JEFF BECK RIP

Wikipedia: 

Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English guitarist who rose to prominence as a member of the rock band the Yardbirds and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to an instrumental style of music with focus on an innovative sound, and his releases spanned genres and styles ranging from blues rock, hard rock, jazz fusion and a blend of guitar-rock and electronica.

Beck was ranked in the top five of Rolling Stone and other magazines' lists rankings of the greatest guitarists.[4][5][6] He was often called a "guitarist's guitarist".[7] Rolling Stone described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock".[8] Although he recorded two successful albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck did not establish or maintain the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates.[7][3] He recorded with many artists.[9]

Beck earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. In 2014, he received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.[10] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: first as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and secondly as a solo artist (2009).

For us fusioneers of course it's his 3 post 1975s albums that really stand out, which I recommend everyone listen to again in the next few days.

I knew him since childhood as the Yardbirds guitarist pre-Jimmy Page and when I first heard Beckola I was really turned off due to the simple blues, assuming he followed the same path as Eric Clapton to whom he was so often compared. It was a shock to find out he got into the progressive fusion style, much like what happened with Cream bassist Jack Bruce after he left the simplicity of blues rock in the sixties.  And actually the albums Blow by Blow (1975) and Wired (1976) are just stunning hallmarks of instrumental guitar-based fusion full of excitement and energy, not to mention interesting, unique compositions and changes.  On this blog I mentioned his Guitar Shop which he did in conjunction with Tony Hymas, here. On the track called Where Were You, get a sense of how he mastered the instrument with those lovely masterful bends, harmonic scales, and the volume pedal (?):

RIP

From Wired, Love is Green -- like your music:

More Fraykers Revenge with Alessandro Alessandroni - Sangue Di Sbirro OST, Filmation Associates Inc, and Kung Fu Funk

 

With these library records it's always a tough slog: high workload with a low yield, with generic themes over standard rhythms and the compiler here seems to have a taste or preference for simple chord changes and basic melodies overlying admittedly very funkadelic beats.

From the well known Alessandroni whom I adore, the title track (at least that's what I think it is)bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Theme from Shaft:

From the Filmation album, Frustrations:

From Kung Fu Funk, The Connection with its lovely Shaft (again) wahwah guitar opening:

Fraykers Revenge, by request, with the 2 Schoolhouse Big Band

 

Here are two compilations I've always really loved deeply. In fact I used them to get the original LPs for many of these bands and others because of their high quality have appeared in this blog anyways such as Gustav Brom.  From Vol. 1 of course I've posted NTSU (multiple links), Humber College, Miami Univ., Towson State, and from Vol. 2 the legendary Peabody track, here.  Oddly enough, I didn't post the Prague Big Band but I have all their stuff and probably should post that one.

One track from the first series that always blew me away is from the Sounds of the Seventies Orchestra and their Time Rhyme, and I guess the reason I never bought that LP was because it looks to be reconstituted from a bunch of tired old hits like Your Song:

I mean, just dig that groovy disco plus strings sound.

Also, from the second volume, the Fritz Pauer Brooklyn Bridge track which is just phenomenal I haven't been able to locate in its original LP habitat.

Piano Choir's two albums Handscapes from 1973 and 1975

Honestly the days where we'd discover such pure progressive lost album treasures / pleasures are long gone, for the most part, and sadly so.  I did do a review of this way back when in 2015 but oddly enough never shared it, which doesn't do it justice.  It's a brilliant pair of albums, databased here, that showcases really stunning playing plus some pretty original composition as well, though at times, the numbers of hands/fingers creates a kind of jumbled up, garbled sound of mumbo-jumbo. Admittedly there are some improvised or free jazz tracks, but especially when they pull out the synths or electric keys there are some really great passages, recalling the beautiful George Gruntz Piano Conclave and 2001 Keys albums.

Here's the review from back in the day:

The group consists of the following musicians: Danny Mixon, Harold Mabern, Hugh Lawson, Nat Jones, Sonelius Smith, Stanley Cowell, Webster Lewis.  The full information can be found on discogs.  First of all going quickly over that tracklist you can be sure we are dealing with some very ambitious progressive music here, just from perusing the titles.  The wonderfully named Hugh Lawson composition Ballad For The Beast From Bali-Bali starts with grand piano and synth noodling, but without hesitation moves into the arena of George Gruntz's wonderful piano conclave: intense, odd, fusiony, and oh-so interesting.  The track that follows, Sonelius Smith's The Need to Smile threw me to the floor with the opening mellotron strings soprano touches, as an electric piano plays an almost dissonant obligato in a different key, the different keyboards (electric, synth, acoustic) charm us with their weaving together of a complex pattern, like one of those richly hued arab carpets full of colors and geometry:





And that title!  yes, listening to these consummate artists, there is indeed a need to smile...

Barbara Ann is a gospel, Keith Jarrett-influenced acoustic composition by Webster Lewis.  This track and the first of side b were posted on soundcloud by Gianni.  The Prayer for Peace by Stanley Cowell, the last track, will shock you like an electrocution if you love polytonality and advanced-level, postgraduate composition.  It's a stunner.  I recommend it for teaching purposes at university schools of music-- advanced composition classes only for the most highly talented please.






"...seven consummate keyboard artists...together as one, and as one, together."

Their first record, a double LP, was available online and for me is somewhat more disappointing.  It's more meandering, sometimes completely free and improvised and less cohesively progressive.  Less generously it could be described as all over the place.

Melvin Sparks - Sparkling (1982), by request

 

Instrumental jazz guitar from this artist who made a handful of albums back in the day.

A track from the album called '75, Get ya Some: