Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck was one of the most influential rock guitarists of the 60s and 70s, helping to define modern guitar playing across a vast spectrum of genres, including blues rock, heavy metal, fusion and hard rock.

Born on June 24, 1944 in Wallington, Surrey, Great Britain, Geoffrey Arnold Beck began his career in the early 60s as a session musician. In 1965 he was recruited by the Yardbirds, who had just lost Eric Clapton, who had moved on to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It was with Beck that the Yardbirds became a major name on the British rock scene of the late 60s. In the lineup alongside Jimmy Page, he also appears in the landmark Swinging London film “Blow-Up” (1966), in which the Yardbirds made a cameo and Beck smashes a guitar in imitation of Pete Townshend of the Who (who had originally been chosen for Antonioni's film).

In 1966 Beck shared lead guitar duties in the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page. With the group, Beck managed to record only one album, “Roger The Engineer” (1966). After 18 months, he left, citing health reasons.

The following year Beck founded a new band called the Jeff Beck Group; it included Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on piano and Mick Waller on drums. The group released two albums: “Truth” (1968) and “Beck-Ola” (1969), works regarded as forerunners of heavy metal, which came just before the Led Zeppelin albums.

At the end of 1969, due to rising tensions within the group, Stewart and Wood decided to leave. Beck put together a second lineup of the band, with Clive Chapman on bass, Max Middleton on keyboards, Cozy Powell on drums and Bob Tench on vocals. This group took a decidedly different artistic direction from the previous one, blending pop, rock, rhythm and blues and jazz elements, anticipating fusion. They released two albums: “Rough And Ready” (1971) and “The Jeff Beck Group” (1972), but broke up shortly after.

In 1972, Beck formed the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice, with Carmine Appice on drums and Tim Bogert on bass, releasing a cover of Stevie Wonder's “Superstition”.

Beck's solo career officially began in 1975 with a typically fusion-flavored work titled “Blow By Blow”, which also featured two tracks penned by Wonder (the extraordinary “Cause We've Ended As Lovers” and “Thelonius”), followed by “Wired” (1976), another critically acclaimed and even more personal album, which also marked the arrival in the lineup of two key musicians, fittingly both former members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra: keyboardist Jan Hammer and drummer Narada Michael Walden.

Afterwards, Beck recorded sporadically, alternating between solo works and collaborations. Among his main solo releases are “There And Back” (1980, with Simon Phillips and Jan Hammer), “Flash” (1985, with Rod Stewart and Jan Hammer), “Guitar Shop” (1989, with Terry Bozzio), “Crazy Legs” (1993), “Who Else” (1999), “You Had It Coming” (2001) and “Jeff” (2003).

Among his collaborations are those with Jon Bon Jovi, Les Paul, Cyndi Lauper, Roger Waters (“Amused to Death”), Brian May (“Another World”), ZZ Top (“XXX”) and Johnny Depp (“18”), with whom he had also played a number of concerts around the world.