Jeff announces extra UK dates.

Jeff has announced today 2 extra UK dates:

October

Fri 15th        Bournemouth, BIC

Sat 16th       Brighton, Brighton Centre

Sun 17th      Birmingham, Birmingham Symphony Hall

EXTRA SHOW - tickets on sale Friday 21st May

Tues 19th     Preston, Guildhall

Wed 20th      Glasgow, Clyde Auditorium

Thurs 21st     Manchester, Apollo

Fri 22nd        Sheffield, City Hall

Sun 24th       Bristol, Colston Hall

Mon 25th      Cardiff, St David's Hall

Tues 26th     London, Royal Albert Hall

EXTRA SHOW- tickets on sale Friday 21st May

Wed 27th      London, Royal Albert Hall

Jeff Beck to honor Les Paul in 2 special shows.

JEFF BECK HONORS LES PAUL WITH TWO INTIMATE SHOWS

AT NEW YORK’S IRIDIUM JAZZ CLUB

Supported by Gibson Guitar

THE IMELDA MAY BAND JOINS BECK FOR JUNE 8 & 9 SHOWS

NEW ALBUM EMOTION & COMMOTION

DEBUTED AT # 11 ON BILLBOARD TOP 200 CHART

(Los Angeles, CA – May 5, 2010)  The esteemed Iridium Jazz Club of New York City and Gibson Guitar proudly announce “A Celebration of Les Paul” - two intimate evenings with the legendary guitarist Jeff Beck on June 8 & 9, 2010.

These special shows will honor the late guitar great Les Paul, whose 95^th birthday would have been June 9.  They will take place in the very venue he played weekly for years, including just days before his death. Beck is honored to pay tribute to his mentor and friend; their relationship having spanned decades. Beck recalls his admiration beginning in the ‘60s, “When I first heard Les Paul playing ‘How High the Moon,’ I thought, man, that’s what I want my sound to be like. Now, here I am years later and he’s still a powerful influence in all that I do.”

The two shows promise to be a treat for fans of both Beck and Paul, with a strong mixture of memorable Les Paul classics, as well as some rockabilly favorites.  Beck will be joined on stage by the Irish rockabilly sensation The Imelda May Band.

Beck has collaborated with Imelda May several times in the past, including the track "Lilac Wine" on Beck's new album Emotion & Commotion. The two also performed Paul’s “How High the Moon” live at the 2010 Grammy Awards, after which Beck declared of Paul, “I've often sung his praises to the press, but to actually get to play in tribute to him . . . it’s such a privilege.” 

Tickets to the two-night event will be available exclusively through various promotions with radio, retail, print and online media partners. Details will be announced soon.

Les Paul played at The Iridium for over 12 years. The club now presents special Monday evenings dedicated to Paul featuring guitarists from all genres of music, where 20% of the door is donated to The Les Paul Foundation.

Beck’s album Emotion & Commotion, his first in seven years, was released on April 13 and has registered the highest debut week in his amazing 45 year career, with over 26,000 sold and rising. His critically praised album has electrified the music establishment, debuting at #11 on the Top 200 Billboard Chart. Beck also received his fifth Grammy award this past February for the track “A Day in the Life” from his platinum certified DVD Jeff Beck Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scott’s The current U.S. tour begins again in Boston on June 3, including a stop at this year’s Bonnaroo Festival and an appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival to finish the U.S. tour on June 26.

Outside of the Iridium dates, Beck is accompanied on the Emotion & Commotion U.S. tour, by his new touring band, including the Grammy award winning producer and songwriter Narada Michael Walden on drums, Rhonda Smith on bass, and Jason Rebello on keyboards.   

Jeff Beck’s Emotion & Commotion Tour (Second Leg)

June

3               Boston                    Bank of America

4               Mashantucket         Foxwoods Casino

5               Atlantic City             Borgata

7                Vienna                    VA Wolftrap

8                New York              Iridium Jazz Club

9                New York              Iridium Jazz Club

11              Atlanta                    Chastain Park

12              Tennessee             Bonnaroo

14              Montclair                 Wellmont Theatre

15              Asbury Park          Paramount Theatre

17              Kingston                 UPAC Theatre

18              Rochester             Rochester Festival

20              Detroit                   The Fillmore

21              Indianapolis           Murat Centre,

                                                Egyptian Room

23              Cincinnati              PNC Pavilion

25              Milwaukee             Summerfest

26              Chicago               Crossroads Festival

Houston Show Review by Chris Gray .

Aftermath supposes that, when it comes to music, poetry is where you find it. But unlike the evergreen Beatles vs. Stones debate, or the even more pronounced vinyl/CD/MP3 back-and-forth, the line between those who prefer their music with lyrics and those who can take it straight without the benefit (or distraction) of accompanying words only seems as clear-cut as the other two.

Though we suspect it may not be quite what they set out to do, Jeff Beck and his three-piece band proved how difficult it can be for some folks, namely us, to divorce the notes we hear from the words that go along with them (even if those words exist only in our heads, as they did Saturday), and how easily it is for us to dismiss notes that have no corresponding words, no matter how expertly they are arranged and performed.

​

Aftermath's lyrics-first point of view, perhaps born of our lifelong love of language in all its forms of expression (including musically), seemed to put us in the minority at the sold-out Verizon Saturday. All around us, the seated audience was positively transfixed by Beck's formidable instrumental talent. Countless heads nodded in time, and twice that many pairs of eyes followed every swift swoop and slide of Beck's hands across his fingerboard. We swear we caught the guy next to us drooling at one point.

Sheer logic dictates that Saturday's entire audience couldn't have been composed entirely of guitarists, or even former or frustrated guitarists. Even for someone who could never quite tell the difference between a Stratocaster and a Telecaster - and whichever gleaming-cream Fender Beck was using up there, it was cherry and obviously looked after - there was never any question Beck deserves his place as one of the supreme guitar icons in rock and roll lore, right next to peers Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and former Yardbirds mate Jimmy Page.

And likewise, there was little doubt where Beck's instrumentals came from: Nearly every were rooted in the hard-driving tenacity and train-kept-a-rollin' boogie of the sizzling electric blues that so enchanted Beck and his mates in the '60s. Most of them came overlaid with a hard-rock/metallic sheen that suggested Eddie Van Halen must have worn some serious grooves in his Beck vinyl back in the early '70s, while the slower songs called to mind the Zen-like guitar meditations of Eric Johnson - technically masterful, completely centered and, for someone who knows what a pentatonic scale is but couldn't care less how many of them we hear at any given concert, kind of boring.

So it was no surprise to Aftermath that the songs that most resonated with us were the ones we recognized as having actual lyrics, occasionally even out loud: Muddy Waters' "Rollin & Tumblin'," as covered by the Yardbirds in the '60s and sung by bassist Rhonda Smith Saturday, slayed us most, as Smith showed gospel-caliber vocal chops to go along with the jazz- and funk-steeped instrumental skills that nearly upstaged her boss a couple of times.

Besides that, a thoughtful, care-taken version of Curtis Mayfield's gospel-soul anthem "People Get Ready" seemed to pass in slow motion, and an equally tender cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow. As Beck caressed every note of the timeless Wizard of Oz standard, Aftermath wondered if the guitarist was imagining the words in his head the same way we were, or if he was thinking in some foreign instrumental tongue. We got our answer a minute or two later, as Beck attempted to lead the audience in singing the final few words of the song, an attempt that never quite got off the ground. Oh well.

The rest of the evening, the guitarist seemed quite happy to communicate with his disciples in that inscrutable instrumental Esperanto, and we were quite happy to let them.

Review by Teresa Gubbins from the Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie .

GRAND PRAIRIE — Showing how to speak volumes while barely uttering a word, English rock guitarist Jeff Beck delivered a moving performance on Sunday night to an appreciative crowd of more than 4,000 at the newly renamed Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie (formerly Nokia).

Beck, who just released Emotion & Commotion, his first studio album in seven years, exhibited the broad range and accomplished technique that's earned him the informal title "the guitarist's guitarist." Audience members squealed with delight, jumping up at least three times in spontaneous standing ovations.

Backed by an incredible band that included drummer Narada Michael Walden (who played on Beck's 1976 album Wired), keyboardist Jason Rebello, and bassist Rhonda Smith, he ran through an 18-song set that went from traditional blues song "Rollin' & Tumblin'" to his cover of "Over the Rainbow" from Wizard of Oz, which appears on the new release.

Beck's artillery of sounds and effects weren't just technically skillful, they were also emotional, each note infused with personality and depth. He made it seem like the guitar was talking, laughing, or shedding tears. He swung from deeply swooping notes to tiny pecks on the neck of the guitar, like Tarzan leaping from vine to vine. Exhilarating.

Early in the set, the guitar sounded uncannily inquisitive, as if it were asking a question. Later, on "Mna Na Eireann," an Irish song from the 1960’s played by the Chieftains, he stretched out the notes, bending them to create a sorrowful sound, then emitted a stream of notes that sounded like a dog barking. On "Brush With the Blues," he raised the guitar, the neck bobbing, then strummed down authoritatively, as if he were taming a bucking horse.

What made his efforts seem doubly potent was the understatement of his approach. He ran through nimble-fingered riffs that seemed beyond the realm of human possibility; but instead of accompanying such a display with the bonehead-guitarist smirking and lolling of tongue a la Joe Satriani or Steve Vai, Beck did so with quiet, elegant grace. He made what he did seem effortless.

The show was wisely paced, interspersing atmospheric pieces with funky rock numbers that showcased solos from the rest of the band, whom Beck introduced. Bassist Smith, sporting 3-inch-high stiletto-heeled pointy-toe leather boots, sang on a couple of songs, such as The Impressions' "People Get Ready," tapping out solos with the heel of her hand on the body of her guitar. Keyboardist Jason Rebello added backing vocals, sometimes using a vocorder for extra effect.

Beck wore his trademark sleeveless shirt and two thick shiny cuff bracelets on his right arm -- one on the bicep, one on the forearm -- answering the question, how do you make a bare arm look rock 'n roll? Of course, he didn't come out and answer any question. He was too busy talking with his guitar.

Jeff was interviewed for the Kansas City.com by Joel Francis.

Guitar wizard Jeff Beck’s career spans six decades and encompasses rock, fusion, prog rock, rockabilly, techno and blues.

So when Beck says he prefers to experiment in different styles, it’s a bit like Mick Jagger saying he likes groupies.

There are times on Beck’s 17 studio albums where he dips into as many styles as he has on his latest release, “Emotion and Commotion.”

The record includes performances with a full orchestra, collaborations with Irish, soul and opera singers and a pair of tributes to the late Jeff Buckley.

“I try not to get stuck on something or I’ll end up doing four albums of the same thing. I dabble,” Beck said in a recent telephone interview while on tour in Australia.

The tour comes to Starlight Theatre on Wednesday.

While Beck covers the gamut, his latest album was largely the product of good-luck accidents. Taking a cue from his fellow guitarists in the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, Beck appears with an orchestra on several pieces, including Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” and an arrangement of “Corpus Christi Carol,” recorded in tribute to Buckley.

“The whole idea of me doing classical numbers started five or six years ago,” Beck said. “I was trying to get my guitar to sound like a voice in an orchestra.”

The initial result — an interpretation of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 — remains unreleased, but it encouraged Beck to keep trying.

“It was a hell of a lot of work for it to just be lying around, but (Mahler’s Fifth) allowed me to compromise,” Beck said. “I didn’t want to take an entire album’s worth to EMI Classics, because I couldn’t see a career jumping on orchestra stages every night with me as conductor. So we just have a taste.”

Beck unintentionally mirrored another aspect of Clapton’s career when he covered “Over the Rainbow.” Clapton performed the number on his 2001 tour, but Beck said he has no intention of hearing Clapton’s interpretation “because I don’t want to realize any similarity.

“I used to watch weepy movies, genuine quality films by Busby Berkeley, where all of a sudden a band kicks in and music would happen,” Beck said. “When I heard that song, it was one of the most beautiful performances.”

The lush orchestral numbers are countered by a pair of songs featuring Joss Stone on vocals, and several hard-rocking cuts with his old touring band, including young British bass savant Tal Wilkenfeld.

On “Lilac Wine,” a second tribute to Buckley, Beck is joined by Imelda May on the mic.

“This is how my life is,” Beck said. “I meet people or hear about them, and then I find out they’re available when I look into them. Imelda and Joss are two of the most beautiful women ever, and they fancy working with me, so who’s going to say no?”

“Emotion and Commotion” closes with a song from the Oscar-winning score to “Atonement.” Beck had been working with an orchestra on the piece, when producer Steve Lipson told him opera singer Olivia Safe was recording next door.

“We played her ‘Elegy for Dunkirk,’ and she completely flipped out. The next thing I know, she’s sitting in on it,” Beck said. “I was missing some element on my own. The performance is much deeper, thanks to her.”

The tributes to Buckley were also serendipitous. Beck wasn’t familiar with the late singer-songwriter until someone slipped him a CD on the way out of a party.

Beck said he was incredibly moved by Buckley’s singing and wanted to interpret that voice on the guitar.

“Without any design, these songs slid into place,” he said. “At first we were going to do ‘Hallelujah,’ but that song has become very popular, so we decided against it.”

Before embarking on his latest tour, Beck paired with Clapton for a handful of dates in Japan. The shows featured solo sets from each guitarist and culminated with a jam.

“Eric and I have always been linked through the Yardbirds, but we always seem to brush casually past each other,” Beck said. “I know people were hoping we’d compete to see who’s better, but I’ve always thought it looks stupid to try and out-shred someone. Eric would hit me with a certain style of music, and then it’s up to me to respond. It’s a meeting of two people, not a guitar contest.”

While Beck’s tour will include about half of the songs from “Emotion and Commotion,” it will feature none of the guest musicians, including Wilkenfeld.

However, the tour has reunited Beck with drummer Narada Michael Walden, who played on Beck’s 1976 album “Wired.” Walden has since produced “The Bodyguard” soundtrack, wrote the No. 1 hit “Freeway of Love” for Aretha Franklin and has penned or produced other chart-toppers for Mariah Carey, Diana Ross, Starship and Al Jarreau.

“I had to replace the rhythm section because they had other commitments,” Beck said. “Tal had her own project to do, which she delayed while she was playing with me. I hesitated to call Narada because I knew how busy he was, but he said I should have called 30 years ago. He was waiting for the call.”

Review from Hits Magazine on Jeff's show in LA on 17th April 2010.

Jeff's interview with the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Don't fret: Jeff Beck still has a lot of life

By Daniel Durchholz

SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH

04/25/2010

Rock stars' careers are sometimes cut short by misadventures of one kind or another, but the culprit is often depressingly predictable: drink, drugs, fast cars, fast living — that sort of thing.

While recording his new album, "Emotion & Commotion," Jeff Beck nearly added a new potentially calamitous category to the list: cooking.

The guitar great lopped off the tip of his left index finger while attempting to chop a large carrot lengthwise. As he examined the wound, his first thought was that his playing days may be over.

"It was a very un-rock 'n' roll incident," Beck said by phone from a tour stop in San Francisco. "You can blame all the cuisine chefs for getting so fancy with the way they cut their carrots. Cut the (expletive) things crossways!"

He did get his severely damaged digit sewn up, but he had to make do during the recording process, using just three fingers on his fretting hand.

"Apologies for the dodgy solos," he said with a laugh.

Making amends for substandard playing is something Beck has never had to do, nor is it necessary now. He's a two-time inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — as a member of the Yardbirds, the band in which he replaced Eric Clapton before giving way to future Led Zeppelin founder Jimmy Page; and as a solo artist, for his gut-wrenching guitar work on albums like "Truth" and "Beck-ola" and his proto-fusion innovations on "Blow by Blow" and "Wired."

He's often thought of as being something of a rock 'n' roll recluse — his last new album appeared seven years ago — but at 65, Beck isn't ready to settle into retirement, nor is he content to rest on his laurels. His playing is still turning plenty of heads. This year, he won a Grammy for his instrumental deconstruction of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life," a track that appeared on the 2008 DVD "Performing This Week … Live at Ronnie Scott's." And this week, "Emotion & Commotion" entered the Billboard charts at No. 11, the highest debut of his long and storied career.

A sizable portion of the new album shows off Beck's softer side, as he performs pieces like Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma" and the pop standard "Over the Rainbow."

"Some of the shows we did over the last three or four years, we accented some heavy, barbaric rock 'n' roll," he said. "And then we played 'Over the Rainbow,' and almost without exception, that song overshadowed all the other things. Because people are softies inside, really."

Beck took on "Nessun Dorma" because of a session he did with famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti, whose version of the piece is among the most famous.

"That made me listen to music with bigger ears," Beck said. "So I listened to other things he did, as well as other opera singers. There's a whole gold mine of tunes out there — the most divine melodies. So I just thought, 'Well, why not do the big one and see how that feels?'"

As a rule, Beck doesn't sing (though there are exceptions, like his 1967 hit, "Hi Ho Silver Lining"), and he's worked with a variety of vocalists over the years, most notably Rod Stewart, who broke up the Jeff Beck Group when he left to join the Faces in 1969. All these years later, the slight still stings Beck.

"The thing collapsed when Rod left," he said. "We were really onto something good. And after all the hard work, two, two and a half years of grinding up and down the UK and through Europe, we were starting to make it. Then he left — partly because I had a car accident, but he could have waited a couple of months. But that's the way it goes."

Beck made it to the top on his own, though, recording the instrumental albums "Blow by Blow" and "Wired" as a reaction to what he saw as a dying music scene in the 1970s.

"I watched it with great interest, the way it changed over from the '70s to the '80s," he said, "glam rock to the New Romantic thing. But there was nothing for me there. So I just delved into myself and thought, 'What do I want to do? What is the closest thing?' And it was the Mahavishnu Orchestra and John McLaughlin that took me through the troubled times. I thought, 'Well, if there's a place for them, maybe there's a place for me.'"

Interestingly, the vocalists that accompany Beck on several "Emotion & Commotion" tracks are all women: Neo-soul singer Joss Stone, rockabilly revivalist Imelda May and opera/electronica artist Olivia Safe.

"I think women are much prettier to look at and much easier to work with," he said. "They don't have the male ego. They have other issues, but I just think because of the trends, because of this incredible, revolutionary era of women singers, there are some great ones out there and they deserve to be heard."

Beck's recent return to activity has included a number of high-profile gigs, including hosting a segment of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert as well as a tribute to late guitar inventor and innovator Les Paul on this year's Grammy telecast. He also participated in this past week's "(American) Idol Gives Back" special.

Beck is taking it all in stride, though. "I'm mostly unaware of it all," he said with a laugh. "We've been whisked around from Australia to Korea to Tokyo, and now we're here. So I have to check in the morning where I am and see if I can read the writing in my hotel room."

Emotion and Commotion goes in at #11 in US Billboard Chart.

JEFF BECK ENTERS BILLBOARD TOP 200 CHART AT #11,

THE HIGHEST DEBUT OF HIS 45 YEAR CAREER

Emotion & Commotion Tallies Over 26,000 Units, Beck’s Best Sales Week Of The Soundscan Era

Performed With Joss Stone On “Idol Gives Back” Charity Show

Intimate Live Performance From Grammy Museum In Los Angeles To Be Webcast Live Tonight

(Los Angeles, CA)  One thing has proved itself crystal clear since the April 13 debut of Jeff Beck’s album Emotion & Commotion, his first in seven years: Beck is back!  The legendary guitarist and 2010 Grammy^® winner entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart this week at #11, the highest debut of his 45 year career and his highest chart position since 1975’s Blow By Blow.  Emotion & Commotion also claimed Beck’s best single sales week of the Soundscan era with over 26,000 units sold.

Continuing to lend his personal notoriety to such worthy causes, Beck will be appearing tonight on the hit television show American Idol for their annual “Idol Gives Back” special.  Beck will be joined on stage by songstress Joss Stone to perform their hit duet, “I Put a Spell on You,” the first single from Emotion & Commotion.

Never one to rest on his laurels, immediately following “Idol Gives Back,” on Thursday, April 22, Beck will be performing an intimate live show for 200 guests at the Grammy Museum for legendary Los Angeles radio station KLOS. For those not lucky enough to be there in person, the show will also be webcast live in its entirety at 7:30 PM PT at www.955klos.com

The first leg of the Emotion & Commotion U.S. tour kicked-off on April 16 in San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles, where a 22-piece orchestra added to the exciting live show. The tour will continue this week hitting such cities as Houston, Dallas, and Tulsa, before ending at the world famous New Orleans Jazz Festival on May 1. The newly added second U.S. leg will light up the Boston scene on June 3 before hitting Atlanta, New Jersey, Detroit, and Indianapolis, including a stop at this year’s Bonnaroo Festival and an appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival, to finish the U.S. tour on June 26.

Accompanying Beck on the Emotion & Commotion U.S. tour dates, will be his new touring band, including the Grammy award winning producer and songwriter Narada Michael Walden on drums, Rhonda Smith on bass, and Jason Rebello on keyboards.   

Jeff Beck’s Emotion & Commotion Tour (First Leg of U.S. Tour):

April

24         Houston      Verizon Wireless Theatre

25         Dallas          Nokia Theatre  at Grand Prairie

27         Tulsa           Brady Theatre

28          Kansas City  Starlight Theatre

29          St. Louis        Fox Theatre

May

1           New Orleans   Jazz Festival (Gentilly Stage)

Jeff Beck’s Emotion & Commotion Tour (Second Leg)

June

3          Boston              Bank of America

4           Mashantucket  Foxwoods Casino

5          Atlantic City       Borgata

7          Vienna               VA Wolftrap

11       Atlanta               Chastain Park

12       Tennessee         Bonnaroo

14       Montclair             Wellmont Theatre

15        Asbury Park        Paramount Theatre

17        Kingston             UPAC Theatre

18        Rochester            Rochester Festival

20        Detroit                 The Fillmore

21       Indianapolis        Murat Centre,Egyptian Room

University of Sussex.

Jeff is being honored by the University of Sussex's Senate and Council with an Honorary Doctor of Music.

iTunes - Get the deluxe version of Emotion & Commotion at iTunes.

'Emotion & Commotion' is now available! Check out some of the retailers here -