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Joe Beck

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Instruments
  
Guitar

Name
  
Joe Beck


Role
  
Guitarist

Spouse
  
Marsi Beck (m. ?–2008)

Joe Beck Vogel Guitar Concepts Joe Beck with his Balance Nashville

Born
  
July 29, 1945Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. (
1945-07-29
)

Died
  
July 22, 2008, Woodbury, Connecticut, United States

Albums
  
Beck & Sanborn, Back to Beck, Tri07

Genres
  
Jazz, Jazz fusion, Post-bop, Mainstream jazz, Soul jazz

Similar People
  

Cactus - Joe Beck, with David Sanborn 1975


Joe Beck (July 29, 1945 – July 22, 2008) was an American jazz guitarist who was active for over 30 years.

Contents

Joe Beck Joe Beck 62 Jazz Guitarist The New York Sun

Joe beck on the alto guitar


Biography

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Born in Philadelphia, Beck moved to Manhattan in his teens, playing six nights a week in a trio setting, which gave him an opportunity to meet various people working in the thriving New York music scene. By the time he was 18, Stan Getz had used him to record some jingles, and in 1967 he recorded with Miles Davis. By 1968, at age 22, he was a member of the Gil Evans Orchestra. Beck described his early success in an interview near the end of his life:

Joe Beck wwwthelastmilescomgfxinterviewsjoebeckjoeb

Beck played in a variety of jazz styles, including jazz fusion, post bop, mainstream jazz and soul jazz, but also respected rock stylists and cross-over players (he was good friends with Larry Coryell) and briefly flirted with rock music styles himself in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Joe Beck Guitar Specialist Guitar repair and restoration services

In 1970 he released Rock Encounter on Polydor Records. In 1975 he released an eponymous album (upon which he simply referred to himself as "Beck") while recording the Esther Phillips album, What a Diff'rence a Day Makes, both on Kudu Records. Beck was subsequently reissued as Beck & Sanborn to cash in on the success of alto saxophonist David Sanborn. In 1978, he went for more of a rock sound by forming a band named "Leader". They performed in the Northeast and recorded demos at Sound Ideas Studios in New York City, but soon disbanded when the band's gear was stolen after a gig at Joyous Lake in Woodstock, New York. In the 1980s Beck recorded several CDs for the DMP Digital Music Products label, including co-billed work with the noted flautist Ali Ryerson. In 2000, he released a collaboration with Jimmy Bruno, Polarity, and Coincidence in 2008 with John Abercrombie.

Over the years Beck worked as a sideman or session guitarist with a wide variety of well-known jazz, rock, and fusion musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Howard Roberts, Tommy Tedesco, Larry Coryell, John Abercrombie, Tom Scott and Jeremy Steig, among many others. In mid-life Beck spent less time playing and worked more as a composer of commercial jingles and as an arranger, writing arrangements for such people as Frank Sinatra and Gloria Gaynor. He returned to stage performing and touring in the late 1980s.

For the next two decades Beck toured and recorded with duos and small groups, releasing two more solo albums (1988, 1991) before retiring in 2000. Following his retirement and up until his death, Beck continued to tour occasionally, and released a number of collaborative albums (e.g., Coincidence, with John Abercrombie, 2007).

Beck died in Woodbury, Connecticut, of complications from lung cancer. His album Get Me Joe Beck was posthumously released in 2014. Before his death in 2005 and 2006 he taught the guitar club as a volunteer at nonnewaug high school in Woodbury Connecticut.

Alto guitar

In 1992 Beck began touring as a duo with flutist Ali Ryerson. To fill out the sound he wanted to present—bass lines, harmony, and melody—in a duo setting, he developed what he called the "alto guitar". This began as a standard full-body electric jazz guitar with a unique stringing pattern and a reentrant tuning. As described by Beck:

While devising the tuning Beck realized that some restringing was going to be needed to obtain optimal resonance from the strings, so he commissioned a custom-built instrument from luthier Rick McCurdy, of Cort Guitars:

As leader

  • Nature Boy (Verve, 1969)
  • Rock Encounter (Polydor, 1972)
  • Joe Beck Meets Dom Um Romão (Tobacco Road, 1975)
  • Beck & Sanborn (Columbia, 1975)
  • Beck (Kudu, 1975)
  • Watch the Time (Polydor, 1977)
  • Happy Jam (Progressive, 1979)
  • Empathy (Gryphon, 1980)
  • Relaxin' (DMP, 1983)
  • Friends (DMP, 1984)
  • This Strange Effect (Charly, 1986)
  • Back to Beck (DMP, 1988)
  • The Journey (DMP, 1991)
  • Let the Ocean Worry (Relaxation, 1994)
  • Finger Painting (Wavetone, 1995)
  • Alto (DMP, 1997)
  • Strangers in the Night (Venus, 2001)
  • Django (DMP, 2001)
  • Just Friends (Whaling City Sound, 2002)
  • Music of Duke Ellington (Laserlight, 2003)
  • Girl Talk (Venus/Tokuma, 2003)
  • Live in Biel, Switzerland (Whaling City Sound, 2004)
  • Songs for Singing (2006)
  • Brazilian Dreamin' (Tokuma, 2007)
  • Tri07 (Whaling City Sound, 2007)
  • Coincidence (Whaling City Sound, 2008)
  • Golden Earrings (Whaling City Sound, 2009)
  • And Here's to You, (2009)
  • Get Me Joe Beck (Whaling City Sound, 2014)
  • As sideman

    With Gene Ammons

  • Got My Own (Prestige, 1972)
  • Big Bad Jug (Prestige, 1972)
  • With Gato Barbieri

  • Fenix (Flying Dutchman, 1971)
  • With John Berberian

  • Middle Eastern Rock (Verve Forecast, 1969)
  • With James Brown

  • Reality (Polydor, 1975)
  • With Jimmy Bruno

  • Polarity (Concord, 2000)
  • With Rusty Bryant

  • For the Good Times (Prestige, 1973)
  • With Hank Crawford

  • Wildflower (Kudu, 1973)
  • With Miles Davis

  • Circle in the Round (Columbia, 1970)
  • With Richard Davis

  • Song for Wounded Knee (Flying Dutchman, 1973)
  • With Duke Ellington and Teresa Brewer

  • It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing (Flying Dutchman, 1973)
  • With Gil Evans

  • Blues in Orbit (Enja, 1969–71)
  • Where Flamingos Fly (Artists House, 1973)
  • With Joe Farrell

  • Penny Arcade (CTI, 1973)
  • Upon This Rock (CTI, 1974)
  • Canned Funk (CTI, 1975)
  • With Maynard Ferguson

  • Ridin' High (Enterprise, 1967)
  • With Ronnie Foster

  • Cheshire Cat (Blue Note, 1975)
  • With Chico Hamilton

  • Peregrinations (Blue Note, 1975)
  • With J. J. Johnson and Kai Winding

  • Betwixt & Between (A&M/CTI, 1969)
  • With Al Kooper

  • Easy Does It (Columbia, 1970)
  • With Hubert Laws

  • The Chicago Theme (CTI, 1974)
  • With Brother Jack McDuff

  • Who Knows What Tomorrow's Gonna Bring? (Blue Note, 1970)
  • The Fourth Dimension (Cadet, 1974)
  • With Blue Mitchell

  • Many Shades of Blue (Mainstream, 1974)
  • With Idris Muhammad

  • Power of Soul (Kudu, 1974)
  • House of the Rising Sun (Kudu, 1975)
  • With Houston Person

  • Sweet Buns & Barbeque (Prestige, 1972)
  • With Esther Phillips

  • What a Diff'rence a Day Makes (Kudu, 1975)
  • For All We Know (Kudu, 1976)
  • With Dom Um Romao

  • Spirit of the Times (Muse, 1973)
  • With Don Sebesky

  • The Rape of El Morro (CTI, 1975)
  • With Paul Simon

  • Still Crazy After All These Years (Columbia, 1973)
  • One-Trick Pony (Warner Bros., 1980)
  • With Leon Spencer

  • Bad Walking Woman (Prestige, 1972)
  • Where I'm Coming From (Prestige, 1973)
  • With Bobby Timmons

  • Got to Get It! (Milestone, 1967)
  • Do You Know the Way? (Milestone, 1968)
  • With Kai Winding

  • Penny Lane & Time (Verve, 1967)
  • References

    Joe Beck Wikipedia