together to deliver these memorable performances.

Brad in Memphis

Regards, Jeff

Here was last night's set list:

Denver 9/21/06

1. Beck's Bolero
2. Stratus
3. You Never Know
4. Cause We've Ended As Lovers
5. You Shook Me (with Beth Hart)
6. Morning Dew (with Beth Hart)
7. Behind The Veil
8. Two Rivers
9. Star Cycle
10. Big Block
11. Nadia
12. Angel (Footsteps)
13. Blast From The East
14. A Day In The Life
15. I Ain't Superstitious (with Beth Hart)
16. A Change Gonna Come (with Beth Hart)
17. Scatterbrain
18. Led Boots
19. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat / Brush With The Blues
20. Blue Wind

Encore 1
21. Goin' Down (with Beth Hart)
22. Got The Feeling (with Beth Hart)


Encore 2
23. Irish Instrumental

Encore 3
24. Somewhere Over The Rainbow

Sincerely,
Jerry Joiner

There was small talk amongst patrons that perhaps Eric Clapton would be there, or even Buddy Guy. The audience was a mixture of burnt out/played out hippies, some stylish females, and some not so stylish (ala a certain femme fatale singer), there were old people, young people, Latinos, African-Americans and even some people that looked lke first cousins of Dick Cheney, and there was the usual.

The tickets stated a 7:30PM start, but at 7:30PM the theatre looked only 35% full. Traffic was crazy downtown, parking next door cost $17.00, Pepsi was $3.00 at the concession stand in the lobby, and then there`were the merchandise items - I paid $90.00 for stuff, Live CD from Spring 2006 tour on the West Coast of the US; a tee-shirt, and a baseball cap, most product was adorned by a Jeff Becl logo that was dead on his 1/3 of BBA's trademark emblem.

The stage was set, a riserless drum kit was dead center in the back, a modest keyboard stack was stage left, audience right, then there was the rig for the bassist and finallyn a massive landscape for the guitar hero that has colored our lives since 1965. Impressive tools for work indeed, 4 Marshall cabinets, 3 Marshall amps, 2 Fender amp heads, 2 Fender cabinets, a control unit for the pedals and effects, which were neatly encased at stage right, audience left upfront strategically behind 3 monitor fills (there`were also two mointor fills to the stage right), a mic on a boom stand and there were the two Strats (being strumed for tuning by the guitar roadie - one beige/creamish off white in color, and the other - white).

At 7:51PM CST a local disc jockey from a Chicago rock station came on and welcome the crowd and informed everyone that Jeff was working on a new album, his first in 3 years, and that the show would feature old and some new, and would be the first time Jeff Beck had appeard with a singer in 20 years. He further told the audience the show would be starting in a few minutes.

The clock said 7:59PM CST when the drummer the bassist and the keyboard player sauntered onto the stage and then he appeared unceremoniously to a loud chorus of cheers as he pointed to the roadie off stage playing the 12 string guitar to strum his part on the show opening "Beck's Bolero". He was cheered with approval by the crowd and given and entrance standing ovation.

He looked very fit and lean, with tie-dyed looking baggy pants, black vest and a tie like thingie around his neck and the Lady Clairol enhanced hair that we have seen in basically the same style for 38 years.

Next up was "Stratus", the Blly Cobham tune, and Jeff ripped the shit out of the solo, garnering strong clapping from the crowd after his break. The audience rewarded him with a strong standing ovation. "You Never Know" folllowed - just pretty basic here, polite crowd response.

The Stevie Wonder written "'Cause We've Ended As Lovers" was next and Mr. Beck made the guitar weep and emote with a flurry of blue notes that were very soulful and