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: