Jeff Beck LIVE at the Winspear Centre, Tuesday October 25, 2011

How many guitarists and musicians who were cutting edge  and restlessly evolving in the mid-1960s are still continually breaking new ground  today?  I can think of only one, and  the demonstration of his versatility and capacity for reinvention Tuesday night exceeded my already high expectations.

I had seen  two previous live performances by Jeff Beck--the first at the Skydome in Toronto in 1990 (part of a memorable guitar concert that opened with Jeff Healey and finished with Stevie Ray Vaughn); the second on a DVD and CD that I purchased in 2008 called "Live at Ronnie Scott's".  The Edmonton concert venue is one of Canada's finest concert auditoriums and, as such, is acoustically superior to the vast majority of places that Beck's band plays.  He responded  to this opportunity  enthusiastically, as did the audience.

What I didn't expect was that  Beck would bring a completely new  band and a vastly expanded repertoire that ranged from Puccini to Lady Gaga, Jimi Hendrix, Judy  Garland, Muddy Waters, Sly Stone and  even a Les Paul tribute, "Where There's Music"). This on top of an already diverse selection of numbers from his standard set--'Led Boots",  "Rice Pudding", "People Get Ready",  "Cause We've Ended as Lovers", and "A Day in the Life".  All told, probably the most eclectic program I've ever seen.

I won't deny being a little disappointed at not seeing  longtime drummer Terry Bozzio and  21-year old bass prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld again; but  before long I warmed to a band that featured Haligonian bassist Rhonda Smith (where does he keep finding brilliant and gorgeous young bassists?)  drummer Narada Michael Walden (who as something of a prodigy himself  back in 1976 had handled percussion  on  Wired  --in my view Beck's finest album); and keyboardist Jason Rebello. They handled the varied programme  with little difficulty and ably shared vocal duties as well as solos. A new experience for me was Smith's  upright electric bass, an instrument that  has generally been missing from jazz/rock.

This was  a venue and a band and a playlist that was well worth the money and the wait.  As for Jeff Beck himself,  his elegance and lyricism  is rare even (perhaps especially) among rock virtuosi.