Premier Guitar features affiliate links to help support our content. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases.

Jeff Beck Tribute EP Unveiled

Jeff Beck Tribute EP Unveiled

The three-song EP includes unreleased live versions of "Going Down" and "Elegy For Dunkirk."

The music world is still reeling from Jeff Beckā€™s death earlier this year. The legendary guitarist, renowned by both fans and many of his peers as the greatest of all-time, passed away on January 10 at the age of 78.

ATCO/Rhino honors the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famerā€™s immeasurable legacy with a three-song EP of unreleased music. Two of the songs were played at Beckā€™s memorial service, which was held on February 3 at St. Maryā€™s Church in Beddington, England. Jeff Beck Tribute is available today digitally.

Listen HERE.

The EP opens with ā€œMidnight Walker Lament,ā€ which combines the instrumental ā€œMidnight Walkerā€ from 18 (Beckā€™s 2022 album with Johnny Depp) with a spoken word poem by Imelda May written at Jeffā€™s suggestion and approval, which sadly was first performed live to track at his funeral. An Irish singer and poet, May first appeared with Beck on Rock ā€™nā€™ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul), a live album he released in 2011 as a tribute to pioneering guitarist Les Paul.

Opera singer Olivia Safe, another Beck collaborator, appears on the EPā€™s live version of ā€œElegy For Dunkirk.ā€ Beck released a studio version featuring Safe in 2010 on his Grammy-winning album, Emotion & Commotion. At Beckā€™s memorial in February, Safe sang composer Gabriel FaurĆ©ā€™s ā€œRequiem: In Paradisum.ā€

Jeff Beck Tributeends with a blistering live version of ā€œGoing Downā€ recorded in Paris. Beck performed this Freddie King rocker live throughout most of his career. On this version, heā€™s backed by bassist Rhonda Smith, drummer Jonathan Joseph, vocalist Jimmy Hall, and guitarist Carmen Vandenberg.

ā€œImeldaā€™s poem on ā€˜Midnight Walker Lamentā€™ on top of Jeffā€™s beautiful guitar work brings tears to my eyes. ā€˜Elegy for Dunkirkā€™ featuring Olivia Safe is a reminder of how Jeffā€™s playing, and Opera interact. ā€˜Going down,ā€™ an up-tempo tune, was played live at Jeffā€™s funeral with a powerful vocal from Jimmy Hall.ā€ - Sandra Beck

Jeff Beck Tribute

EP Track Listing:

  1. ā€œMidnight Walker Lamentā€ ā€“ Jeff Beck featuring Imelda May *
  2. ā€œElegy For Dunkirkā€ (Live) ā€“ Jeff Beck featuring Olivia Safe *
  3. ā€œGoings Downā€ (Live) ā€“ The Jeff Beck Band *
* previously unreleased

Beckā€™s widow, Sandra, and his friend and fellow guitarist Eric Clapton will honor the late guitaristā€™s memory and artistry with all-star concerts at the Royal Albert Hall on May 22 and 23. ā€œA Tribute to Jeff Beckā€ will feature Doyle Bramhall, Eric Clapton, Gary Clark Jr., Johnny Depp, Billy Gibbons, Kirk Hammett, Imelda May, John McLaughlin, Robert Randolph, Olivia Safe, Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Ronnie Wood. The shows also include Rhonda Smith, Anika Nilles, and Robert Stevenson from the Jeff Beck Band.

Profits from the concerts will be donated to the Southern Wildlife Care and Advisory Service (aka Folly Wildlife Rescue Trust), a charity dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating injured, orphaned, and distressed wild animals and birds throughout West Kent, East Sussex, and the surrounding region. The Becks have been patrons of the charity for years. ATCO/Rhino will also make a donation to the charity in honor of Beck.

For more information, please visit jeffbeck.com.

The Spirit Fall trio: drummer Brian Blade (right) and saxophonist Chris Potter (center) joined Patitucci (left) for a single day at The Bunker. ā€œThose guys are scary. It almost puts pressure on me, how good they are, because they get it really fast,ā€ says Patitucci.

Photo by Sachi Sato

Legendary bassist John Patitucci continues to explore the sound of a chord-less trio that balances melodicism with boundless harmonic freedomā€”and shares lessons he learned from his mentors Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter.

In 1959, Miles Davisā€™ Kind of Blue and John Coltraneā€™s Giant Stepsā€”two of the most influential albums in jazz historyā€”were recorded. Itā€™s somewhat poetic that four-time Grammy-winning jazz bass icon John Patitucci was born that same year. In addition to a storied career as a bandleader, Patitucci cemented his legacy through his lengthy association with two giants of jazz: keyboardist Chick Corea, with whom Patitucci enjoyed a 10-year tenure as an original member of his Elektric and Akoustic bands, and saxophonist Wayne Shorterā€™s quartet, of which he was a core member for 20 years. Patitucci has also worked with a whoā€™s who of jazz elites like Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, and Michael Brecker.

Read MoreShow less

The National New Yorker lived at the forefront of the emerging electric guitar industry, and in Memphis Minnieā€™s hands, it came alive.

This National electric is just the tip of the iceberg of electric guitar history.

On a summer day in 1897, a girl named Lizzie Douglas was born on a farm in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi, the first of 13 siblings. When she was seven, her family moved closer to Memphis, Tennessee, and little Lizzie took up the banjo. Banjo led to guitar, guitar led to gigs, and gigs led to dreams. She was a prodigious talent, and ā€œKidā€ Douglas ran away from home to play for tips on Beale Street when she was just a teenager. She began touring around the South, adopted the moniker Memphis Minnie, and eventually joined the circus for a few years.

Read MoreShow less
- YouTube

In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.

We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.

Photo by Ruby Faye

The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ā€™90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.

Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. Theyā€™re both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmannā€™s short story, ā€œThree Paths to the Lake.ā€

Read MoreShow less