What is jazz? What is rock? These questions perpetually confound and divide music experts and listeners. Similar spirited debates have raged over “jazz-rock fusion.” While there is no definition, Jeff Beck fans know the answer is Blow by Blow.
The groundwork for jazz-rock was laid by Miles Davis, whose In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (’70) fused jazz harmony and melody with electronic instruments and rock’s rhythms, attitude, and tone. By the early ’70s, a genre was born and had spread globally, along the way birthing a dozen offspring. After Davis, fusion remained insular jazz-rock – intellectual insider’s music – until Beck entered the picture to reinterpret its rich harmony with rock melody and rhythms, favoring feel over histrionics and pyrotechnics. Long an unbridled innovator, he ventured into territory beyond Davis’ descendants Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Where those exponents prized post-bop sophistication that elevated technical standards, Beck created something new and accessible by marrying his gritty blues-rock aesthetic, soulfulness, and imagination to irresistible dance grooves, lush melodious balladry, and cinematic soundscapes.
The steps leading to Blow by Blow were circuitous yet inevitable. As a Yardbird, Beck was one of the earliest British Invasion guitar heroes, his virtuosity undeniable on “Jeff’s Boogie” (’66), an original mash of Cliff Gallup, Les Paul, Lonnie Mack, and his own eccentricities. He furthered heavy electric blues, proto-metal, raga-rock and psychedelia while flirting with world music on “Beck’s Bolero,” a seminal fusion instrumental with a soaring modal melody, heavy bridge riff, and Spanish Bolero rhythms. In the first Jeff Beck Group, he presaged heavy metal, introduced the world to Rod Stewart, and (for the first time) tackled large-scale instrumental works with “Rice Pudding” (Beck-Ola, ’69). His blend of hard rock, blues, funk, and jazz made Jeff Beck Group 2 a unique outfit. In ’73, he stretched the limits of the supergroup power trio with Beck, Bogert & Appice, then considered joining the Rolling Stones when Mick Taylor departed. A progression that would be schizophrenic for anyone but him, Beck proved precedent-setting in his mid-’70s pursuit of fusion.
Beck’s innovations, diverse tangents, and upward trajectory reached an apex with Blow by Blow, his first solo album. Impressed with George Martin’s work on Mahavishnu’s Apocalypse, he enlisted the former Beatles’ producer and began recording at his AIR London studios in October ’74 with keyboardist Max Middleton – a cohort/collaborator since JBG2 on Fender/Rhodes electric piano, Moog synthesizer, and clavinet, along with bassist Phil Chen and drummer Richard Bailey. Stevie Wonder contributed “Thelonius” and “’Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers” and anonymously played clavinet on the former. Martin provided colorful string charts and orchestral flourishes to “Scatterbrain” and “Diamond Dust” while Middleton’s deeper jazz harmonies informed the compositions, arrangements, and backdrops behind Beck’s evocative guitar. His influence is explicit in “You Know What I Mean,” “Scatterbrain” and his original composition, “Freeway Jam.”
Beck’s solo in “You Know What I Mean” sums up his take on fusion. The characteristic phrases from 1:18 to 1:38 are cases in point. The opening passage in measure 1 over G7 has country/rockabilly flavor with broken-6th intervals played fingerstyle and percussive for a chicken-picked effect. This is answered by solid blues-rock lines with pre-bent notes and semi-harmonics. Check out Jeff’s brief use of F major-blues cliche over G7, a slick substitution that plays off an F triad in G11. His transition to A7 in 5 is marked by a held-and-attacked string bend and heavy finger vibrato alluding to the Chicago blues influence in his style. He mixes C and C# in these lines, and freely combines A minor pentatonic and A dominant-7th note choices.
Beck’s take on fusion was singular. At the outset, he was “determined not to bore anybody with any jazz.” He proceeded to emphasize melody over “abstract flurries of noise” and favored “nice chords” to attract the listener’s ear. Like Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, he chose to put the funk into fusion, stressing grooves that elaborated on his earlier R&B background. This flavor was reconciled with art-rock, jazz, blues, and cinematic tangents. Consider the scratchy James Brown-inspired guitar figure introducing “You Know What I Mean,” the album’s opening track. It launches the tune’s catchy theme melody and remains an underlying presence, animating grooves behind solos throughout the album. Overt R&B elements are offset by a cross-fade transition into “She’s a Woman,” the Beatles-era Lennon-McCartney cover given a Jamaican-island feel, with re-harmonizations of its basic blues changes and pop progressions enhanced by Beck’s talk-box sounds and multifaceted melodic blues-based soloing. This cut conveys a slightly commercial jazz-rock impression foreshadowing the West-Coast fusion of Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, and Robben Ford later in the decade. Jeff’s original, “Constipated Duck,” follows in a suite-like manner and restores the funk with his Motown-inspired octaves figure, tight ensemble grooves, and another memorable theme – a rhythmically-charged double-stop theme, which is finger plucked, signaling Beck’s growing tendencies toward fingerstyle playing that would be the norm by 1980. “Air Blower” (a quartet collaboration) is a larger sectional piece with a vaguely Asian pentatonic/hexatonic theme melody posed over a looping funk groove. Here, Jeff applies whammy-bar vibrato to key phrases, complementing the pitch-wheel effects of Middleton’s Moog, and employs an octave-divider in the opening solo section for growling low-register sounds. The second section (3:27) is a slow 9/8 soundscape that provides Beck with space for unpredictable melody passages and wah rhythm-guitar effects in the background.
Jazz-rock is notorious for its use of odd and mixed time signatures. “You Know What I Mean” contains a subtle toggling between 4/4 and 6/4, but a more-overt and uncommon example is found in “Scatterbrain,” where Beck employs 9/8 meter but twists the subdivisions of three eighth-note triplets per bar into an asymmetric combination of 4/8 and 5/8 in 16th notes. He builds a theme riff (from a chromatic pattern that began as a finger exercise) from this unique permutation of 9/8. Moreover, he uses the same melody and pattern over Bbm7 and B7b5 chords, exploiting his application of the common-tone/polytonal procedure typically found in post-bop and fusion music, and re-states it practically verbatim over D/C, E/D and Gmaj7 changes. He further plays with the time by alternating between short instrumental interludes in 6/8 and longer solo sections in 4/4. Where these intricacies that would intimidate lesser players, Beck draws inspiration from the atypical rhythms, and reconciles them with a bluesman’s ease.
“Thelonius” was Stevie Wonder’s gift to Beck. They’d worked together on Talking Book and Beck had reputedly recorded the tune with BB&A for their second (unreleased) album. Here he delivers it as a heavy funk-rock groove piece with a bluesy melody doctored with octave-divider and talk-box backed by wah rhythm. “Freeway Jam” became Beck’s signature piece and remains a jam-band standard – arguably the most-representative rock piece on the record, with its singing modal theme melody, high-energy shuffle groove and blues allusions contrasted by a chorus of powerful rhythmic ensemble hits and jazzy segues into unrelated harmonic areas. Beck responded with a heavier distorted tone, harnessing his Strat for typical mannerisms in the form of extreme vibrato, dips, dives and pitch bends.
The sessions produced Beck’s unforgettable reading of “’Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers,” a masterpiece of reinterpretation dedicated to Roy Buchanan and appropriately rendered on his Tele-Gib (Telecaster/Gibson). Jeff delivers the melody with great nuance and fashions dramatic improvisations akin to a jazz saxophonist’s storytelling. Check out his keen attention to dynamics and phrasing, shadings of tone color, contrasts of legato and staccato articulation, and wide range of expression. We know Wonder wrote “Superstition” for Beck, but the way Beck handles this one leaves the impression it, too, was crafted for him. The brooding minor-mode tune with its slippery harmonic surprises suits his equally slippery melodic tendencies, exemplified by the intro’s sobbing volume-swell phrases and the solo’s melody-conscious improvisations mixed with blues-rock aggression and florid technical moments. The unfolding arrangement allows for a compelling progression from simple poignant melody statements to bluesy detours and complex double-timed lines at the climax.
“’Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” was a signature piece that embodied the melodic side of fusion and is one of the most-compelling rock-ballad performances in history. This excerpt from the solo captures the intensity of his improvisations into the climax. At 3:50 he subjects Cm7 to blues-based pentatonic riffing (a Beck staple) and treats Abmaj7 to a simple but rhythmically powerful ostinato. In measure 3 (3:59), he tamps the energy momentarily to allow the solo to breathe during Fm7-Gmaj7 – a surprise resolution. Note the wide string bends, pinch harmonic, legato phrasing (Gmaj7), and pentatonic bursts in 3-6. The dramatic final burst comes as a series of quick, descending chromatic trills in 7 (4:15) joining a singable melodic line in 8 (4:19), made more interesting with interval leaps.
The closer, “Diamond Dust,” written by guitarist Bernie Holland (of Hummingbird, which evolved from the remnants of JBG2), is a magnum opus (8:26). Its atmospheric sound is emphasized by an uncommon 10/8 time signature and distinguished by Martin’s lush orchestration, Middleton’s processed Rhodes, and Beck’s emotional, vocal-esque guitar. Beck navigates its challenging harmonic pathways and beautifully elusive melody with the comfort of a veteran jazz player. He described his approach to this type of material, saying, “I went from heavy riff tunes to things that were a bit classier. Max was hitting me with nice chords. I’d be a twerp for about two hours while I fumbled around with them… just opened myself up and said, ‘I can’t play guitar, but I’ll have a go.’ Being honest, open, and willing to start from square one.”
Beck’s combination of Gibson and Fender tones on Blow By Blow resulted in a unique sonic tapestry, weaving layered guitars of differing timbres panned across the mix, a practice begun on Truth (’68). He relied on his white ’70s Stratocaster with rosewood fretboard and the familiar stripped-to-natural ’54 Strat with maple ’70s board (seen with JBG2) for crisp funk rhythm chording and alternate brighter melody sounds while favoring Gibson timbres for darker lead/melody tones. Showcased on “Diamond Dust” and featured extensively on the album was the modified ’54 Les Paul goldtop refinished in brown pictured on the cover. Purchased from the Memphis shop Strings & Things in January ’73, it was refitted with PAFs and became his primary instrument with BB&A. Also significant was the “Tele-Gib” (Telecaster body-Gibson pickups) gifted by Seymour Duncan in ’73. Originally a battered ’59 slab-neck Tele, it was customized with rewound PAFs from one of Lonnie Mack’s ’59 Flying Vs, Tune-O-Matic bridge, stop tailpiece, and an early-’60s Fender neck with Gibson frets. In this period, Beck experimented with various amps – Marshall Super Leads, Univox, Sound City, an Ampeg VT-40, Vox and Fender combos. His effects included a Colorsound Overdriver fuzzbox for distortion (to fatten the Strat’s midrange tone), Octave Divider, Crybaby wah, Maestro ring modulator (for subtle idiosyncratic processing) and a Kustom “The Bag” talk box.
Blow By Blow established Beck as a solo artist beyond the confines of a rock band. Released March 29, 1975, it reached #4 on U.S. charts and became the new face of fusion to countless listeners and musicians while attaining platinum certification. It was followed by two worthy successors, Wired and There and Back, and precipitated the age of the instrumental-rock virtuoso, underscored by a tour with John McLaughlin.
Blow By Blow remains essential, having opened the door for Morse, Vai, Malmsteen, the Shrapnel school, Satriani, Johnson, et al.
“You Know What I Mean” began Blow By Blow on a decisive note. Beck kicks off with an emblematic chord riff [A], and it doesn’t get any funkier than the scratchy figure with 16th-note strums and muted strings reminiscent of Jimmy Nolen backing James Brown. Note the simple-but-effective jazz chords (extended and altered types), arranged as partial forms, and push chords in measure two – C#9 to D9. This is both a musical statement and call to action, calibrating the record’s vibe in just two bars. The theme melody [B] played by guitar and synth has modal-jazz implications (A minor Dorian played over D7) while Beck’s fills, such as bent double-stops, provide the requisite rock feeling.
In 1990, Beck professed he shouldn’t have made the album and dismissed the music as “fuzak,” an easy-listening form of jazz-rock that wasn’t equivalent to the high-art rock of Mahavishnu. By ’99, he re-evaluated his take: “Blow By Blow marked an important change in my life. I was exploring an entirely different direction… it came together almost by accident. I always fed off singers or guitar riffs before, but Max kept throwing these beautiful chords at me and Stevie came up with some beautiful melodies, so I had no choice but to follow them. It was like starting all over again, like I never played guitar before.”
Vacillations, speculations, and reappraisals aside, Blow By Blow is a milestone recording – one of the most-important and enduring in the genre.
Beck’s best-selling album, it proved once and for all that jazz-rock needn’t be a purist’s music.
Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His new book, Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language, will be released this winter. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: the Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar, and a list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
