Jeff Beck: Performing This Week... Live at Ronnie Scott's

Overview

This concert program captures a live performance by legendary guitarist Jeff Beck, recorded live at Ronnie Scott's club in London, and features hits such as Eternity's Breath, Stratus, and Cause We've Ended As Lovers.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/31/2009
UPC:	0801213026395
Original Release:	2008
Source:	Eagle Rock Ent
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:35:00
Sales rank:	21,468

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jeff Beck	Performer
Jeff Beck	Primary Artist
Joss Stone	Primary Artist
Joss Stone	Performer
Big Town Playboys	Primary Artist
Imogen Heap	Performer
Eric Clapton	Performer
Eric Clapton	Primary Artist
Imogen Heap	Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Geoff Kempin	Executive Producer
Gene Vincent	Composer
Jan Hammer	Composer
Terry Shand	Executive Producer
Willie Dixon	Composer
Alan Branch	Sound Mixer
Shep Shepherd	Composer
Maxwell Middleton	Composer
Peter Akinrinlola	Composer
Curtis Mayfield	Composer
Clifford Scott	Composer
John McLaughlin	Composer
John Lennon	Composer
Jeff Beck	Composer
Lois Mann	Composer
Jerry Reed	Composer
McKinley Morganfield	Composer
Nitin Sawhney	Composer
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup	Composer
Muddy Waters	Composer
Stevie Wonder	Composer
Tony Hymas	Composer
Terry Bozzio	Composer
Simon Phillips	Composer
Bill Doggett	Composer
Imogen Heap	Composer
Jimmy Page	Composer
Tex Davis	Composer
Billy Cobham	Composer
Charles Mingus	Composer
Paul McCartney	Composer

Editorial Reviews

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. [A companion DVD was issued in 2009.] ~ Hal Horowitz