Performing This Week... Live at Ronnie Scott's

by Jeff Beck

Overview

Anyone who caught Jeff Beck's set at Eric Clapton's 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival (or even the two-song DVD excerpt) was probably salivating at the hope that an entire performance with the same band would appear on CD and DVD. This is it, 72 minutes and 16 tracks compiled from a week of shows at the U.K.'s famed Ronnie Scott's, and it's as impressive as any Beck fan would expect. The guitarist's last official U.S.-released live disc was from his 1976 Wired tour (an authorized "bootleg" of his 2006 tour with bassist Pino Palladino is available at gigs and online; others pop up as expensive imports), making the appearance of this music from just over three decades later a long-awaited, much-anticipated event. Only one track, the frenzied "Scatterbrain," is repeated here from the 1976 album, but with an entirely different, and arguably more sympathetic, band backing him along with a far longer playing time, this disc is the stronger of the two. Veteran drummer Vinnie Colaiuta nimbly keeps the beat, Jason Rebello's keyboards aren't nearly as intrusive as Jan Hammer's, and young bassist Tal Wilkenfeld's rubbery lines both underpin and, in the case of "Cause We've Ended as Lovers," take the lead when called on with vibrant proficiency and a sure sense of the bottom end needed for Beck's excursions into funk, fusion, reggae, jazz, and rock. The entirely instrumental concert focuses predominantly where you'd expect it to -- on Beck's innovative leads as he tears into his catalog of fusion fare, going back to Blow by Blow, with a surprise opening of "Beck's Bolero" from his Jeff Beck Group rock years. A short rendition of Charles Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" that segues into a tense "Brush with the Blues" is a disc highlight, as it shows Beck pulling out many of his six-string tricks and taps into his blues background. "Space Boogie" gives drummer Colaiuta a chance to shine with double-speed licks, and affords keyboardist Rebello a spotlight for his jazz piano skills. But it's Beck who slams into the track with aggressive fluidity, shooting out sizzling solos as the band pushes him along. His sensitive cover of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life," a longtime live staple, is a showstopper bringing Beck's intensity to an arrangement that has stops, starts, and unexpected turns and is, like the guitarist, never predictable. Through it all, Beck's guitar sings, cries, moans, and shouts with as much emotion as a vocalist, showing that an instrument can sing as effectively as a human being, but only in the right hands. ~ Hal Horowitz

Product Details

Release Date:	10/25/2024
Label:	Universal Import
UPC:	0602465947441

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jeff Beck   Primary Artist,Guitar
Imogen Heap   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Featured Artist
Eric Clapton   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Featured Artist
Joss Stone   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Featured Artist
Big Town Playboys   Guest Artist
Jason Rebello   Keyboards
Alan Branch   Recorder
Vinnie Colaiuta   Drums
Tal Wilkenfeld   Guitar (Bass)

Technical Credits

Charles Mingus   Composer
Paul McCartney   Composer
Tex Davis   Composer
Billy Butler   Composer
Jimmy Page   Composer
Imogen Heap   Composer
Curtis Mayfield   Composer
Clifford Scott   Composer
John McLaughlin   Composer
Howie Kay   Composer
Lois Mann   Composer
Jerry Reed   Composer
Max Middleton   Composer
McKinley Morgan   Composer
McKinley Morganfield   Composer
Nitin Sawhney   Composer
Alan Branch   Mixing,Engineer
Bobby Jones   Composer,Composer
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup   Composer
Muddy Waters   Composer
Stevie Wonder   Composer
Keith O'Neal   Composer
Tony Hymas   Composer
Terry Bozzio   Composer
Simon Phillips   Composer
Bill Doggett   Composer
Billy Cobham   Composer
Carl Perkins   Composer
Gene Vincent   Composer
Jan Hammer   Composer
Willie Dixon   Composer
Dick Beetham   Mastering
Myron Bradshaw   Composer
Berisford Shepherd   Composer
Rick Gould   Cover Photo
Charles Shaar Murray   Liner Notes
Nikkie Amouyal   Package Design
Linda Smith   Composer
Maxwell Middleton   Composer
Sydney Nathan   Composer
Peter Akinrinola   Composer
Howier Kay   Composer
Qiana O'Neal   Composer
John Lennon   Composer
Jeff Beck   Composer