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Jeff Beck, Guitarist With a Chapter in Rock History, Dies at 78

His playing with the Yardbirds and as leader of his own bands brought a sense of adventure to their groundbreaking recordings.

By Jim Farber

Jeff Beck, one of the most skilled, admired and influential guitarists in rock history, died on Tuesday in a hospital near his home at Riverhall, a rural estate in southern England. He was 78.

The cause was bacterial meningitis, Melissa Dragich, his publicist, said.

During the 1960s and ’70s, as either a member of the Yardbirds or as leader of his own bands, Mr. Beck brought a sense of adventure to his playing that helped make the recordings by those groups groundbreaking.

In 1965, when he joined the Yardbirds to replace another guitar hero, Eric Clapton, the group was already one of the defining acts in Britain’s growing electric blues movement. But his stinging licks and darting leads on songs like “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down” added an expansive element to the music that helped signal the emerging psychedelic rock revolution.

Three years later, when Mr. Beck formed his own band, later known as the Jeff Beck Group — along with Rod Stewart, a little-known singer at the time, and the equally obscure Ron Wood on bass — the weight of the music created an early template for heavy metal. Specifically, the band’s 1968 debut, “Truth,” provided a blueprint that another former guitar colleague from the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page, drew on to found Led Zeppelin several months later.

In 1975, when Mr. Beck began his solo career with the “Blow by Blow” album, he reconfigured the essential formula of that era’s fusion movement, tipping the balance of its influences from jazz to rock and funk, in the process creating a sound that was both startlingly new and highly successful. “Blow by Blow” became a Billboard Top 5 and, selling a million or more copies, a platinum hit.

Along the way, Mr. Beck helped either pioneer or amplify important technical innovations on his instrument. He elaborated the use of distortion and feedback effects, earlier explored by Pete Townshend; intensified the effect of bending notes on the guitar; and widened the range of expression that could be coaxed from devices attached to the guitar like the whammy bar.

Drawing on such techniques, Mr. Beck could weaponize his strings to hit like a stun gun or caress them to express what felt like a kiss. His work had humor, too, with licks that could cackle and leads that could tease.

“Even in the Yardbirds, he had a tone that was melodic, but in your face — bright, urgent and edgy,” wrote Mike Campbell, of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, for an article in Rolling Stone magazine to accompany a poll that named Mr. Beck the fifth greatest guitar player of all time. “It’s like he’s saying: ‘I’m Jeff Beck. I’m right here. You can’t ignore me.’”

“Everybody respects Jeff,” Mr. Page said in a 2018 documentary titled “Still on the Run: The Jeff Beck Story.” “He’s an extraordinary musician. He’s having a conversation with you when he’s playing.”

Despite the accolades, Mr. Beck never achieved the sales or popularity of the guitarists considered to be his peers, including Mr. Page, Mr. Clapton and one of the players he admired most, Jimi Hendrix. Only two of his albums achieved platinum status in the United States, including “Wired,” his 1976 follow-up to “Blow by Blow.”

“Part of the reason is never having attempted to get into mainstream pop, rock or heavy metal or anything like that,” he told the arts website Elsewhere in 2009. “Shutting those doors means you’ve only got a limited space to squeeze through.”

It hurt, too, that the mercurial Mr. Beck often worked without a lead singer, and that his groups seldom lasted long. His first band, with Mr. Stewart and Mr. Wood, stood on the cusp of superstardom, with an invitation to play Woodstock. But Mr. Beck turned down the offer, and the group dissolved shortly thereafter.

Another band he led that held commercial promise, Beck, Bogert & Appice (featuring the rhythm section of Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice, formerly of Vanilla Fudge) earned a gold album in 1973, but Mr. Beck scotched the project after less than two years. Not that he minded his status in the industry.

“I’ve never made the big time, mercifully,” Mr. Beck told Rolling Stone in 2018. “When you look around and see who has made it huge, it’s a really rotten place to be.”

Grammys and Gold

Even so, he earned eight gold albums over more than six decades. He also amassed seven Grammys, six in the category of best rock instrumental performance and one for best pop collaboration with vocals. He was inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice, as part of the Yardbirds in 1992 and as a solo star in 2009.

“Jeff Beck was on another planet,” Mr. Stewart said in a statement on Wednesday. “He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group, and we haven’t looked back since. He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond. Jeff, you were the greatest, my man.”

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born on June 24, 1944, in South London to Arnold and Ethel Beck. His mother was a candy maker, his father an accountant. Mr. Beck told Guitar Player Magazine in 1968 that his mother had “forced” him to play piano two hours a day when he was a boy. “That was good,” he said, “because it made me realize that I was musically sound. My other training consisted of stretching rubber bands over tobacco cans and making horrible noises.”

He became attracted to electric guitar after hearing Les Paul’s work and was later drawn to the work of Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist for Gene Vincent’s band, and the American player Lonnie Mack. He became entranced not only by the sound of the guitar but also by its mechanics.

“At the age of 13, I built two or three of my own guitars,” Mr. Beck wrote in an essay for a book about his career published in 2016 titled “Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll.” “It was fun just to look at it and hold it. I knew where I was headed.”

He enrolled in Wimbledon College of Art but spent more time playing in bands. Dropping out of school, he began to do studio session work and in 1965 was invited to join the Yardbirds through Jimmy Page, whom Mr. Beck had befriended as a teenager and who had just turned that job down.

Though he was with the Yardbirds for only 20 months, Mr. Beck played on most of their successful songs, starting with “Heart Full of Soul,” which broke the Top 10 in Billboard and got to No. 2 in Britain. It was fired by his burning lead guitar line, which took influence from Indian music and which served as the song’s hook.

In 1966, the Yardbirds’ single “Shapes of Things,” which got to No. 11 in the United States (No. 3 in Britain), included a frantic double-time solo by Mr. Beck that became one of the band’s most celebrated showcases.

At the suggestion of his manager, Mr. Beck recorded an instrumental piece for a potential solo project in May 1966 titled “Beck’s Bolero.” It featured on rhythm guitar Mr. Page (who received writing credit on the song), the Who’s Keith Moon on drums, the future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and the in-demand session pianist Nicky Hopkins.

A signature instrumental with a complex, unfolding structure, the song wasn’t released at the time, dashing Mr. Beck’s hope that this lineup would comprise his next band. Instead, he soldiered on with the Yardbirds, who then added Mr. Page, first on bass and later in a dueling lead guitar role with Mr. Beck. That fleeting lineup was immortalized in “Blow Up,” the Mod-era film by the director Michelangelo Antonioni, in which they performed a manic version of their song “Train Kept A-Rollin,’” recast as “Stroll On.”

Tensions which had been brewing between Mr. Beck and the rest of the Yardbirds came to a boil on an exhausting U.S. tour that fall, compelling him to quit. He later considered this period the low point of his career.

“All of a sudden, you’re nobody,” he told Rolling Stone in 2016. “Because the band were able to carry on” with Mr. Page, “it was almost like I was airbrushed out of it.”

Even so, a single was released under his own name in March 1967, “Hi-Ho Silver Lining,” which featured a rare vocal by Mr. Beck, which he abhorred. “I sound unbearably bad,” he told Music Radar in 2021.

Still, the song got to No. 15 in Britain, and its B-side provided a home for “Beck’s Bolero.”

He found more satisfaction by forming the first Jeff Beck Group, with Mr. Stewart, Mr. Wood, and Mr. Hopkins along with the drummer Mickey Waller. Columbia Records signed them and issued their debut, “Truth,” in the summer of 1968. It boasted a new, heavier version of the Yardbirds’ “Shapes of Things,” along with “Beck’s Bolero.”

“Truth” got to No. 15 in Billboard and went gold, fired by its fresh mix of booming rock and emotive soul. Its follow-up, “Beck-Ola,” which subbed the drummer Tony Newman for Mr. Waller, was released a year later and mirrored the debut’s success. But the band imploded almost immediately after.

“I don’t know what happened,” Mr. Beck told Music Radar. “It was a lack of material,” he said, plus, he surmised, Mr. Stewart “wanted to see his name up there instead of mine.”

One Band, Then Another

In the fall of 1969, Mr. Beck tried to rally by planning a new group with Mr. Bogert and Mr. Appice, but that fell apart after Mr. Beck fractured his skull in a car accident. In the meantime, the two other musicians formed the blues-rock band Cactus.

Following a long convalescence, a new version of the Jeff Beck Group emerged in 1971, with the soul singer Bobby Tench, the drummer Cozy Powell and the keyboardist Max Middleton, who encouraged Mr. Beck to explore jazz.

Their debut, “Rough and Ready,” released in October, featured more original compositions from Mr. Beck than usual, but it barely made Billboard’s Top 50. Its chaser, “Jeff Beck Group,” which tipped toward the soulful side of their sound, did better, breaking Billboard’s Top 20 and going gold.

Again, however, the changeable Mr. Beck yearned for something new, so when Cactus broke up, he reconvened with Mr. Bogert and Mr. Appice — the rhythm section he had considered earlier — to form the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.

A notable track on their 1973 debut album, “Beck, Bogert & Appice,” was a version of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” But Mr. Beck was dissatisfied with both his band’s version of the song and the band itself, and so, during the recording of a second album, produced by Jimmy Miller, he broke up the group, although a live album, “Beck, Bogert & Appice Live in Japan,” came out afterward, in 1975 — a year that changed Mr. Beck’s career.

Daringly, Mr. Beck devoted most of the “Blow by Blow” solo album, recorded in 1974 and released in 1975, to instrumentals, inspired by the creativity of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the soaring work of the band’s fusion guitarist, John McLaughlin.

To help capture that group’s feel, Mr. Beck hired the producer George Martin, who had overseen Mahavishnu’s album “Apocalypse” the year before (and who had achieved his greatest renown with the Beatles). Mr. Beck told The New Statesman magazine in 2016 that Mr. Martin had provided “a massive pair of wings.”

“Just knowing that somebody with such sensitive ears was approving of what was going on, you were flying,” he said.

Mr. Beck’s follow-up album, “Wired,” featured two players from Mahavishnu: the drummer Narada Michael Walden and the keyboardist Jan Hammer, expanding the fusion element in the music. Mr. Beck later toured with Mr. Hammer’s band, resulting in the album “Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live,” which went gold in 1977.

Mr. Hammer was also instrumental in Mr. Beck’s 1980 album, “There & Back,” which got to No. 21 on Billboard’s chart. In 1985, Mr. Beck returned to working with vocalists for his “Flash” album, on which Mr. Stewart sang a version of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” (The video became an MTV hit.) Another instrumental recording, “Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop,” issued in 1989, became his final gold album.

Starting in the 1990s, Mr. Beck began to do prodigious session work, providing solos on albums by Jon Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Kate Bush, Tina Turner and others. He showed the continued breadth of his style with his “Emotion & Commotion” album in 2010, which included the standard “Over the Rainbow” and Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma.” The latter track won a Grammy, and the album reached No. 11 in Billboard.

Over the next few decades, Mr. Beck continued to tour and to record, most recently yielding a collaboration album with the actor and guitarist Johnny Depp, titled “18,” in 2022.

Mr. Beck married Sandra Cash in 2005, and she survives him.

To his fans, and to himself, Mr. Beck was so deeply identified with his guitar — particularly the Fender Stratocaster — that he seemed inseparable from it.

“My Strat is another arm,” he told Music Radar. “I’ve welded myself to that. Or it’s welded itself to me, one or the other.”

He added: “It’s a tool of great inspiration and torture at the same time. It’s forever sitting there, challenging you to find something else in it. But it is there if you really search.”

Alex Traub contributed reporting.

An earlier version of this obituary referred incorrectly to the guitarist Lonnie Mack. He was American, not British.

An earlier version of this obituary misstated the given name of a member of the band Beck, Bogert & Appice. He was Tim Bogert, not Tom.

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Jeff Beck, guitar god who influenced generations, dies at 78

FILE - Guitarist Jeff Beck performs in concert at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 18, 2010 in New York. Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. He was 78. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)

FILE - British guitarist Jeff Beck performs on the Stravinski hall during the 41st Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, late Sunday, July 15, 2007. Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. He was 78. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP, File)

FILE - Guitarist Jeff Beck performs in concert at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center on April 25, 2015, in York, Pa. Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. He was 78. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Guitarist Jeff Beck performs at the Louisiana Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans on April 29, 2011. Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. He was 78. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - Jeff Beck plays the air guitar for Jimmy Page, second from right, as unidentified members of the Yardbirds look on at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, on, Jan. 15, 1992, as the group was on hand for their induction during the Seventh Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Dinner. Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. He was 78. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - Jeff Beck performs during A Concert For Killing Cancer, at HMV Hammersmith Apollo, in west London, Jan. 13, 2011. Renowned rock guitarist Beck, known for his work with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, has died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, at the age of 78, his representatives said on Wednesday. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

FILE - Jeff Beck holds his Outstanding Contribution to British Music award, at the 59th annual Ivor Novello Awards, at Grosvenor House, in London, on May 22, 2014. Renowned rock guitarist Beck, known for his work with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, has died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, at the age of 78, his representatives said Wednesday. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

FILE - Jeff Beck wins the Living Legend award at the Classic Rock Roll Of Honour at the Roundhouse in London, on Nov. 9, 2011. Renowned rock guitarist Beck, known for his work with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, has died on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, at the age of 78, his representatives said Wednesday. (Ian West/PA via AP)

FILE - Jeff Beck of The Clash performs the British National Anthem, in London, Oct. 31, 2010. Renowned rock guitarist Beck, known for his work with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, has died on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, at the age of 78, his representatives said Wednesday. (Clive Gee/PA via AP)

FILE - Jeff Beck accepts the Grammy for best Pop Instrumental Performance for “Nessun Dorma” during the pre-telecast at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 13, 2011, in Los Angeles. Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, died Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. He was 78. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter among the many tributes.

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

Hear him play

The Yardbirds, performing “Heart Full of Soul”

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”

In his own words

Beck backstage at the 2011 Grammys

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

“Jeff could channel music from the ethereal,” Page tweeted Wednesday.

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” he told Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”

Beck at his 2009 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).”

Beck’s album credits include “Talking Book,” Stevie Wonder’s landmark 1972 album. His tenderly rendered guitar solo on the ballad, “Lookin’ For Another Pure Love” won him a warm “Do it Jeff” callout from Wonder that was included on the album cut.

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

Beck and Rod Stewart, performing “People Get Ready”

Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Page and John Paul Jones, and The Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.

“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.

“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World.

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016.

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.” Beck recently completed a tour supporting his album with Depp, “18” and was heard on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Patient Number 9” album.

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.

AP reporter Scott Stroud in Nashville contributed to this report.

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Jeff Beck, the guitar player’s guitar player, dies at 78

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Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ’n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.

The guitarist first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told the New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

“Jeff could channel music from the ethereal,” Page tweeted Wednesday.

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd and Buddy Guy. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” Beck told Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”

Beck’s career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ’n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).”

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first musical instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and the Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Page and John Paul Jones and The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.

“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.

“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World.

Entertainment & Arts

With defamation case behind him, Johnny Depp makes his next move with rocker Jeff Beck

In his first public appearance since his trial with Amber Heard, Johnny Depp performs with guitarist Jeff Beck, who says they’ve recorded an album.

June 3, 2022

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016.

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.”

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, Beck preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.

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David Sanborn, influential saxophonist whose work spanned genres, dies at 78

John Pisano, dean of L.A. jazz guitar, dies at 93

May 10, 2024

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Things to do | jeff beck dead at 78; the two-time rock hall of fame inductee, was a singular guitar master, the two time rock & roll hall of fame inductee completed his most recent tour in november. his six-string mastery made him a guitar hero for other guitar heroes.

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Jeff Beck au Montreux Jazz Festival 2022 (Photo by Lionel FLUSIN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

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Guitar great Jeff Beck (left) and actor Johnny Depp (wearing cap) perform at the Helsinki Blues Festival in Finland on June 19. 2022 The two recently released a joint album, "18."

His death was announced in a statement Wednesday afternoon by his longtime publicist.

It read: “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

Beck died at a hospital near his home in England, his publicist said, in response to a query from the Union-Tribune.

The guitarist rose to fame in the 1960s as a member of the band The Yardbirds, in which he replaced Eric Clapton, before striking out on a solo career with his own band a few years later.

The lead singer in the first edition of the Jeff Beck Group was the young Rod Stewart. The second guitarist in his band in the late 1990s was former San Diegan Jennifer Batten.

The Yardbirds marked the only time in his career that Beck had to audition. He quickly got the job, even though he neglected to bring a guitar with him, as Beck recounted with a chuckle in a 2010 San Diego Union-Tribune interview.

“I didn’t have one, because I’d sold it, so they gave me Eric’s old guitar,” Beck said, as he recalled walking into a London nightclub filled with other guitarists eager to land the job.

“I played two songs and the other guitarists all ran out of the room!”

Beck spoke glowingly of Clapton, with whom he toured in 2010, and fellow English guitar great John McLaughlin, with whom Beck toured in the 1970s.

“I wish I had a little piece of either of them,” Beck said in his Union-Tribune interview. “What I’m envious of with those two is that they seem to know exactly where they’re going, and I have no idea of where I’m going.”

Beck remained active as a solo artist until his most recent tour concluded last November. It included a Nov. 2 concert at Pechanga Resort Casino, north of San Diego, with actor Johnny Depp as a guest vocalist and rhythm guitarist.

His instrumental command and dazzling virtuosity were matched by his sublime taste, remarkable purity of tone and his ability to pull off seemingly impossible instrumental feats. His playing sometimes seemed finger-breaking and often sounded otherworldly.

More impressive, he did so not with high-tech special effects, but largely with his fingers.

“I try to avoid using technology in a cheap or tacky way,” Beck said in a 1999 Union-Tribune interview.

“I think there is a future with machinery linked to humans playing instruments with real emotion. If it sounded for one minute like it had been put in a mixer and chopped up, I wouldn’t be interested. I still have to have some angle on the time (signature) shifts, so that — even if you were an expert — you’d have difficulty understanding who did what where.

“That’s been my trick all along, this musical sleight-of-hand, where people can’t say: ‘I know what this is.’ It’s a little Phil Spector-ish, that ‘Wall of Sound’ approach, where nobody knew how he got it, but it had that magic about it. That’s what I try to get.”

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born June 24, 1944, in Wallington, England. Inspired by electric guitar pioneer Les Paul, Beck took up the instrument as a teenager. He began playing professionally in the early 1960s and never looked back

Beck soared whether playing blues, rock or fusion-jazz. He may well be the only guitarist to have declined an invitation to join the Rolling Stones after Mick Taylor abruptly left the band in 1974.

“I turned them down,” said Beck, who was so coveted by England’s most famous active rock group that he wasn’t even asked to audition for the position.

“(Famed producer) George Martin had made an offer to make an album with me, which I’d accepted, and I wasn’t going to go back on my word to him.”

The result of that collaboration with Martin, The Beatles’ longtime producer, was 1975’s “Blow by Blow.” It was Beck’s fifth solo outing and still the best-selling release of his career.

The all-instrumental album created a template — rock power, blues-drenched emotion, jazzy sophistication and funk-fueled propulsion — that helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest electric guitarists of the 20th century. He didn’t make albums with regularity, but when he did it was usually a notable event.

“I’m trying to find something in the old guitar that’s peculiar to me, and that doesn’t happen every weekend,” Beck said in his 1999 Union-Tribune interview. “It just happens every so often, or maybe on the spur of the moment, where I race home and grab the guitar and try to pick up ideas that sprung out earlier that day.

“The secret is not to let it go. So many times I’ve tossed off good things in the studio, and needed somebody around to pick up these bits I chuck off…

“I don’t sit down to try and dazzle anybody. The shortest distance is from the conception of an idea to its execution, with the least amount of aggravation. That would be a dream for me, to get a great solo on tape without knowing I did it…. So I’ll try to do my best to make sure the band is rehearsed, to the point we can count a song in and make the magic happen and keep surprises coming.”

Beck’s last surprise came last summer 2022 when he teamed up with actor and avocational musician Johnny Depp on the album “18.” While the instrumental numbers featuring Beck were up to his usual high standards, the selections with Depp singing were largely banal.

Beck and Depp toured the U.S. last fall. The guitarist’s final San Diego area appearance was his Nov. 2 concert at Pechanga Resort Casino.

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Jeff Beck, One of the Guitar Masters of the Rock Era, Dies at 78

By Chris Morris

Chris Morris

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Jeff Beck , among the most innovative and certainly the most unpredictable of ’60s guitar heroes, died on Tuesday. He was 78.

“On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday,” reads a statement from his rep. “His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss. pic.twitter.com/4dvt5aGzlv — Jeff Beck (@jeffbeckmusic) January 11, 2023

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After a precipitous exit from the Yardbirds — where he had been joined by another future guitar star, Jimmy Page — he established his own band, the Jeff Beck Group, which was fronted by vocalist Rod Stewart, soon to become a solo star. The unit proved as unstable as it was powerful, and lasted for just two albums.

During the ’70s, Beck assembled a second, more R&B-oriented edition of his group, and briefly formed a short-lived power trio with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge and Cactus.

He reached the probable apex of both his critical and commercial success with a pair of mid-’70s all-instrumental albums, “Blow by Blow” and “Wired,” that found him moving into jazz-fusion terrain. The latter LP was recorded with keyboardist Jan Hammer, formerly of the top fusion act the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

From the early ’80s onward, the temperamental Beck — a notorious perfectionist in the studio and a prickly band mate — would sporadically reappear, retrench, retire and reappear again. His latter-day work ranged from an homage to rockabilly singer Gene Vincent to instrumental sets reflecting the influence of techno, electronica and ambient music.

Beck was born in Wallington, Surrey. He began playing guitar in his teens, on a homemade model (which he constructed in emulation of one of his heroes, the American guitarist-inventor Les Paul). His idols included Gene Vincent’s lead guitarist Cliff Gallup and American bluesmen Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. In a striking coincidence, three of the greatest guitarists of the rock era, Clapton, Beck and Page — the latter two became friends in their early teens after being introduced by Beck’s sister — grew up within 15 miles of each other.

The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. — Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) January 11, 2023

“Always and ever”…….. ec pic.twitter.com/eEt3qEUuT2 — Eric Clapton (@EricClapton) January 11, 2023

Like many young British musicians, he was drawn to blues and R&B, and his first bands — the Night Shift, the Rumbles, the Tridents — all drew from the classic American repertoire. His break came in 1965, when Clapton, impatient with the Yardbirds’ increasingly pop-oriented, experimental bent, exited the group to join John Mayall’s purist unit the Bluesbreakers.

On the recommendation of Jimmy Page, who had declined to quit his lucrative session work for a regular guitar chair, the Yardbirds hired Beck, and almost immediately he began putting his stamp on their sound.

He delivered dramatic solos on several clamorous Yardbirds hits of 1965-66: “Heart Full of Soul” (No. 9 in the U.S.), “I’m a Man” (No. 17), “Shapes of Things” (No. 11) and “Over Under Sideways Down” (No. 13). The band’s ’66 U.K. album “Yardbirds” (familiarly known as “Roger the Engineer,” after the title of rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja’s cover drawing) was a veritable recital of forward-looking guitar technique.

After bassist and musical director Paul Samwell-Smith’s exit in early 1966, Page finally joined the Yardbirds on bass, but he soon switched instruments with Dreja. The Beck-Page iteration of the band lasted a matter of months and produced only two tracks featuring that fearsome twin-lead lineup: the single “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago” and “Stroll On,” a rewrite of “The Train Kept A-Rollin’” penned for Michelangelo Antonioni’s indictment of Swinging London, “Blow-Up.” The Yardbirds appeared on screen in Antonioni’s feature, with Beck destroying his guitar onstage a la the Who’s Pete Townshend.

Issues of professionalism and physical and emotional health precipitated Beck’s exit from the Yardbirds in 1966. (Under Page’s leadership, the group would morph, with new members, into Led Zeppelin two years later.) By early 1967, Beck had recorded the British hit “Hi Ho Silver Lining” — which he almost immediately disavowed — and formed a new group with former Steampacket vocalist Stewart, guitarist-turned-bassist Ron Wood and drummer Micky Waller. Session pianist Nicky Hopkins also took a prominent role in the studio.

After Beck declined an invitation to replace Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones, a fractured skull sustained in a December 1969 car accident put the guitarist’s proposed trio with Americans Bogert and Appice on the back burner. At the turn of the decade, the guitarist founded a new quintet edition of the Jeff Beck Group that leaned heavily on the jazzy keyboard work of Max Middleton. Though the band’s albums “Rough and Ready” (1971) and its self-titled 1972 follow-up performed respectably, they were largely considered inferior to the records produced by the Stewart-Wood lineup.

Freed from their obligations to Cactus, Bogert and Appice joined Beck for tour appearances in 1972. By late that year the unit had been pared down to the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. The act issued its lone album in 1973; peaking at No. 12 in the U.S., it featured a hammering rendition of “Superstition,” which had been custom-written for Beck by its author, Stevie Wonder.

A 1973 appearance at David Bowie’s famous “Ziggy Stardust” farewell concert was excluded from the 1983 film and album of the show, but included — nearly 50 years after the show took place — in Brett Morgen’s 2022 Bowie documentary, “Moonage Daydream.” According to legend, Beck would not sign off on the footage because he didn’t like the pants he wore onstage, although that story may be apocryphal; however, the performance, which saw him joining Bowie for versions of “Jean Genie” and a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around,” is not among his best.

Beck next undertook a stylistic about-face that would more or less define his approach for the rest of his career. Parting ways with Bogert and Appice before a sophomore album was completed, he cut an all-instrumental set, “Blow by Blow” (1975), with the Beatles’ longtime producer George Martin. The lean quartet session, a showcase for the leader’s considerable virtuosity, ascended to No. 4 in America and was ultimately certified for sales of a million.

Martin also produced the instrumental sequel “Wired” (1976), which featured appearances by keyboardist Hammer and fusion drummer Narada Michael Walden; it reached No. 16, and prefaced a popular Beck-Hammer tour. The guitarist went on to tour Japan in 1978 with a unit that included former Return to Forever bassist Stanley Clarke. Hammer returned for “There & Back” (1980), another instrumental set that hit No. 21.

During the early ’80s, Beck restricted himself to benefit concert appearances. He returned to the studio in 1985 for “Flash,” a largely instrumental affair produced in part by Nile Rodgers of Chic; the collection contained Beck’s only solo chart single, a No. 48 version of the Impressions’ “People Get Ready” that reunited him with Rod Stewart. The set also produced his first Grammy winner, the rock instrumental “Escape.”

His discography slowed further in the ’90s. After the 1992 soundtrack “Frankie’s House,” Beck issued only “Crazy Legs” (No. 171, 1993), comprising new renderings of Gene Vincent’s repertoire with lead vocals by Mike Sanchez and hot Beck lead work, and “Who Else!” (No. 99, 1999), a collaboration with Michael Jackson’s former guitarist Jennifer Batten.

Neither “You Had It Coming” (No. 110, 2001) nor the non-charting “Jeff” (2003) was a major commercial hit, but both titles contained tracks honored by the Recording Academy.

Beck’s well-received “Emotion & Commotion” (2010), his first album in seven years, became his highest-charting release in 35 years, peaking at No. 11 domestically. At the Grammys the following year, the original “Hammerhead” and a rendition of Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” received awards as best rock instrumental performance and best pop instrumental performance, respectively; the guitarist also took home a best pop collaboration trophy for his work on Hancock’s “Imagine,” with India.Arie.

Beck continued to tour and record sporadically but regularly, performing with an unusual range of artists, as the decade continued. In 2011, he received honorary degrees from two British universities, with the University of the Arts London recognizing his “outstanding contribution to the field of Music.” In 2013 he performed an album with Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson and joined him for an 18-date tour; the following year he embarked on a solo tour of Japan and accompanied R&B singer Joss Stone at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2016, he released what would be his final solo album, “Loud Hailer,” featuring singer Rosie Bones.

His musical collaboration with Depp began in 2020 with a cover of John Lennon’s “Isolation,” which was released in April, just after the Coronavirus pandemic took hold. “We weren’t expecting to release it so soon but given all the hard days and true ‘isolation’ that people are going through in these challenging times, we decided now might be the right time to let you all hear it,” Beck wrote in a statement at the time.

His collaboration with Depp continued, even as the actor was the focus of a high-profile defamation trial against his ex-wife Amber Heard. The two released the “18” album in July of 2022 and embarked on a North American tour shortly after the trial concluded in Depp’s favor. Variety ‘s review of an October show in New Jersey noted, “Beck seemed touched when a woman yelled, ‘I’ve loved you since the Yardbirds!'”

Beck was also featured on two tracks from Ozzy Osbourne’s “Patient Number 9” album, released in late June of 2022, the title track “Patient Number 9” and “A Thousand Shades.”

He is survived by his second wife, Sandra, whom he married in 2005.

Additional reporting by Jem Aswad.

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Jeff Beck, guitar legend who influenced generations, dies at 78

NEW YORK (AP) — Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

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Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper , Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp . He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” he told Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”

Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).”

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.

“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.

“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World.

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016.

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.”

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.

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Jeff Beck, Rock’s Quiet Guitar Virtuoso, Dead at 78

Jeff Beck , the blues-rock innovator and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who revolutionized how the guitar is played, died Tuesday at the age of 78.

Beck’s family confirmed the former Yardbirds guitarist’s death Wednesday. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” Beck’s family said in a statement. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family asks for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

Beck, an eight-time Grammy winner, was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — both as a member of the Yardbirds as well as for his work with his own Jeff Beck Group. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jimmy Page (@jimmypage)

“ Jeff Beck  has the combination of brilliant technique with personality,” the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell wrote when Beck placed Number Five on Rolling Ston e’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists . “It’s like he’s saying, ‘I’m Jeff Beck. I’m right here. And you can’t ignore me.’ Even in the  Yardbirds , he had a tone that was melodic but in-your-face — bright, urgent, and edgy, but sweet at the same time. You could tell he was a serious player, and he was going for it. He was not holding back.”

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But Beck would no longer be in the band by the time the film came out. He quit in November 1966 after an illness and suffering a breakdown. In 1967, he recorded the pop single “ Hi Ho Silver Lining ,” a track on which he sang lead vocals, that became a hit, while its B-side, “ Beck’s Bolero ,” foreshadowed Led Zeppelin as it featured Page and bassist John Paul Jones accompanying Beck alongside the Who’s Keith Moon and pianist Nicky Hopkins. That same year, he founded the heavy-blues focused Jeff Beck Group, which featured singer Rod Stewart and future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood on bass. The group issued two albums — 1968’s Truth and 1969’s Beck-Ola — and turned down an appearance at Woodstock before Beck disbanded the ensemble, leading Stewart and Wood to join Faces.

“Jeff Beck was on another planet. He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since,” Stewart tweeted Wednesday. “He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond. Jeff, you were the greatest, my man. Thank you for everything. RIP.”

1/2 Jeff Beck was on another planet . He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since . pic.twitter.com/uS7bbWsHgW — Sir Rod Stewart (@rodstewart) January 11, 2023

When Beck reemerged, he had moved on from blues rock to instrumental jazz-fusion. His 1975 album, Blow by Blow , was a surprise hit, reaching Number Four in the U.S. and going platinum. Beatles producer George Martin helmed the album, and Beck later credited him with salvaging his career. “I thought, ‘This sounds like we’re playing in the room — it’s clear and fabulous,'” Beck later said of the sound of Blow by Blow . “That first album was a joy.” He supported the record by touring with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1975 and releasing Wired , a collaboration with Mahavishnu keyboardist Jan Hammer, the following year. He took a few years off and came back with another Hammer collaboration, There and Back , in 1980.

Perhaps worried he’d become doomed to guitar-nerd oblivion, he teamed with Stewart again on 1985’s Flash album for a cover of “ People Get Ready, ” which became a hit. That album’s “ Escape ,” an instrumental, won him the Best Rock Instrumental Performance Grammy the following year. He’d earn another Grammy four years later with Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop With Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas .

“I was glad on the one hand that guitar was still king,” Beck once said of the Eighties. “[Guitarists] were flying a great flag for the guitar. …  I had every respect for Vai and Eddie Van Halen. Great. Let them have that. As long as it doesn’t encroach on my style — and it didn’t — I was happy.”

He spent the rest of the Eighties working as a guest musician, adding solos to albums by Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, and Jon Bon Jovi. But he had trouble replicating his success as a solo artist for decades. The Nineties found him bouncing from rockabilly on 1993’s Crazy Legs to techno, on 1999’s Who Else!

With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much. pic.twitter.com/u8DYQrLNB7 — Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) January 11, 2023

Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil added, “Jeff Beck always comes to mind. He’s an incredibly proficient guitarist, but he isn’t Mr. Pedant. The late Seventies to late Eighties were full of guitarists who were preoccupied with technique, like the guitar wasn’t a voice but a tool to be mastered. Jeff Beck wasn’t that way — he used it as a microphone. He was confident.” (In that same feature, Beck credited Django Reinhardt as his chief inspiration.)

In 2009, 17 years after Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds, he delivered one of the greatest induction speeches of all time when he reentered the Rock Hall for his solo work. “Someone told me I should be proud tonight. But I’m not, because they kicked me out. They did. Fuck them,” he quipped at the 1992 ceremony. “I couldn’t believe I was even nominated,” Beck  told  Rolling Stone  at the time. “I thought the Yardbirds was as close as I’d get to getting in. I’ve gone on long after that and gone through different musical changes. It’s very nice to hear that people have been listening.”

Although Beck made his initial mark in the British Invasion and pioneering blues-rock, the virtuosic guitarist continued to push his musicianship into other genres, from jazz fusion to trance (“ Rollin’ and Tumblin’ ” with Imogen Heap) to orchestral rock (2010’s  Emotion and Commotion ) to heavy metal; in 2022, he appeared on  the title track  of Ozzy Osbourne’s  Patient Number 9 . “Having someone like Jeff Beck play on my album is just incredible, a total honor. There’s no other guitar player that plays like him and his solo on ‘Patient Number 9’ is just jaw-dropping,” Osbourne said at the time.

Steven Van Zandt, who recently performed with Beck and Depp, paid tribute to Beck on Wednesday, and wrote, “Not only was he a major influence, and his genius an infinite source of joy my entire lifetime, he was in great spirits when we spoke a few weeks ago having done a flawless show with Johnny the night before at the Capitol. Unreal.”

As a solo artist, Beck also remained prolific and vital: He won seven of his eight career Grammy Awards from 1989 onward, including a dominating streak of wins and nominations in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance over the first decade of the 2000s.

Musicians continued to pay tribute to Beck on Wednesday evening. “Always and ever,” Clapton wrote on social media with a photo of Beck performing. Rush members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson also paid homage, with Lee posting that “he was my personal favourite guitarist, someone who truly blew my mind from then ‘til now. Lifeson shared later that evening that “Jeff Beck’s playing made me smile and made me cry and made me try to be a better player and most of all, made me and countless others seek the ultimate expression of who we are as players.”

“Jeff Beck was a lovely man with a wicked sense of humour who played some of the best guitar music ever to come out of Great Britain. He was a superb technician and could strip down his guitar and put it back together again in time for the show,” Paul McCartney wrote on social media.

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“I’ve never made the big time, mercifully probably,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2018. “When you look around and see who has made it huge, it’s a really rotten place to be when you think about it. Maybe I’m blessed with not having had that. And I have to look at it that way.”

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Jeff Beck, guitarist for the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, dies at age 78

Updated on: January 11, 2023 / 6:59 PM EST / CBS/AP

 Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock 'n' roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player's guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after "suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis," his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.

"Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck," Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.

On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss. pic.twitter.com/4dvt5aGzlv — Jeff Beck (@jeffbeckmusic) January 11, 2023

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

"Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet," Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. "He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two."

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late 1960s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992, and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968′s "Truth" and 1969′s "Beck-Ola" — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, "Emotion & Commotion."

"I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don't have too much of it. It's got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos," he told Guitar World in 2014. "If I could turn that into music, it's not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time."

Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released "Beck, Bogert and Appice" in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, "Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul)."

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles "Heart Full of Soul," "I'm a Man" and "Shapes of Things."

Beck's first hit single was 1967's instrumental "Beck's Bolero," which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.

"I could see the end of the tunnel," he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.

"He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening," Beck told Guitar World.

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. "the fifth Beatle" — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic "Blow by Blow" (1975) and "Wired" (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute "Stone Free," created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album "Crazy Legs." He put out "Loud Hailer" in 2016.

Beck's guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as "Stomp the Yard," "Shallow Hal," "Casino," "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Twins," "Observe and Report" and "Little Big League.

Beck's career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

"Because we were all trying to be big bananas," Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. "Except I didn't have the luxury of the hit songs Eric's got."

Tributes from fellow musicians poured in following news of Beck's sudden death.

With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much. pic.twitter.com/u8DYQrLNB7 — Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) January 11, 2023

Rod Stewart wrote that Beck "was on another planet. He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven't looked back since."

2/2 He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond . Jeff, you were the greatest, my man . Thank you for everything . RIP — Sir Rod Stewart (@rodstewart) January 11, 2023

Dave Davies of the Kinks said he was "heartbroken," "shocked" and "bewildered." 

"Deepest sympathy to his wife friends close ones," Davies tweeted. "I'm bewildered Jeff Beck it don't make sense I don't get it. He was a good friend and a great guitar player."

Jimmy Page's official Twitter account said , "The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace."

Steve Hackett, who rose to fame as the lead guitarist of Genesis in the 1970s, wrote , "He made the electric guitar sing… a powerful influence on myself and many others."

Paul Stanley of Kiss  said that Beck , "blazed a trail impossible to follow."

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.

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Jeff Beck, British guitar legend who rose to fame as an influential rocker in the 1960s, dies at 78

Jeff Beck, the British rockstar known for his skillful mastery of guitar, died of bacterial meningitis, his family announced Wednesday.

Beck, 78, spent last summer touring throughout Europe and released a joint album with actor Johnny Depp in July. He contracted meningitis “suddenly,” according to the statement on his official website and social media accounts .

“His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss,” the statement said.

The eight-time Grammy winner earned two spots in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, in 1992 with the Yardbirds in 1992 and as a solo artist in 2009.

The legendary guitarist, who ranked fifth on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” is credited with influencing a generation of musicians and is known for blending all types of music — hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera.

He spent time in bands such as Nightshift and the Tridents and the Yardbirds, which he joined in 1965 to replace Eric Clapton. While with the group, the Yardbirds had hits with “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

A year after joining, Beck was replaced in the group by Jimmy Page.

Before he was known as a guitar god, Beck was a boy in England, building his first instrument from a cigar box, a picture frame and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

Gene Simmons, bassist for KISS, was among many who penned tributes to Beck on social media following his death.

“Heartbreaking news to report the late, great Jeff Back has sadly passed,” Simmons tweeted. “No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP.” 

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.

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Pop culture.

Classic rock guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck dies at 78

Call him a "guitar god" or a "guitarist's guitarist," but Jeff Beck was in a class by himself. One of the most acclaimed guitarists in rock and roll history died Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis, according to a statement released by a publicist on behalf of his family. He was 78 years old.

Beck was born in Wallington, England in 1944. He became enamored with the guitar as a child and first came to prominence playing in The Yardbirds, where he replaced Eric Clapton and played alongside Jimmy Page, who also joined the group. Beck left the band shortly after, and formed The Jeff Beck Group (along with a then little-known singer named Rod Stewart). But across an extensive discography, his versatility spoke louder than his name. Beck could play rock, jazz, blues, soul or anything else that caught his ear, and still sound like himself.

"He was admired for his one-of-a-kind sound, which he created by manipulating his amplifiers, the way he picked his strings using only the fleshy part of his right thumb and a singular use of the tremolo or 'whammy' bar that stuck out from his famous Fender Stratocaster," explains Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras. "Beck was truly one of the last guitar heroes who came of age expanding the technical capabilities of the electric guitar."

For his own part, Beck believed the guitar — at least the way he played it — could be as expressive an instrument as the human voice. "I just tried to become a singer," the artist told NPR in a 2010 interview . "I think the Stratocaster, the particular guitar Stratocaster, lends itself to endless possibilities because of the spring-loaded bridge that it's got. I can depress the whammy bar, they call it, but it's actually a vibrato bar. And I can do infinite variations on that by raising or lowering the pitch. I can play a chord and lower that pitch — six strings simultaneously."

In debates over guitar virtuosity, Beck is often listed in the same breath as players like Clapton, Page and Keith Richards. But the artist was always a bit of a recluse — wary of the attention that came with being a famous musician. He explained to The New York Times in 2010 how he felt about the music industry as a whole:

"It's a diabolical business," he said. "I can't imagine how hellish it must be to be hounded like Amy Winehouse and people like that. I have a little peripheral place on the outskirts of celebrity, when I go to premieres and that sort of stuff, which is as close as I want to get. I cherish my privacy, and woe betide anyone who tries to interfere with that."

"I think he was more of a musician than a rock celebrity," remarks music critic Tom Moon . "He was very much interested in the art of the instrument and the art of music. He explored a lot of different things. He had periods where he played basically all instrumental music, jazz, rock — and what made him so riveting was, you wanted to follow him. He would start a solo with essentially a single note, often with lots of space in between everything, and it was that patience that made it riveting."

Despite his best efforts to stay out of the spotlight, Beck was still recognized and acclaimed. He accumulated 17 Grammy nominations, including one for best rock performance in this year's ceremony, and won eight. And thanks to his respective breakthroughs with The Yardbirds and on his own, he is among the rarefied group of musicians to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Jeff Beck, one of rock’s greatest guitarists, has died at 78

Beck died tuesday after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, his family said in a statement..

Jeff Beck performs at The Chicago Theatre on Oct. 23, 2022.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

NEW YORK — Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.

Kiss’ Paul Stanley called Beck one of the all-time guitar masters: “Play on now and forever,” he tweeted, while Stanley’s bandmate Gene Simmons added: “No one played guitar like Jeff Back.”

The Yardbirds are photographed in 1965: Chris Dreja (rhythm guitar, from left), Keith Relf (vocals, harmonica), Jim McCarty (drums), Jeff Beck (lead guitar) and Paul Samwell-Smith (bass guitar). Beck died Wednesday at the age of 78.

Getty Images

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix.

Jeff Beck performs during A Concert For Killing Cancer, at HMV Hammersmith Apollo, in west London, on Jan. 13, 2011.

He most recently played Chicago in October, sharing the concert stage with his tour mate, actor/guitarist Johnny Depp, at the Chicago Theatre.

The eight-time Grammy Award winner was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: in 1992 as a member of the Yardbirds, and in 2009 as a solo artist.

In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked him as No. 5 in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, noting, “Even in the Yardbirds, he had a tone that was melodic but in-your-face — bright, urgent and edgy, but sweet at the same time. You could tell he was a serious player, and he was going for it. He was not holding back.”

• Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp prove an entertaining combination in concert

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” he told Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”

Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp perform at The Chicago Theatre on Oct. 23, 2022.

Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).”

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”

Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.

“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.

On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss. pic.twitter.com/4dvt5aGzlv — Jeff Beck (@jeffbeckmusic) January 11, 2023

Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.

“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World.

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016.

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.” Beck recently completed a tour supporting his album with Depp, “18.”

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.

Contributing: Sun-Times reporter Miriam Di Nunzio

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Classic rock guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck dies at 78

Andrew Limbong

Guitarist Jeff Beck performs during the 43rd Montreux Jazz Festival. The influential guitarist died on January 10, 2023 after contracting bacterial meningitis. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Guitarist Jeff Beck performs during the 43rd Montreux Jazz Festival. The influential guitarist died on January 10, 2023 after contracting bacterial meningitis.

Call him a "guitar god" or a "guitarist's guitarist," but Jeff Beck was in a class by himself. One of the most acclaimed guitarists in rock and roll history died Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis, according to a statement released by a publicist on behalf of his family. He was 78 years old.

Listen: Jeff Beck in conversation

Beck was born in Wallington, England in 1944. He became enamored with the guitar as a child and first came to prominence playing in The Yardbirds, where he replaced Eric Clapton and played alongside Jimmy Page, who also joined the group. Beck left the band shortly after, and formed The Jeff Beck Group (along with a then little-known singer named Rod Stewart). But across an extensive discography, his versatility spoke louder than his name. Beck could play rock, jazz, blues, soul or anything else that caught his ear, and still sound like himself.

"He was admired for his one-of-a-kind sound, which he created by manipulating his amplifiers, the way he picked his strings using only the fleshy part of his right thumb and a singular use of the tremolo or 'whammy' bar that stuck out from his famous Fender Stratocaster," explains Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras. "Beck was truly one of the last guitar heroes who came of age expanding the technical capabilities of the electric guitar."

For his own part, Beck believed the guitar — at least the way he played it — could be as expressive an instrument as the human voice. "I just tried to become a singer," the artist told NPR in a 2010 interview . "I think the Stratocaster, the particular guitar Stratocaster, lends itself to endless possibilities because of the spring-loaded bridge that it's got. I can depress the whammy bar, they call it, but it's actually a vibrato bar. And I can do infinite variations on that by raising or lowering the pitch. I can play a chord and lower that pitch — six strings simultaneously."

In debates over guitar virtuosity, Beck is often listed in the same breath as players like Clapton, Page and Keith Richards. But the artist was always a bit of a recluse — wary of the attention that came with being a famous musician. He explained to The New York Times in 2010 how he felt about the music industry as a whole:

"It's a diabolical business," he said. "I can't imagine how hellish it must be to be hounded like Amy Winehouse and people like that. I have a little peripheral place on the outskirts of celebrity, when I go to premieres and that sort of stuff, which is as close as I want to get. I cherish my privacy, and woe betide anyone who tries to interfere with that."

"I think he was more of a musician than a rock celebrity," remarks music critic Tom Moon . "He was very much interested in the art of the instrument and the art of music. He explored a lot of different things. He had periods where he played basically all instrumental music, jazz, rock — and what made him so riveting was, you wanted to follow him. He would start a solo with essentially a single note, often with lots of space in between everything, and it was that patience that made it riveting."

Despite his best efforts to stay out of the spotlight, Beck was still recognized and acclaimed. He accumulated 17 Grammy nominations, including one for best rock performance in this year's ceremony, and won eight. And thanks to his respective breakthroughs with The Yardbirds and on his own, he is among the rarefied group of musicians to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice.

Ozzy Osbourne and Jimmy Page lead tributes to Jeff Beck, who has died aged 78

The musician died suddenly yesterday (January 10), his representative confirmed

Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck has died suddenly at the age of 78, a statement from his representatives has confirmed – see tributes from Ozzy Osbourne , Jimmy Page and more below.

“On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” the statement read. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”

Beck rose to fame with The Yardbirds , whom he joined in 1965, replacing Eric Clapton . Although he remained in the band for only 20 months, the band recorded most of their Top 40 hits with the guitarist, including ‘Over Under Sideways Down’ and ‘Shapes Of Things’.

After making one album with the outfit – 1966’s ‘Roger The Engineer’ – Beck was sacked after consistently going AWOL on tour in the US. After being fired, he formed the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart , Ronnie Wood and more.

The Jeff Beck Group released four albums – ‘Truth’ in 1968, ‘Beck-Ola’ in 1969, ‘Rough And Ready’ in 1971, and 1972’s ‘Jeff Beck Group’ – before disbanding in the early ‘70s. However, Stewart and Wood were only present for the first two records and quit the band in 1970 to form the Faces. Beck took a break from the band after being injured in a car accident, but revived it with a new line-up for the last two albums. In 2019, Beck and Stewart reunited on stage at the Hollywood Bowl for what was billed as “their most in-depth concert in over 35 years”.

In 1975, he went solo, recording his first album ‘Blow By Blow’ with The Beatles’ producer George Martin. The record went on to chart in the Top 10 in the US.

Prior to joining The Yardbirds, he also made appearances in bands such as Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages and Nightshift. Later years saw him collaborate with everyone from Nile Rodgers to Mick Jagger, appearing on the latter’s 1987 solo album ‘Primitive Cool’. Since then, he worked with Roger Waters, Jon Bon Jovi, Imogen Heap, and Ozzy Osbourne. In the 2013, he embarked on a joint tour with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson with whom he had planned to make an album with, but never materialised.

Beck is often referred to as one of the greatest guitarists of all time and insured his fingers and thumbs for £7million. He helped shape guitar music in the ‘60s and beyond, making his mark on jazz-rock and fusion, rock’n’roll, and more.

Beck was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame twice in his career – once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. Speaking at the latter ceremony, he said: “I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible. That’s the point now, isn’t it? I don’t care about the rules.

“In fact, if I don’t break the rules at least 10 times in every song, then I’m not doing my job properly.”

His 2009 induction was done by Led Zeppelin ’s Jimmy Page , who had originally recommended him to join the Yardbirds. “You’d listen to Jeff along the way and you’d say, ‘Wow, he’s getting really good, Jeff’,” Page reflected at the time. “Then you’d listen to him a few years later and he’d just keep getting better and better and better, and he still has all the way through.

“He leaves us mere mortals just wondering and having so much respect for him. Jeff’s whole guitar style is totally unorthodox to the way that anyone was taught and he’s just really developed a whole style of expanding the electric guitar and making it into something with sounds and techniques that are totally unheard of before. That’s just an amazing feat, believe me.”

Page concluded: “He’s done so much for rock and roll, and he always will.”

Over his career, he collected eight Grammys, winning his first in 1985 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for ‘Escape’ and his last three in 2010 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for ‘Imagine’, Best Pop Instrumental Performance for ‘Nessun Dorma’, and Best Rock Instrumental Performance for ‘Hammerhead’.

Most recently, Beck had embarked on a US tour with Johnny Depp following the pair releasing a collaborative album, ’18’ , in July 2022.

Tributes have begun flooding in to Beck following the news of his death. Jimmy Page shared a heartfelt message on Twitter, writing: “The six-stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal.

“His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace.”

His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace. https://t.co/4h1DfXXmWI — Jimmy Page (@JimmyPage) January 11, 2023

“I can’t express how saddened I am to hear of @JeffBeckMusic’s passing,” Ozzy Osbourne wrote. What a terrible loss for his family, friends & his many fans. It was such an honor to have known Jeff & an incredible honor to have had him play on my most recent album #PatientNumber9.”

I can’t express how saddened I am to hear of @JeffBeckMusic ’s passing. What a terrible loss for his family, friends & his many fans. It was such an honor to have known Jeff & an incredible honor to have had him play on my most recent album, #PatientNumber9 . Long live #JeffBeck pic.twitter.com/hG6O9tzfij — Ozzy Osbourne (@OzzyOsbourne) January 11, 2023

In a statement provided to NME , Alice Cooper added: “When I was 16 years old, The Spiders, who became the original Alice Cooper band, opened for the Yardbirds. That night I experienced the greatest guitar player I had ever heard.

“Half a century later Jeff Beck is still the greatest guitarist, PERIOD – The greatest of all time. He was a friend, and there will NEVER be another Jeff Beck. Ever. ”

KISS ’ Gene Simmons called Beck’s death “heartbreaking”, adding: “No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP.”

Heartbreaking news to report the late, great Jeff Back has sadly passed. No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP. pic.twitter.com/3qnPOCyhUj — Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) January 11, 2023

Mick Jagger also paid tribute, writing: “With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mick Jagger (@mickjagger)

See more tributes below.

Musically, we were breaking all the rules, it was fantastic, groundbreaking rock ’n’ roll! Listen to the incredible track ‘Plynth’ in his honour. Jeff, I will always love you. God bless 🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/adJA4FTvVL — Ronnie Wood (@ronniewood) January 11, 2023

Devastated to hear of the sudden and tragic death of legendary guitarist Jeff Beck. He was loved by everyone in the know; the guitarists guitarist! My condolences to his family & friends RIP. 😢 pic.twitter.com/OcCv1jSNvx — Paul Young (@PaulYoungParlez) January 11, 2023

View this post on Instagram A post shared by James Moir (@jamesmoir12)

An absolute god of guitar. No one can replace him. From rock to soul to jazz he was the greatest player in all genres. Unique. Such awful news but thank you Jeff for all you gave us. #jeffBeck @jeffbeckmusic pic.twitter.com/kfeTDaPSdR — Gary Kemp (@garyjkemp) January 11, 2023

I’m heartbroken he looked in fine shape to me. Playing great he was in great shape. I’m shocked and bewilderedDeepest sympathy to his wife friends close ones I’m bewildered Jeff Beck it don’t make sense I don’t get it. He was a good friend and a great guitar player — Dave Davies (@davedavieskinks) January 11, 2023

He was a great and innovative guitar player . Jeff Beck — Dave Davies (@davedavieskinks) January 11, 2023

Devastating news about the loss of much loved, influential guitar legend Jeff Beck. He made the electric guitar sing… a powerful influence on myself and many others. — Steve Hackett (@HackettOfficial) January 11, 2023

Rest in Peace, Jeff Beck 🖤 pic.twitter.com/CkecJA8gT2 — The Beatles (@BeatlesEarth) January 11, 2023

RIP Jeff Beck. A pioneer and one of the all time greats. #jeffbeck pic.twitter.com/h7bTL3ZaxA — Johnny Marr (@Johnny_Marr) January 11, 2023

WOW. What awful news. Jeff Beck, one of the all time guitar masters has died. From The Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group on, he blazed a trail impossible to follow. Play on now and forever. @jeffbeckmusic pic.twitter.com/8LVeq47wxx — Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) January 11, 2023

I was totally shocked to hear the very sad news of Jeff Beck’s passing. Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player – there will never be another Jeff Beck. His playing was very special & distinctively brilliant! He will be missed. RIP Jeff -Tony pic.twitter.com/i6BGdqTUKU — Tony Iommi (@tonyiommi) January 11, 2023

Rest in Peace, Jeff Beck. pic.twitter.com/8T2GdOEi31 — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) January 11, 2023

I am devastated to hear the news of the death of my friend and hero Jeff Beck, whose music has thrilled and inspired me and countless others for so many years. Polly‘s and my thoughts go out to his lovely wife Sandra. He will be forever in our hearts. pic.twitter.com/369rHU7BCX — David Gilmour (@davidgilmour) January 11, 2023

so sad to hear of the passing of a legend… my sweet, unique, insanely gifted friend @jeffbeckmusic what an honor it was to share the stage with you, to create with you… there’s no one like you. #ripjeffbeck #RipLegend #jeffbeck — leann rimes cibrian (@leannrimes) January 11, 2023

RIP Jeff Beck. I’m so sad 😞 # — Mick Mars (@mrmickmars) January 11, 2023

Rest in peace to the GREATEST off them all: Jeff Beck!!!! — Bill Burr (@billburr) January 11, 2023

Shocked to hear of the sudden death of Jeff Beck. Truly one of the greats. First time I saw him was in 1966 with the Yardbirds. Brilliant, unique guitarist. RIP pic.twitter.com/qaeJHGJymM — Geezer Butler (@geezerbutler) January 11, 2023

RIP Jeff Beck ❤️ https://t.co/2slgmEKuwD — Sleaford Mods (@sleafordmods) January 11, 2023

RIP one of the greats, Jeff Beck 🕊️🌹🎸 The Bruce family would like to extend our sincere love and condolences to @jeffbeckmusic ’s family, friends and fans around the world. What an incredible legacy. Here are a couple of photos of Jack and Jeff together, not so long ago ❤️ pic.twitter.com/vq2xnSDOSR — Jack Bruce (@jackbrucemusic) January 11, 2023

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Revisiting Jeff Beck’s Final Concert

On Nov. 12, 2022 Jeff Beck took the stage in Reno, Nev. for what would turn out to be the final concert of his illustrious career.

The performance was the guitar great’s last tour date alongside actor-turned-rocker Johnny Depp . The two men became friends in 2016, later becoming collaborators. “When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity,” Beck explained , calling the Hollywood star a "kindred spirit."

In 2020, the duo released their first song together, a cover of John Lennon ’s “Isolation.” Depp later admitted that Beck helped keep him “alive and sane and happy” through his chaotic defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife, Amber Heard.

Watch Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp Perform 'Time' During Their Nov. 12 Show

The 2022 tour was in support of 18 , Beck and Depp’s collaborative album made up largely of covers. Many of those tunes made it into the set list during that final performance, including the Beach Boys ’ “Caroline, No” and the Velvet Underground ’s “Venus in Furs.”

Plenty of Beck originals were also featured in the set. The night’s opening song was “Freeway Jam,” the guitarist’s famous instrumental from 1975. “Loose Cannon,” “Big Block,” “Star Cycle” and “You Never Know” were the other Beck tunes performed that night.

The lone Depp original in the set list was “This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr,” a tune the actor slyly coaxed Beck to record for their album.

Watch Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp Perform 'This Is a Song for Miss Heddy Lamarr'

“I sent a very cheeky text to Jeff and said, 'Hey, don’t think that I’m asking you to play on this because I’m really not,'” Depp recalled to Hollywood Authentic . “'Don’t feel any pressure at all. I’m just sending you this song that I wrote. Of course, if you wanted to play on it, that’s fine. But I’m not saying you should , and I’m not asking you to, because I wouldn’t do that to our friendship.'”

Beck’s response? “Send me the stems, you fucker.”

By all accounts, the Reno performance was a triumphant end to the duo’s tour. More than 2,500 people turned out to watch the gig, including Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale , who raved about the show.

The final tune of the night was a rendition of Killing Joke’s “Death and Resurrection Show.” Tragically, song's title that would carry much more weight just two months later, as Beck died at the age of 78.

Watch Jeff Beck Take His Final Bow

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Legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck dies aged 78

Beck rose to fame with the Yardbirds before fronting the Jeff Beck Group and making forays into the jazz-fusion sound he pioneered

Jeff Beck, the celebrated guitarist who played with the Yardbirds and led the Jeff Beck Group, has died aged 78, his representative has confirmed.

Beck died on Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis”, the representative confirmed. “His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss,” they added.

Often described as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Beck – whose fingers and thumbs were famously insured for £7m – was known as a keen innovator. He pioneered jazz-rock, experimented with fuzz and distortion effects and paved the way for heavier subgenres such as psych rock and heavy metal over the course of his career. He was an eight-time Grammy winner, recipient of the Ivor Novello for outstanding contribution to British music and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a solo artist and as a member of the Yardbirds.

Musicians and longtime friends began paying tribute minutes after the news broke. On Twitter, Jimmy Page wrote , “The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans.”

“With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world,” Mick Jagger wrote . “We will all miss him so much.”

With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much. pic.twitter.com/u8DYQrLNB7 — Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) January 11, 2023

Rod Stewart, who toured with the Jeff Beck Group in the late 60s, called him “one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond ... you were the greatest, my man. Thank you for everything.”

1/2 Jeff Beck was on another planet . He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since . pic.twitter.com/uS7bbWsHgW — Sir Rod Stewart (@rodstewart) January 11, 2023

Gene Simmons called it “heartbreaking news … no one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP.”

“Now Jeff has gone, I feel like one of my band of brothers has left this world, and I’m going to dearly miss him,” Ronnie Wood tweeted .

Ozzy Osbourne tweeted , “I can’t express how saddened I am to hear of Jeff Beck’s passing. What a terrible loss for his family, friends & his many fans. It was such an honour to have known Jeff and an incredible honor to have had him play on my most recent album.”

I can’t express how saddened I am to hear of @JeffBeckMusic ’s passing. What a terrible loss for his family, friends & his many fans. It was such an honor to have known Jeff & an incredible honor to have had him play on my most recent album, #PatientNumber9 . Long live #JeffBeck pic.twitter.com/hG6O9tzfij — Ozzy Osbourne (@OzzyOsbourne) January 11, 2023

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour wrote , “I am devastated to hear the news of the death of my friend and hero Jeff Beck, whose music has thrilled and inspired me and countless others for so many years … He will be forever in our hearts.”

Johnny Marr called him “a pioneer and one of the all time greats”, while Whitesnake’s David Coverdale wrote , “Oh, My Heart … RIP, Jeff … I miss you already”.

The Kinks’ Dave Davies tweeted , “I’m heartbroken he looked in fine shape to me. Playing great he was in great shape. I’m shocked and bewildered … it don’t make sense I don’t get it. He was a good friend and a great guitar player.”

Many famed guitarists paid tribute to Beck’s prowess and influence. ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons described Beck as a “wondrous soul” who “was able to show me how this guitar playing thing should be approached.” Living Colour’s Vernon Reid said there was “always space for him to grow,” while Aerosmith’s Joe Perry described him as “the Salvador Dali of guitar.”

“Jeff Beck was punk rock before punk existed and one of the most inventive guitar players of all time,” wrote U2’s The Edge. “He set a very high bar for all of us who followed. His legend will live on.”

Queen’s Brian May said he was “gutted” to hear the news: “He was the Guv’nor. He was inimitable, irreplaceable - the absolute pinnacle of guitar playing. And a damn fine human being.”

Beck was born Geoffrey Beck in 1944, in Wallington, south London. As a child, he sang in a church choir, and began playing guitar as a teenager, getting his first instrument after trying to dupe a music store in a hire-purchase scheme. “There was this guy, he wasn’t old enough to be my dad but he offered to be my guarantor. He said, ‘I’ll tell them I’m your stepfather’,” he told the New Statesman in 2016. “Within a month, they’d sussed out he was nothing to do with me whatsoever and they snatched the guitar back. My dad went along and explained that we couldn’t afford it – so they waived the rest of the payments and I got the guitar.”

After briefly attending art school in London, Beck began playing with Screaming Lord Sutch until, after Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page recommended Beck as his replacement. Although already successful by that time, the Yardbirds had many of their biggest hits during Beck’s short tenure in the band, including the 1966 album Yardbirds and the No 3 single Shapes of Things. Beck was only in the Yardbirds for 20 months, leaving the group in 1966 due to inter-band tensions that had arisen during a US tour. (Later, he would say that “every day was a hurricane in the Yardbirds”.)

In 1968, Beck released Truth, his debut solo album, which drew on blues and hard rock to form a prototypical version of heavy metal. One year later, he released an album with the Jeff Beck Group, Beck-Ola but had his solo career derailed after he suffered a head injury in a car accident.

In 1970, after recovering from his skull fracture, Beck formed a new incarnation of the Jeff Beck Group, and released two records – 1971’s Rough and Ready and 1972’s Jeff Beck Group – which displayed his earliest forays into the jazz fusion sound he would become known for.

In the mid-70s, Beck supported John McLaughlin’s jazz-rock group Mahavishnu Orchestra on tour, an experience that radically changed how he saw music. “Watching [McLaughlin] and the sax player trading solos, I thought, ‘This is me’,” he said in 2016.

Inspired, Beck embraced jazz fusion fully on the George Martin-produced Blow By Blow. A platinum-selling hit in the US which peaked at No 4, it was Beck’s most commercially successful album ever, but he later expressed regret. “I shouldn’t have done Blow By Blow,” he told Guitar Player in 1990. “I wish I had stayed with earthy rock’n’roll. When you’re surrounded with very musical people like Max Middleton and Clive Chaman, you’re in a prison, and you have to play along with that.”

Despite his later feelings about Blow By Blow, Beck continued to experiment throughout the 70s, releasing another platinum-selling jazz fusion album, Wired, in 1976, and There and Back, in 1980.

“He embraced project after project with limitless energy and enthusiasm,” Robert Plant said in a statement. “He cooked up magic through all the passing eras, always up for the next, unknown, unlikely collision.”

Beck’s output slowed dramatically in the 80s, in part due to his suffering from tinnitus. His projects through the decade were sporadic but notable: in 1981, he performed with Clapton, Sting and Phil Collins at Amnesty International’s Secret Policeman’s Other Ball benefit concerts, and returned with his first solo album in five years, Flash, in 1985. Produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers, it presented a dramatic shift for Beck in that it primarily featured vocal-led pop tracks, a change from his largely instrumental 70s output. People Get Ready, a collaboration with Rod Stewart, became one of Beck’s rare hit singles under his own name, charting in the US, New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland.

The 1989 album Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop was his last solo album for a decade, but he remained active through the 90s, collaborating with Jon Bon Jovi, Kate Bush and Roger Waters, among others; in 1999, he released Who Else, which incorporated techno and electronic elements.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Beck only released a handful of albums, but began to settle into his role as an elder statesman and lauded influence, performing with artists such as Kelly Clarkson and Joss Stone. He lived on an East Sussex estate since 1976, and married his second wife, Sandra Cash, in 2005.

Beck’s most recent project was last year’s 18, a collaborative album with Johnny Depp that featured original songs penned by Depp and covers of Marvin Gaye, the Velvet Underground and other classic artists. The album was widely panned; in a two-star review, the Guardian’s Michael Hann described it as a “peculiar and hugely uneven record,” while noting that “it’s to Beck’s credit that alone among the guitar heroes of the 1960s UK R&B boom, he has not retreated into coffee-table blues.”

Other musicians to pay tribute to Beck included the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, who wrote that he was a “genius guitar player.” Billy Idol described him as “sublime”, and said he was “glad I was alive to hear him play.” Stevie Van Zandt called Beck a “major influence” and “an infinite source of joy my entire lifetime.”

Joe Satriani said that Beck was “a genius, a stunning original.” “He was an astounding guitar player with more ways to make you go, ‘WTF was that?’ than anybody else. He was profoundly talented, and never stopped innovating on the instrument.”

• Pop and rock

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Jeff Beck – a life in pictures

Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck sue professor who accused them of plagiarism

A look back at the life of legendary guitarist Jeff Beck – video obituary

Jeff Beck: the super-guitarist to end all super-guitarists

Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp: 18 review – a dull display of colossal self-pity

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Musician Jeff Beck dies suddenly of meningitis

The guitarist's death was announced by his family.

Musician Jeff Beck has died after contracting bacterial meningitis, according to his family.

He was 78 years old.

"On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck's passing," his representatives said in a statement. "After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family asks for privacy while they process this tremendous loss."

Beck, one of rock's legendary guitarists, first burst onto the scene as a member of the British band the Yardbirds. He joined the band as a replacement for fellow guitar legend Eric Clapton in 1965.

In 1966, he left Yardbirds to start his own band, the Jeff Beck Group, which featured vocalist Rod Stewart and bassist Ron Wood. Their style consisted of a unique approach to the blues and laid the groundwork for heavy metal. Stewart and Wood left the group in 1970 for Small Faces and the band disbanded on the eve of the Woodstock festival.

Later in 1970, Beck started his band up again with vocalist Alex Ligertwood, keyboardist Max Middleton, drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Clive Chapman. Beck hired Bobby Tench as the vocalist and second guitarist. The new group came out with the album "Rough and Ready" in 1971, which reached no. 46 on the album charts.

After producing the album, "Jeff Beck Group," in January 1972, the group officially disbanded in July of that same year.

MORE: Jeff Beck, Fay Weldon, Walter Cunningham, and other notable people who died in 2023

While the "Jeff Beck Group" broke up, Beck continued to make music. He collaborated with bassist Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice and the trio produced and released the album "Beck, Bogert & Appice" in 1973.

That same year, Beck performed "The Jean Genie"/"Love Me Do" and "Around and Around" with David Bowie.

Following the negative reception "Beck, Bogert & Appice" received, Beck embarked on a solo career and released the album "Blow by Blow" in 1975. It was produced by Beatles collaborator George Martin and featured instrumental and jazz fusion elements. Although there were no lead vocalists on this album, it paved his path to recording largely without lead vocalists for the rest of his career.

Beck went on to release 10 more solo studio albums throughout his career with music incorporating electronic textures, hip-hop rhythms and more.

In his career, he earned six Grammys for best rock instrumental performance, plus additional wins for best pop instrumental performance and best pop collaboration with vocals.

He was honored with the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music in 2014. Rolling Stone ranked him in its top five of the 100 Greatest Guitarists.

Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992 and as a solo artist in 2009.

Just last year Beck recorded new music with Johnny Depp, releasing a collaborative album in July. He also appeared on two tracks of Ozzy Osbourne's Grammy-nominated record "Patient Number 9," including the title track, which has earned him another Grammy nod.

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Rock icon Jeff Beck dead at 78

English rock star jeff beck died after bout with meningitis.

Johnny Depp performs at the Anthem in DC

Fans throw items on stage as Depp ends his performance. (Credit: Fox News Digital

Guitar legend Jeff Beck died on Tuesday after contracting bacterial meningitis. He was 78.

"On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing," Beck's representative confirmed in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. 

"After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss."

Known as one of the most influential guitarists in modern music, Beck, born Geoffrey Arnold Beck, earned eight Grammy awards  throughout his decades-long career. 

Ozzy Osbourne tweeted, "I can’t express how saddened I am to hear of @JeffBeckMusic’s passing. What a terrible loss for his family, friends & his many fans. It was such an honor to have known Jeff & an incredible honor to have had him play on my most recent album, #PatientNumber9. Long live #JeffBeck."

JOHNNY DEPP PERFORMS IN WASHINGTON DC WITH JEFF BECK IN FRONT OF LAWYERS FROM AMBER HEARD TRIAL

Jeff Beck, guitar legend from the Yardbirds, died on Tuesday. He was 78. (Venla Shalin)

Dave Davies of The Kinks was "heartbroken" over the sudden loss" and recalled seeing Beck recently perform in a series of tweets.  

"I’m heartbroken he looked in fine shape to me," Davies wrote. "Playing great he was in great shape. I’m shocked and bewilderedDeepest sympathy to his wife friends close ones I’m bewildered Jeff Beck it don’t make sense I don’t get it. He was a good friend and a great guitar player."

Beck spent the summer touring with Johnny Depp in Europe after releasing his final album, "18."

SUPERMODEL TATJANA PATITZ DEAD AT 56

Jeff was first inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of the Yardbirds. He received the honor once again in 2009 as a solo artist.

He appeared as a guest artist on dozens of albums, and worked with Stevie Wonder, Sir Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger and Jon Bon Jovi, to name a few.

Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn pose for a portrait circa 1985.  (Aaron Rapoport)

Beck told Guitar World in 2014, "I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos. If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time."

Stewart shared fond memories of Beck in a tribute on social media, and said the musician was "on another planet."

JOHNNY DEPP SIGNS AUTOGRAPHS BEFORE JEFF BECK CONCERT IN NEW YORK AHEAD OF AMBER HEARD APPEAL

He wrote, "He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since. He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond. Jeff, you were the greatest, my man . Thank you for everything. RIP."

Paul Stanley wrote, "WOW. What awful news. Jeff Beck, one of the all time guitar masters has died. From The Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group on, he blazed a trail impossible to follow. Play on now and forever. @jeffbeckmusic."

Gene Simmons shared a photo of Beck with the tribute, "Heartbreaking news to report the late, great Jeff Back has sadly passed. No one played guitar like Jeff. Please get ahold of the first two Jeff Beck Group albums and behold greatness. RIP."

In addition to collaborating with Ozzy Osbourne , Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top, Beck released 17 of his own studio albums and more than 20 singles.

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His final catalog with Depp was in the works for three years, and included covers of Motown musicians, in addition to songs from the Beach Boys, John Lennon and Velvet Underground.

Jeff Beck performs during "Stars Align Tour" at in Atlanta, Georgia. (R. Diamond)

"When Johnny and I started playing together, it really ignited our youthful spirit and creativity," Beck told The Sunday Times last year. "We would joke about how we felt 18 again, so that just became the album title too."

Depp began touring with Beck in the midst of his defamation trial against Amber Heard. Beck and Depp began playing together in 2016 when Jeff dropped in on Johnny's band, the "Hollywood Vampires." They began recording together in 2019.

"It’s an extraordinary honor to play and write music with Jeff, one of the true greats and someone I am now privileged enough to call my brother," Depp said in a statement at the time.

Beck is survived by wife Sandra.

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Fox News Digital's Larry Fink contributed to this report.

Tracy Wright is an entertainment reporter for Fox News Digital. Send story tips to [email protected].

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Charles Daniels, who photographed rock’s biggest legends, gets show extended at Nave Gallery in Somerville

‘i wanted to have the show so charles could see the work on the walls,’ said daniels’s longtime partner, susan berstler, who runs the gallery. ‘that didn’t happen, but i felt like it was important to move forward.’.

S OMERVILLE — Toward the end of his life, Charles Daniels, the self-taught photographer known as the Master Blaster, embarked on a project he’d put off for decades: He would finally develop some of the film he’d shot over the past 50 years.

He and his supporters started out small — just 100 rolls — but enthusiasm quickly grew after the first batch came back: never-before-seen photos from his days emceeing at the Boston Tea Party , the storied concert hall where Daniels captured unguarded images of rising rock royalty, including Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, and Peter Wolf.

The project quickly grew, and by the time Daniels died of pneumonia this past January , it had garnered international headlines and raised more than $75,000 via GoFundMe to digitize more than 90,000 images.

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“We kept finding more film,” Daniels’s longtime partner, Susan Berstler, said during a recent tour of the exhibition. “We still have another batch.”

In the meantime, Berstler has organized “To Be Continued: Photographs by Charles Daniels,” an exhibition of about 50 prints (plus a 1,000-image slideshow) at Somerville’s Nave Gallery . The show, which was originally scheduled to close in early June, has been extended through the month, with a closing reception on the 26th, because “Charles would have wanted a party.”

Daniels is known mainly for his rock photography, and the exhibition is rich with fresh images of Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Wood, Wolf, and Stewart, among others.

Still, the Master Blaster considered himself primarily a street photographer. He took his camera everywhere, and “To Be Continued” abounds with street scenes in and around Boston. There are images of women wearing the latest London fashions in Harvard Square, mud-caked boys in Gloucester, and political protests in Cambridge, each a window into a specific moment in the region’s history.

Particularly meaningful to Berstler are a series of portraits Daniels took of his mother and grandmother, which she’s placed in the center of the gallery.

“His mom was his anchor,” said Berstler, who added that Daniels declined jobs offers to emcee in London clubs. She’s convinced he wanted to stay near his mother. “People were like, ‘Why didn’t you go to London?’” she said. “It was totally his mother.”

Born in rural Alabama, Daniels arrived in Roxbury in the 1950s, eventually becoming a counterculture fixture in Harvard Square. He was close friends with Wolf, who dubbed him the “Master Blaster” (Daniels in turn nicknamed Wolf the “Woofa Goofa”).

As the voguish emcee at the Tea Party, Daniels befriended numerous British touring acts, along the way securing a front row seat to rock ’n’ roll history.

“Charlie captured it all, because he was constantly clicking away,” Wolf told the Globe in 2022. “He was a cultural archivist without even knowing it.”

His friendship with Wood led him to go on tour with Faces in the 1970s; he later traveled with the Rolling Stones, joining Wood on his first tour with the group in 1975.

Daniels continued shooting in the decades that followed, photographing street scenes, dance performances, protests, and portraits.

One thing he did not do, however, was develop his film.

“I didn’t need to see the final result as much as I just thought I needed to pay attention,” he told the Globe during the 2022 interview. “It was more or less like being in the middle of it as opposed to really finishing it off.”

But that began to change as he grew older and developed a blood disorder.

Originally, he and Berstler had planned “To Be Continued” to open in May 2023. But they postponed the show when Daniels’s condition worsened, requiring frequent transfusions at the hospital.

“I wanted to have the show so Charles could see the work on the walls,” said Berstler, who runs the gallery, housed in the city’s Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church. “That didn’t happen, but I felt like it was important to move forward.”

She ultimately opened the show as part of this year’s Somerville Open Studios, in part to thank people who had helped finance the project.

“I wanted the people at the GoFundMe to realize that they made this possible,” she said, adding that her partner of roughly 35 years helped choose the photographs. “I wanted them to have a chance to see it and experience it and see what they were responsible for.”

Berstler added that several curators have come through the show, and she’s now discussing possible future exhibitions with local and international institutions.

“The sad thing about the GoFundMe and all this is that it didn’t happen five or 10 years ago,” she said. “That’s just the sadness that I have to deal with.”

Still, the vast majority of Daniels’s work came very close to never being seen, said Berstler, and he was moved by the outpouring of support toward the end of his life.

“I think Charles died feeling very appreciated and loved, like his work meant something,” she said. “For an artist, I don’t think you can ask for more than that.”

TO BE CONTINUED: PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLES DANIELS

155 Powder House Blvd., through June 23 (closing reception June 26). Check website for hours: www.navegallery.org

Malcolm Gay can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him @malcolmgay .