Jeff Beck

(KINGSTON, N.Y.) – Jeff Beck, one of the seminal and most influential rock guitarists of the 1960s, whose style helped shape blues rock, psychedelia, and heavy metal, performs at UPAC on Tuesday, April 21, 2015, at 8pm. Beck’s career took off in the mid-1960s after replacing Eric Clapton as lead guitarist for the Yardbirds on the recommendation of his friend Jimmy Page. He played on several of the rock group’s hits, such as “Heart Full of Soul,” “Shapes of Things” and “Over Under Sideways Down.”  Over the years, Beck has collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Roger Waters, Les Paul, Jon Bon Jovi, Stanley Clarke, Herbie Hancock and Joss Stone, among many others.

While Beck’s groups have been short-lived, his aggressive style — encompassing screaming, bent, sustained notes, distortion, feedback, and fast, crisply articulated passages — has been more far important than his material. Beck has twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and once as a solo artist in 2009. He has won numerous Grammy Awards, including two at the 2011 Grammy Award Celebration when he won Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Hammerhead” and Best Pop Instrumental performance for “Nessun Dorma”, both from his last studio album, “Emotion & Commotion.”

Joining Jeff Beck are his current bandmates – Jimmy Hall on Vocals, Rhonda Smith on bass, Jonathan Joseph on drums and Nicolas Meier on guitar