Joe Beck

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 23 Jul 2009 6:14 am

Yesterday I linked some YouTubes of 7-string guitar pickers. One of the links (although he wasn't playing a 7-stringer) was of jazz great, Joe Beck. This past Wednesday, July 22nd marked the one year anniversary of his passing. The following is a list of people he'd played with/for over the years (courtesy of Wiki): Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Gil Evans, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Paul Desmond, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Ali Ryerson, Larry Coryell, Gene Ammons, Sergio Mendez, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jimmy Bruno, Laura Nyro, Houston Person, Roger Kellaway, Richie Havens, Paul Simon, Joe Farrell, James Brown, David Sanborn and Gato Barbieri.

Here is a YouTube of Joe Beck and Jimmy Bruno, just months before his death (It's sort of a reprise of their work on the guitar duet album Polarity):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccz2FXh8MNk

RIP: Joe

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 23 Jul 2009 7:51 am

I have an old Joe Beck record that introduces a new young sax player named David Sanborn....

.

I liked Beck. RIP

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 23 Jul 2009 9:12 am

I have an old Joe Beck record that introduces a new young sax player named David Sanborn.....

Bill, I'm guessing that's the 1975 album they did together for CTI (Beck & Sanborn). Did the album liner notes actually say that? If so, that's hilarious. Creed Taylor must have been smoking something.

Joe Beck was born on July 29, 1945, and David Sanborn on July 30, 1945.

I first became aware of Dave Sanborn in the late '60's, during his days as I member of Paul Butterfield's first horn-driven blues band. This was prior to him becoming a "smooth jazz" (I despise that term and sub-genre... it should be called "Muzak Jazz") player. At that same time, Joe was joining Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Tony Williams in Miles' ground-breaking, "Bitches Brew"-era jazz-fusion unit. Here's an interview with Joe that elaborates on his career:
http://www.thelastmiles.com/interviews-joe-beck.php

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Jon Light (deceased) · Post by **Jon Light (deceased)** » 23 Jul 2009 12:18 pm

I, too, knew Sanborn from Butterfield's 'Pigboy Crabshaw' lp.
Sanborn also emerged briefly as the host of a Network TV series of live in the studio off-the-beaten-path music. "Night Music". Some outstanding performers, very eclectic choices. From the Pixies to Mary Margaret O'Hara to World Saxophone Quartet. Don't know if he was curator or just host.

I heard an NPR interview with him half a year ago---did you know that he had childhood polio? Iron lung, I think. The idea of having the wind to play a horn was way, way unlikely. Pretty remarkable.

Anyway--sorry for the Sanborn diversion in your Beck tribute.