Jeff Beck

Although I never met the man, I did have an amazing experience in Montreux in 1997, when I saw an entire concert of him, and John Mclaughlin played the first part.

Jeff, nearly stone deaf, had a Jimmie Hendrix set up in his dressing room upstairs, which was clearly heard from downstairs at Stravinski, and the Festival insisted the audience take and wear ear plugs for the concert. I have never actually felt my pants blowing as they did from the vibrations of the bass player when they performed. OK, I understand Mega Sound is a way of blowing the world away. More later on that.

I followed the Yardbirds and was amazed by “Jeff's Boogie.” He expressed total freedom from convention. From blues pianists like Otis Spann and Memphis Slim, I understood that each true musician had to do his own version of what was originally Pinetop's Boogie Woogie. To copy anyone was Taboo, and Jeff had brought the boogie form to a level of humor, caprice and fun suitable for the Space Age.

Then I heard “Truth” by the Jeff Beck Group which introduced a new singer Rod Stewart, and had the amazing Nicky Hopkins on piano and even Ron Woods playing bass. “Blues Deluxe” blew me away.....

Shortly thereafter I become so engrossed in Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, and then into all those other forms of Blues (all the way to Count Basie) so that I left all those Brits behind in favor of the Source.

In 1984 Roomful played near Worcester, Massachusetts, and Ian Stewart came in one night while the Stones were recording nearby. He told me all about his band Rocket 88 with Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, how it was a band with the same musical orientation as Roomful (he said something like “We're a Roomful band. We're just like you.”) Tiny Bradshaw, Amos Milburn were their meat, and he even had Hal Singer playing with them.

In all my later collaboration with Hal he had nothing but the best things to say about Ian, his interest, respect and kindness towards him.

Now I read in Wikipedia “In 1963, after Ian Stewart of The Rolling Stones introduced him [Jeff] to R&B...,” I knew this was Amos Milburn, Louis Jordan et al. Ian had told me in 1984 that the reason he backed away from the Stones was due to a difference of opinion about which kind of blues they would play – whether the jump blues with horns Ian dug or the Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters way.

In the 1990s then it made sense that Jeff really helped out and dug the Big Town Playboys, (a London Amos Milburn jump blues band.) It was also obvious that Jeff loved 40s-50s culture, the cars, the music, the freedom, and was not into the Way of Education. He was as visceral as it gets, and completely in the Now.

Well, let's go back to Montreux in 1997: As a Berklee student myself, I understood John McLaughlin to be an esoteric musician in the extreme, as deeply educated as Chick Corea in Composition, Harmony and Technique. VERY deep indeed was the Mahavishnu Orchestra!

I sat through the whole evening, and the most surprising thing about it was that these two guitarists who were as disparate as possible, WERE ACTUALLY PLAYING EERILY SIMILAR IMPROVS! It was obvious to me that they were both drawing from the same Well of Creativity, with freedom, joy and ability. So....

One came to this Place through education, study and meditation, consciously, and the other came to the same Place totally through Hearing, Inspiration and Hands On.

As to the Mega Sound: I understand this to be an attempt to blow the world sense away. No bankers, no rivalry, no war, no looking good and hiding evil or carefully crafted lying, only The Music. This world is so off track that recently I was asked by my megabank to “update [my] information,” and they didn't even have “musician” on the drop down list. I had to pick “Amusement.” When a musician is overwhelmed by The Music, She makes him a Musician, so the musician does not make Music, Music makes Musicians (and She makes the Audience too, since there is no Music without it being heard.) It's the same with lovers and Love, who don't “make” love, Love makes them Lovers.

We can know and be our own freedom. I think Jeff knows even more of this now. What a Wonder-filled Universe! Here's to you, Jeff. Thank you for sharing your openness with us.