Jeff Beck, back in my life.

I first heard Jeff Beck as a teenager on an old vinyl copy of Wired, his second hit jazz-rock fusion album from 1976. I loved fusion and was sad to see it go out of style in the eighties and even be the target of derision from critics (remember the "fuzak" epithet?). I think that Wired was one of the best products of seventies fusion. I think what made the difference was that Beck was a rock guitarist moving into jazz, rather than the other way around.


This was the highlight of the album for me at the time: "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", Charles Mingus' elegy to Lester Young, later beautifully set to lyrics by Joni Mitchell on the highlight of her Mingus album. Beck plays the langorous melody rather tartly, then the band comes in and he obliges with some low-register slyness. After launching a perfectly feedbacked high C at 1:45, he begins to explore the modernist blues changes of the song with a series of small melodic cells, brilliantly fit together. At 3:30 the guitar throws up. Jeff continues on unfazed and fires off even more ideas, with extreme dynamics, in the final statement of the melody, from 4:02 on.

For a primarily instrumental artist, Jeff Beck has had a long and successful career. From the Yardbirds through the Jeff Beck Group (various lineups), Beck Bogert & Appice and a long solo career both muso and commercial, Beck remains a vital artist.  His well-reviewed new album attests to this, along with the popularity of his YouTube clips playing with (the "very teenage-looking" as Guitar Player put it) Tal Wilkenfeld on bass.

An early pop success after leaving the Yardbirds was "Hi Ho Silver Lining", a sunny Britpop song featuring Beck on unpolished but charming vocals. I get the impression that this has become something of a singalong anthem in the UK, especially for football spectators.


Lately I've been listening to Jeff's new album Emotion and Commotion, and it really is an excellent guitar album if somewhat overly smooth. Beck plays the guitar with loving attention to detail, and he's playing with beautifully recorded, tastefully arranged orchestra on some of the cuts. I'm not sure why, but I often find Beck abrasive when he is working with singers, and his cuts here with Joss Stone are no exception to my ears (though the Imelda May number is nice). But his soaring version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is a highlight and a good endorsement for the album in general.