Song: Beck’s Bolero
Written By Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page
First Appeared on “Truth” in 1968

Stats

Artist: Joe Bonamassa
Birthday: 5/8/1977
Birthplace: New Hartford, New York
Location of Performance: Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea III 2017/ Norwegian’s The Jade main deck stage
Guitar: 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard “Magellan”
Amps: 1958 Fender Super (Tweed) and a 1959 Fender High-Powered Twin (Tweed)
Band: Anton Fig – Drums, Michael Rhodes – Bass, Reese Wynans – Keyboard, Micky Hickey – Guitar

Artist: Jeff Beck
Birthday: 6/24/1944
Birthplace: Surrey, England
Location of Performance: Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho, London
Guitar: Beck’s go-to signature model Olympic White Fender Strat with John Suhr pickups, rosewood fretboard, and roller nut. Built by Fender Custom Shop builder J.W. Black
Amps: Marshall JTM 45, Marshall Superlead, DSL 100H
Band: Vinnie Colaiuta – Drums, Tal Wilkenfeld – Bass, Jason Rebello – Keyboard

Melody

Joe:
Bonamassa has been a long-time admirer of Jeff Beck’s playing and has covered several of his songs both live and on studio albums. Right from the marching drum-style intro, you know we are about to hear the classic Beck tune “Beck’s Bolero.” In Joe’s version, drummer Anton Fig starts off very strong in his signature hard-hitting style setting the energetic mood that continues throughout. Joe shows his diverse playing abilities by playing with a slide bar for the entire intro and melody. This in combination with a right hand plucking technique gives a loose and free flowing sound versus using a pick and no slide.

Jeff:
Almost 40 years after the original recording of “Beck’s Bolero” the British Strat master Jeff Beck plays his namesake instrumental song at Ronnie Scott’s Club in London and it sounds just as incredible and possibly a little more. Unlike Bonamassa, Beck chooses to ditch the slide for the melody, opting for his trademark plucking technique and manipulating the notes with the whammy bar. One of the most tasteful drummers out there, Vinnie Colaiuta starts things off in a subtler way than Anton Fig, building up to the climax gradually with expertly timed cymbal crashes, tom hits, and snare rolls. Also, if you listen closely, the insanely talented Tal Wilkenfeld is filling the empty spaces of the melody with smooth and creative bass lines.

Bridge

Joe: The band wastes no time and goes right into the insanely groovy and fiery riff-centered bridge. At this point, all members are locked in tight and the energy is through the roof!

Jeff: As Colaiuta builds the intensity even higher, the band cranks the volume up ten-fold with everyone firing on all cylinders with the drums, bass, keys, and guitar getting busier and more involved.

Solo

Joe: The band propels Joe directly into the section he does best, the solo. Showing why he is the blues-rock titan, Joe starts his daring exploration with a near-popping string bend leading into his iconic masterful shredding. If you notice, for at least three times during the solo, he starts with a bend leading into a quick lick and back to another bend. Joe is taking an idea and reshaping it each time, all within an improvised solo. This and his ability to create cohesive phrases or chunks of ideas, shows that he has a deep and thorough understanding of the blues. Also, his fast shredding licks that take him all over the fretboard are deliberate, they make sense in context to the whole solo, and are clean as hell! Creating a solo that arcs like a great story, excites the audience, and also showcases music prowess is no easy feat, and Joe makes it look like a piece of cake.

Jeff: The solo sections for the two bluesmen contrast pretty heavily, with Joe staying with the high energy and Jeff playing around with various tempos and feels. For his solo, Beck backs off slightly, allowing Colaiuta to set up a luscious landscape of cascading cymbals for Beck to work with. It is not a long solo, but he demonstrates why he is known as a master Strat manipulator, creatively using the whammy bar and the high frets in ways not many can. Then, in an explosive second, we get a trademark Beck string bend that Joe seemed to be channeling in his solo, followed by a run in the stratosphere that that excites the band and gets them ready to end the tune in unison.