A Free Invite to Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop
From the first salvos of “Beck’s Bolero” until the last notes of “Over the Rainbow”, Jeff Beck delivered an effortless fusion of blues, rock and jazz last night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL. Before there was shred, there was Jeff Beck. I was privileged to witness his guitar pyrotechnics with free tickets provided by a friend at The Depot.
We had dinner berfore the show at the Hard Rock and took in some of the memorabilia in the restaurant. After bypassing the slots and card room we made our way to the arena which was cut in half for the concert. I’d say about 2,000 were in attendance and Jeff Beck took the stage shortly after 8:00. We were a little too far away for me to get a good look for some hand shots to get an idea of Beck’s guitar technique (they were free tickets after all).
Being a guitarist, it was almost like a wet dream. Jeff Beck is a master of the Marshall stack and he pulled out all the stops with his white Stratocaster, I assume his signature model from Fender. Playing exclusively with his right had thumb and primarily index finger, his tone was loud and crystalline. Beck is a master at playing at the brink of distortion (he once described it as wrestling an elephant). He managed to effortlessly palm the whammy bar and produce volume swells through the tone pots while producing a tone that declares “I am Jeff Beck”. He also laid down some raunchy slide licks along with at times slow and melodic lines and rocking in your face lead guitar at other times. Two hand tapping was also in abundance.
The night before the show I looked through my music collection and counted nine CDs, one boxed set, three vinyl LPs and two cassettes by Jeff Beck. This may seem like a lot, but I haven’t listened to his music much in the past ten years. I did dust off Wired and take it all in the evening before the show. Beck did play a very bluesy rendition of the Charlie Mingus classic “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and a rocking “Blue Wind” from that album. I’d always wondered what lead part Jan Hammer played and Jeff Beck played on “Blue Wind”. Well last night Beck played almost all the leads on “Blue Wind’, but most were doubled in unison by the synthesizer. The fascinating thing about Beck’s playing was that he improvised with his solos stretching out well beyond their recorded versions.
It was terrific getting reaquainted with Jeff’s older material. He did not announce any of the song titles, but I could clearly recognize about half the songs which I hadn’t heard in decades for some. These memories in some cases went all the way back to my high school days.
The set was complemented by a female lead singer on five songs (sorry but I can’t find her name on Jeff Beck’s website). It was pretty much young white lady belts out blues standards such as “Going Down” and “You Shook Me.” In an interview last week Beck said that in some west coast reviews had been critical of her for taking attention away from him. The show was all about Jeff Beck, however.
For the most part the show was highlighted by instrumental jams with super tight drums, bass and keyboards. Before the first encore, Beck humbly thanked the crowd for “my career”.
I feel privileged to have seen both Jeff Beck and Adrian Belew in the last month. Both are some of the finest guitar legends anyone will ever see. While Adrian’s virtuosity made me feel like putting my guitar down, Jeff Beck left me inspired and ready to pick up my guitar and play.
After the show my friend and I made it over to a sports bar next door and took in the second half of the Dolphins and Steelers NFL season premier. His Steelers won as my Dolphins collapsed in the fourth quarter. Still, it was a memorable night for the muse which is music.