Search - Jeff Beck :: Live With the Jan Hammer Group

Strange, uneven relic: just focus on Jeff

L. Chin | 12/01/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"At the time of this release, live Jeff Beck on vinyl was hard to find. (In fact, it's only been very recently that live Jeff Beck has been readily available.) A Beck/Hammer live album was widely anticipated, in the wake of a string of outstanding concerts. What wound up on the album, however, was not uniformly great, and it's hard to fathom the decisions that were made. With the exception of "Freeway Jam" and "Blue Wind", two absolutely thunderous moments from Jeff, the album was full of unusually "noodly" Jan Hammer, some genuinely tacky, bad songs by Hammer's group (and very bad vocals). Not enough Jeff, too much Hammer group. This is worth having in any Jeff Beck collection, but unfortunately fails to capture the best of their live 1970s collaborations (does Epic still have some old tracks?) Beck and Hammer have consistently given us great moments-- in studio--- those are the tracks worth looking for."

Another Sony Protected Disk - MP3 denied

N. Harrington | San Leandro, CA USA | 11/02/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great CD that I was happy to find after hearing it growing up.



A word of warning however that this is another Sony protected CD that does everything it can to make sure you cannot make even your own personal MP3 copy. Thanks Sony for protecting me from listing to this even on my own personal MP3 player!



"

It Could Have Been Better.

P. Mc Hugh | New Jersey | 02/06/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I think that the wrong concert(s) were used for this release, or it could have been the mixing of the tracks.



I saw Jeff Beck with Jan Hammer around the time this recording was released. Actually, Beck was not listed on the marquis or the ticket. The Jan Hammer group was the warm-up act for the Jefferson Starship. It sounds like an unlikely pairing and it was. The crowd was waiting for the headline act to appear and was mildly interested in Jan Hammer.



In the middle of the set, out walks onstage Jeff Beck. He plugs in his guitar and immediately takes over the set. Jeff was not overplayed or outshined by Jan Hammer or his group. Jeff took command and the crowd sat there, stunned. I mean stunned. The tone Jeff was getting out of his guitar was loud but not piercing. It was a pure sound that just captivated me and the rest of the audience.



When the set was done, everyone (all 20,000+ of us) gave Jeff and the Jan Hammer Group a standing ovation. The Jefferson Starship were hard pressed to reach the bar that Jeff set. Warm up acts usually do not get requests for encores, but Jeff did that night. To this day, I talk about that concert and have met others who were there that night and we talk about Jeff, not Jefferson.



This recording is all we have from those dates. It is good that there is something for us to listen to, but if there is ever a release of the Nassau Coliseum concert, grab it!"