Music Review: Jeff Beck - Performing This Week... Live at Ronnie Scott's

Jeff Beck is one of the two or three greatest guitarists in the world. Period. End of sentence.

The fact that he has never sold anywhere near the amount of records, or achieved the same sort of notoriety as people like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page (to cite two examples) is immaterial.

Over the course of his amazing career, Jeff Beck's unique imprint has been heard on landmark records ranging from the Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things" to his work with Rod Stewart in the first Jeff Beck Group.

But his most noteworthy recordings remain the jazz-rock fusion albums Blow By Blow and Wired. Working with great musicians like keyboardist Jan Hammer on these albums, Beck completely reshaped and redefined the instrumental rock genre by applying the "less is more" economics of rock guitar to the more improvisational tone of fusion jazz.

Where guys like John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, or even Carlos Santana could be all over the place on the six string, Beck was always much more about dramatic effect. What Jeff Beck could say in one short staccato blast on the Stratocaster often said more than all of the thousand notes per second scaling of a DiMeola or Santana ever could. Not surprisingly, Beck's legacy lives on today in guys like Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson.

Jeff Beck's new live album, performing this week...live at Ronnie Scott's, captures the best of the "guitar mechanic's" multiple night stand at London's Ronnie Scott's nightclub. Beck himself cherry picked what he considered the best performances from the concerts for this CD, which is also scheduled for a DVD release by Eagle Rock.

As always, Beck surrounds himself with a group of great musicians here, but none stand out more than female bassist extraordinaire Tal Wilkenfeld, whose funky bass popping provides a perfect counterpart to Beck's own frenetic playing.

But man, does Jeff Beck put on a guitar clinic here.

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Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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  • Performing This Week Performing This Week

    2008 release. Jeff Beck is a true Rock legend. From his time with the Yardbirds in the '60, through his solo career, his unique guitar style and constant desire to explore new musical areas and sounds ...

Article comments

  • 1 - Stratoblogster

    Nov 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    Hey Glen,

    Cool post! I totally agree! I love this line:

    "...What Jeff Beck could say in one short staccato blast on the Stratocaster often said more than all of the thousand notes per second scaling of a DiMeola or Santana ever could..."

    cheers!

  • 2 - jeff Lyon

    Nov 11, 2008 at 8:52 am

    Glen,
    You are so right on. Jeff has covered every base including Pavorotti,rap and reaggae. He's a new keyboardist in David Sancious (sorry to see Jason go) for an upcoming UK,Japan, and Australia tour. No U.S. dates YET.. beginning January. Jeff Lyon

  • 3 - jeff Lyon

    Nov 11, 2008 at 8:55 am

    OOPs, we left out the great and soulful work he did with Joss Stone (People Get Ready)chording on Imagene Heap's "Blanket" and a guest apperance by Eric on which Jeff played slide... Jeff again

  • 4 - Brien Comerford

    Nov 11, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    Jeff Beck has been the greatest live concert guitarist since 1990. Now he's in his prime at the age of 64. In addition to being an inimitable and peerless guitarist, Jeff Beck is also an animal loving vegetarian, hot rod mechanic and rugged landscaper. Jeff Beck = The Best.

  • 5 - Glen Boyd

    Nov 11, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Sancious is a former alumnus of the E Street Band so I look particularly forward to these shows.

    -Glen

  • 6 - Stephen Brody

    Nov 11, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    I not only believe that the assesment that Beck is one of the 2or3 greatest guitarists in the world, I think Jeff has developed his skill to be considered as the greatest of all time.

  • 7 - Paul Roy

    Nov 12, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    I've only been waiting for his live DVD since, oh, when DVDs were invented. About time Jeff.

  • 8 - Doc

    Nov 13, 2008 at 11:27 am

    This cd and the DVD in January will serve as an appetizer for what I am sure will be the best Jeff Beck touring band in many regards. Even though Rebello is a great jazz player, he was still an enfant on the synthesizer bends, as this was his first time doing such in playing with Jeff Beck. New keyboardist David Sancious is a fiery match for Jeff in that regard, and not since Jan Hammer will Jeff have had such a competent sparring partner. Additionally Sancious plays the heck out of the guitat and was influenced by Hendrix, Beck and McLaughlin. I imagine the music will be smoking as Colaiuta on drums and Miss Wilkenfeld on bass guitar(a certain up and comer to be recogned with) hold down the rhythm section. Can't wait till they come to the USA.

  • 9 - Doc

    Nov 13, 2008 at 11:38 am

    As much as I enjoyed the BBC special of some of this project, I do hope that the sound engineer does a better job of blending the instruments mix wise so that this tour does not sound like Jeff Beck on volume level 10; Vinnie Colaiuta on 7;
    Tal Wilkenfeld on 5.5; and David Sancious on 4.5.
    The band is too good not to be able to hear full spectrum of all the timbres.

  • 10 - Lars

    Nov 18, 2008 at 9:52 pm

    Jeff is lucky to have David Sancious on Keys. Sancious is a genius in his own right.

  • 11 - fabio

    Nov 23, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    His playing is so natural,like grabbin' his head ,not different from !

  • 12 - BeckenFan

    Jan 01, 2009 at 3:08 am

    ... AND , when asked in The Rolling Stone interview , "What is it like to be the greatest guitar player in the world" , Eric Clapton replied , " I don't know , but I'll ask Jeff Beck next time I see him ...

    If you haven't seen "Live at Ronnie Scott's" find it on the bit torrents... It is just awesome.... 90 minutes of THE guitar mechanic himself...

    Thanks Jeff for all the years of great music....

  • 13 - RalphKramden

    Jan 02, 2009 at 7:17 pm

    Agree 1000% with all comments, and about fell out of my chair upon reading Clapton's ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of 'when i see beck i'll ask him' re: best guitarist. Just makes me physically ill The Master by all accounts - fellow musicians standing in awe of his prowess primarily, those who have a discerning ear, et al - is demonically-good on the fret and yet 'The Others' always get the glory (3-cord clapton, only-career-is-constant-resurrection-of-zeppelin page, etc). Long Live Beck!!

  • 14 - AlB

    Mar 10, 2009 at 11:16 am

    Please note the BBC broadcast of the JB concert had errors in the broadcast level encoding and is the reason the stereo broadcast sounded odd..

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