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My name is T-Bone and I'm a huge fan of Jeff Beck. His playing blows me away. There is no one like Jeff Beck. He has a cult following among guitar players, and deservedly: his technique equals or surpasses that of any other rock player. During a brief pre-Hendrix period, Beck stood head and shoulders above his competitors (including Eric Clapton), with blinding speed and inventive use of feedback and distortion. He continued to demonstrate his astounding mastery of the instrument on a long series of solo records, culminating in a highly successful jazz fusion period during the mid-70s. Since then, he's continuted to blaze forward. Unlike most of the other guitar heroes of his era, he's not afraid to try new things.

Biography (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Geoffrey Arnold ("Jeff") Beck (born June 24, 1944 in Wallington, Greater London, England) is a rock/blues guitarist who played in several influential bands in the 1960s and 1970s. He has maintained a sporadic solo career over the last 25 years. Despite never attaining the commercial visibility of his contemporaries, Beck has gained widespread critical acclaim, especially in the guitar playing community. Never one to be tied to one particular genre, he has experimented with blues rock, heavy metal, and jazz fusion. Most recently, he has absorbed the influence of techno, creating a groundbreaking blend of heavy guitar rock and electronica.

Early career with The Yardbirds

Like many rock musicians in the early 1960s, he began his career working as a session guitarist. In 1965, following a gig with the Tridents, Beck was recruited to join the Yardbirds (after Eric Clapton had left the group for John Mayall's Bluesbreakers). It was during his tenure with The Yardbirds that they recorded most of their hits. He became known for smashing his guitar on stage, and his guitar-smashing antics can be seen in the 1966 film, Blowup. In 1966, he shared the dual-lead guitar role with Jimmy Page. His time with The Yardbirds was short, allowing Beck only one full album, Roger the Engineer (1966); Beck left after 18 months, partly for health reasons.

While on the surface Beck seems to have departed the group because of his health, Jimmy Page, who had been invited into the band in 1966 by Beck himself, tells a different story:

It was on that Dick Clark tour — there were a few incidents. One time in the dressing room I walked in and Beck had his guitar up over his head, about to bring it down on Keith Relf's head, but instead smashed it on the floor," Jimmy Page recalled years later. "Relf looked at him with total astonishment and Beck said, ..Why did you make me do that?' Everyone said ..My goodness gracious, what a funny chap.' We went back to the hotel and Beck showed me his tonsils, said he wasn't feeling well and was going to see a doctor. He left for L.A. where we were headed anyway. When we got there, though, we realized that whatever doctor he was claiming to see must've had his office in the Whiskey. He was actually seeing his girlfriend, Mary Hughes, and had just used the doctor bit as an excuse to cut out on us.

Jeff Beck Group

The following year, Beck formed a new band, the Jeff Beck Group, which featured him on lead guitar, Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Mick Waller on drums. The group produced two albums, Truth in 1968 and Beck-Ola the following year. These two albums are highly acclaimed, and are considered by some to be the earliest precursors to heavy metal, predating the initial Led Zeppelin albums. Owing to friction within the band, Stewart and Wood left the group in 1969 to replace Steve Marriott in the Small Faces (this new lineup, joining Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones would shorten their name to just "the Faces").

Fusion

Beck went on to form a second incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, which featured Clive Chaman (bass), Max Middleton (keyboards), Cozy Powell (drums), and Bob Tench (vocals). This group took Beck in a new direction with increased levels of sophistication, entailing a varied melding of rock/pop with elements of R&B and jazz. They released two albums: Rough And Ready (1971, produced by Jeff Beck) and The Jeff Beck Group (1972, this produced by Steve Cropper). After this second Jeff Beck Group disbanded in 1972, Beck formed the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, with Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass. This group, too, failed to attract much critical attention and soon split up, although they did have a minor hit with a version of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" (Beck had earlier played lead guitar on Wonder's Talking Book album). In 1975, Beck did a solo, all-instrumental jazz fusion album entitled Blow by Blow which received unexpectedly positive critical reviews and substantial sales, reaching number 4 in the U.S. charts. It was followed up by a collaborative effort with former Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist Jan Hammer on the 1976 Wired album, which also received critical acclaim.

Later career

In 1981 he made a series of historic, joint live appearances with his Yardbirds predecessor Eric Clapton at the Amnesty International Secret Policeman's Other Ball benefit shows. He duetted with Clapton on Crossroads, Further On Up The Road and his own celebrated arrangement of Stevie Wonder's Cause We've Ended As Lovers. Beck also featured prominently in the all-star band finale performance of I Shall Be Released with Clapton, Sting. Phil Collins, Donovan and Bob Geldof. Beck's contributiuons were seen and heard in the resulting album and film produced by Martin Lewis that both enjoyed considerable worldwide success (especially in the USA) in 1982. Another benefit show called the ARMS Concert for Multiple Sclerosis featured a jam with Jeff, Eric and Jimmy Page performing "Living on Tulsa Time" and "Layla". This is the only time all of the 1963-1968 Yardbirds guitarists appeared on stage together.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Jeff Beck recorded sporadically: There and Back (1980, featuring Simon Phillips and Jan Hammer), Flash (1985, including performances with Rod Stewart and Jan Hammer), Guitar Shop (1989, with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas), Crazy Legs (1993), Who Else (1999), and You Had It Coming (2001). He also accompanied Paul Rodgers of Bad Company on the album Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters in 1993. Jeff Beck won his third Grammy Award, this one for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance' for the track "Dirty Mind" from You Had It Coming. The 2003 release of Jeff showed that the new electro-guitar style he used for the two earlier albums would continue to dominate. This style has been lauded by critics; Beck has skillfully fused an electronica influence with his blues/jazz past, with a sound mix which seems heavily influenced by the "brown" tone of subsequent guitarists like Van Halen and Joe Satriani. The song "Plan B" from this release earned him his fourth Grammy Award, again, for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance'.

In the past few years, Jeff Beck has performed on Les Paul and Cyndi Lauper's new albums, and played guitar on Roger Waters' album Amused to Death. Beck also is featured on one track on Queen guitarist Brian May's last solo album, Another World. He also appears on ZZ Top's album XXX. Beck also made a cameo appearance in the movie Twins starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.

Jeff Beck continues to perform shows on a regular basis, including opening for B.B. King in the summer of 2003, backed by Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas.

Beck's most recent tour dates from 2005 and 2006 feature a stellar lineup of world class musicians: Jason Rebello ..boards, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Pino Palladino on bass (recently replaced by Randy Hope-Taylor due to Palladino's prior commitment to The Who and John Mayer).

Influence

Beck was one of the first electric guitarists in the 1960s to experiment with electronic distortion (most notably in The Yardbirds' 1966 album, Roger the Engineer) and helped to redefine the sound and role of the electric guitar in rock music. Beck's work with The Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group's 1968 album Truth were seminal influences on heavy metal music, which emerged in full force in the early 1970s.

Technique and equipment

Unlike some guitarists, Jeff Beck does not rely heavily on electronic effects. He produces a wide variety of sounds by using only his thumbnail and the stock tremelo bar on his signature Fender Stratocaster. Along with Stratocasters Beck occasionally plays Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul models as well. His amplifiers are primarily Fenders and Marshalls. In his earlier days with the Yardbirds, Jeff also used a Fender Esquire guitar. Recently, Fender created a Custom shop version of his beat-up Esquire.