by Philip Booth – Jazz Times – 8/8/2014 “My aim on the guitar is to try to get each chord to follow the preceding chord like it was meant to be there, and then sort of hint at what the next chord might be,” Joe Beck says, in one of several spoken introductions sprinkled throughout […]

by Ralph A. Miriello, published in Huffington Post – June 16, 2014 Coming of age in the ’60s, guitarist Joe Beck was a ubiquitous presence embedded in much of the music that I was listening to at the time. Beck started his career in the early ’60s at the age of 17 in Manhattan playing […]

by Scott Yanow, published in Jazz Inside Magazine – May 2014 One of the top guitarists of all time, Joe Beck was a master of subtle creativity. He had the knack for not only making every note count but every sound. It was not so much what he played as how he played it. He […]

by S. Victor Aaron, posted on somethingelsereviews.com – April 24, 2014 When we listen to the last known recordings of a music great who has passed away, is it natural to elevate the quality of the music in those recordings because nothing else from that musician will ever follow it? That’s something that’s long intrigued […]

by Jack Bowers, published on AllAboutJazz – April 22, 2014 The jazz world, it seems, has always been awash in talented guitarists, from Reinhardt and Christian through Montgomery, Pass, Farlow, Hall and their like to the present day. This is both a blessing and a curse, as only a handful of such splendid musicians are […]

by Dan Bilawsky, published on AllAboutJazz –  April 17, 2014 It would be something of an understatement to say that the late Joe Beck was a fine guitarist. In truth, he was one of the most multifaceted players to wield the instrument during his lifetime. Beck was hailed for his funky fusion work, both as […]

Posted: Jazz News – April 2014 Certainly, “all things must pass,” as George Harrison said. “None of life’s strings can last.” And so it was back in 2008 that the brilliant guitarist Joe Beck strummed his last chords. His death at the age of 63 left a gaping hole in the world of jazz guitar, […]