Magnificent but modest Jeff Beck suits Hollywood Bowl’s illustrious surrounds effortlessly, oozing sharp-shooter cool and firing off meticulously crafted, lethally targeted licks.
Beck delivers a career-spanning set, with young, funky, free-rolling accompanists easily accommodating both Steve Tyler on a crowd-rousing Train Kept ARollin and declamatory cuts from the guitarist’s latest album Loudhailer. Wet Willie veteran Jimmy Hall sparks Beck’s pyrotechnics, old sparring partner Jan Hammer his dynamic relish and thrill-seeking interplay. Beck’s tenderest touch gilds Beth Hart’s cover of I’d Rather Go Blind, and Buddy Guy (snazzy in a black-on-white polka shirt, reflecting JB’s white on black) brokers a battle of the big guns.
“It will be another fifty years before we get a guitarist like this,” reckons ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, and it’s very hard to argue with him.
