Jeff Beck – Performing This Week Live at Ronnie Scott’s

Presenter

shy swan

Published

Wednesday 10th June

Jeff Beck, master and wizard of the axe, pick, slide, indeed the entire electric guitar toolbox, needs no introduction.

Recorded live during a 5-night gig at one of the oldest jazz clubs in the world, ronnie scott’s of Soho, London, no matter how many JB albums you may have in your collection, this gem’s a shiner. No need for “Best of’s”, Beck is always at his freshest best, pushing a plethora of genres, while at the same time, selflessly sharing his glorious limelight. No need for vocals, although the DVD features guest performances by Joss Stone and Imogen Heap as it does Eric Clapton.

If you were lucky enough to be anointed by this living legend when The Jeff Beck Band popped a few cochlear at Perth’s Entertainment Centre back in January ‘09, this live performance platforms the same line-up. Veteran virtuoso drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, keyboard king Jason Rebello, the astonishingly young, and massively talented female bass guitarist Tal Wilkenfeld and JB take perennial tunes like the opener Beck’s Bolero (first issued as a B-side of Hi Ho Silver Lining in 1967) through a fresh, brain-blowing musical minefield.

All the favourites are here on one epic, 16 track CD. Charlie Mingus’s melodic Goodbye Pork Pie Hat that segues into Brush With The Blues, Lennon and McCartney’s A Day In The Life, Stevie Wonder’s Cause We Ended As Lovers, with Beck’s mesmerically haunting Where Were You leaving the listener shattered but surrealistically whole.

This is pure instrumental “vocal” guitar sex that respects you in the morning and is a memento from one very special, perhaps unique musician.