Jeff Beck Concert Review – WOW!!!

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    billmeedog
    Member

    Hello Fellow IG’ists!!! 🙂

    I just wanted to share a concert/show review from Monday night. I saw Jeff Beck at the House Of Blues here in Boston, Ma – USA! (I live about 15 miles northwest of downtown Boston.) What a show! OMFG! It was amazing! I know that there are a lot of “shred” players/students/fans on this site, but I also know that there are a lot of open-minded and intelligent musicians who can understand that even a guitarist who eschews 5-string swept-arpeggios, 32nd-note scale sequences, etc. can still be an amazing and inspirational musician!!! Jeff Beck fits that description. In fact, I’ve always maintained that describing Jeff’s style to someone who has never heard him is a tricky task, but I think I may have figured it out (the description, NOT his playing!!! – LOL!) You see, most guitarists share a vocabulary of mutually-inclusive musical devices/tools (chords, scales, arpeggios, licks, etc.) Even guitarists with disparately different styles will generally share some amount of common-ground vocabulary. (For example: Yngwie Malmsteen would NEVER get confused with Billie Joe Armstrong [from Green Day!] However, when they both play their rhythm guitar parts, they are essentially drawing from the same basic Form “E5” & Form “A5” movable power-chord shapes. Of course Yngwie plays LOTS of lead guitar, and Billie Joe…well…not so much, but when Yngwie plays lead, as unique as he is perceived in the history of rock guitarists, even he (YJM) draws some of his motifs/arpeggios/pedal-tone ideas/sequences from Bach & Pagannini!) Now think about Jeff Beck’s style…..Go ahead and ponder it, and I defy you to quantify his playing in terms of known tangible direct influences!!! It’s virtually impossible!!! I’ve been a fan of Jeff’s (off & on) for years, and one thing I’ve never been able to do (and I’m usually guilty of over-doing my comparisons and metaphors!!!) is clearly quantify the genesis of Jeff Beck’s style. So, the way I usually end up describing Jeff is I say: “Take all the stuff that everyone else does/plays, and compile that onto a list. Take that list, rip-it-up into pieces, an get a fresh piece of paper. That’s where Jeff Beck’s style STARTS! He does more in-between the twelve-notes of our western musical scale-system than anyone I can think of. Most guitarists who dare to tread “between-the-twelve” as I put it, are usually blues revivalist, who ALL share VERY similar vocabulary, inflections, licks, etc. Jeff does all sorts of micro-tonal-stuff, but does it in a way that is COMPLETELY void of stereotype, genre definition, etc. Jeff’s approach is sometimes bluesy, sometimes middle-eastern, sometimes rockabilly, etc. But it is NEVER directly reminiscent of any one style or other artist. I have NO IDEA how he has developed this style. I do know that his masterful “voice’s” inflections are courtesy of a “pickless” right-hand that almost constantly leans on the slightly floating “stock” strat-tremolo. Add to that the fact that he uses a slide quite a bit in his left-hand (and sometimes in his RIGHT-HAND!) and you start to see just how “non-standard/inflected” his voice can be (and is!) The only other contemporary guitarist (that I can currently think of) who even approaches such a daring amalgamation of influences is the AWESOME Derek Trucks (who also plays without a pick and uses his slide a lot – more than Jeff Beck in fact – but even he has a WAY more easily quantifiable style – as far as his “Duane Allman meets Middle Eastern/Indian music!”) I think genius is channeled through Jeff Beck! That’s all I can make of it! He is TRULY one-of-a-kind. He’s a vionary. He has a daring style of improvisation which exposes him to moments of absolute treachery and failure, but by daring to be way different, his triumphs yield moments of hair-raising/spine-tingling MAGIC! I know that term “genius” gets tossed around pretty freely these days, but I try to limit my usage of the term. Jeff Beck fits that description. He is a GENIUS! 😉

    So, do you think I like Jeff Beck yet!!! Sorry to ramble…No I’m NOT!!! :p Anyways, Jeff and his awesome band (Vinnie Colaiuta on Drums, 23-year-old and amazing Tal Wilkenfeld on Bass, and Jason Rebello on keys) played a super and diverse 100-minute set. Jeff (who has been historically known to share tempestuous relationships with fellow bandmates!) seemed to be in excellent spirits, as I had hoped, following his induction (As a solo artist – he was already in as a band-member of the Yardbirds) into the Rock & Roll Hall-of-Fame! Now I may be a bit biased here, after all, I’ve lived just outside of Boston, MA my whole life, but I’ve even read in the past from a lot of guitarists that claim that they “get psyched-up” for their Boston shows, because they know that with (internationally renowned Jazz school) Berklee College of Music right up the street, there’s quite a guitar-hungry, demanding, and intelligent audience awaiting these artists when they get to Boston. ( Now, I’m NOT saying that Boston is any better, or that our guitar-community is better. In fact, as a music scene, Boston pretty much SUCKS!!! But that’s a different story!) Many artists have recorded shows in Boston, and some artists will make Boston a stop even when they’re on a limited-gig tour. So I always hope for these artists to give us a great show!!! Well, I wasn’t disappointed! I still can’t believe Jeff Beck is 64-years-old! He had SO MUCH energy, and he looked GREAT!!! AWESOME! 😎

    If you ever get a chance to see Jeff Beck (especially this currenet lineup with Colaiuta & Wilkenfeld as his rhythm section!) Do yourself a favor and GO! You won’t be disappointed, and you WILL see something quite different! 🙂

    ~Bill Meehan~ 😀

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    hscalfo
    Member

    Bill,
    You should be a writer for Guitar magazines!!!
    Interesting query for us to ponder. I first got hooked on JB when I heard “Constipated Duck” many years ago. I have not listened to Jeff in quite a while though. I’ll have to dig some vinyl out and listen. Last time I saw him was in Philadelphia with SRV!!! Jenny Batton was touring in the JB band at the time.

    Sean Conklin
    Sean Conklin
    Member

    That was a great read. Thanks Bill! I enjoyed your description of Beck’s style by ripping up a list of influences haha.

    I went to Boston once for a guitar session at Berklee many years ago. Busy place! Really cool though too, and tons of non-stop music events.

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