9. Jeff BeckJeff Beck With The Jan Hammer Group Live
It was so hard to choose a Jeff Beck record because there are so many great ones. I chose this because it was right during the period when he started doing these wonderful albums, like a trilogy of instrumental albums. Some of this was with Jan and I guess they decided to go out on tour and do some of this material. Hearing Jeff live is just something else, I mean I’ve seen him many times. Just when you think you have him down, you see him live and he’s moved on somewhere else. He totally reinvents himself as a guitar player all the time. People say that he’s the best guitarist on the planet, and for his innovative styles and the way he plays I would have to say yes, if you had to pick one, Jeff would be up there. Obviously I’m a huge fan of his playing, he’s very inspiring, I don’t know how he does what he does. This has got some great tracks on it. ‘Freeway Jam’ is one of my favourites. I’ve never played with Jeff, though of course I’ve met him, but I did get to jam with Jan Hammer and he was a good friend. I enjoy both their playing on this. I think Jan inspired Jeff and Jeff inspired Jan, and you know Jan wanted to be a guitar player – he makes the synth sound like a guitar, which makes it very interesting when they play together.
