I’ve been a Jeff Back fan for a long time. I’ve got most of his albums dating back to 1975’s Blow By Blow, which is my favorite Jeff Beck album. It was his first album of music without a vocalist. Produced by Beatles producer George Martin, Blow By Blow boasts some wonderful string arrangements [courtesy of Martin], great material to work with [‘Cause We Ended as Lovers being the best of the lot] emotional playing - some of it bluesy, some of it jazzy, some of it funky, all of it great.
Some of Beck’s albums since then have been pretty good [Wired, There & Back], one was just plain awful [Flash], one was a head scratcher [Jeff], some have been exhibits of astounding technique (but not always real songs) [You Had It Coming, Who Else!, Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop], film music [Frankie’s House] and one live album [Performing This Week…Live at Ronnie Scott’s]. You Had It Coming, Who Else! and Jeff were all exercises in electronica. Some of the songs were good, sometimes the dazzling displays of technique were jaw-dropping, but in places [like the hip-hop bits on Jeff] were complete crap. After Jeff I was hoping that his next album of studio material wasn’t going to be more electronica. With Emotion & Commotion, my wish was granted. Not only did he leave the electronica in his rear-view mirror [he is a big car guy, you know], he decided to work with an orchestra, which he hadn’t done since Blow By Blow. Beck says the idea of pairing his guitar with an orchestra evolved from the version of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 he recorded a few years ago. 'It turned out amazingly well, but I didn’t t want to commit to an entire album of classical music. What appealed to me instead was the idea of bringing together these seemingly contradictory sounds on different kinds of nonclassical music.'
The band who recorded Emotion & Commotion with Beck – Frank Zappa alum Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Jason Rebello (keyboards) and Tal Wilkenfeld (bass) are the best band he’s worked with in many years. Emotion & Commotion starts with a very moving reading of Jeff Buckley’s Corpus Christie Carol. As ethereal as Corpus Christie Carol is, I was unprepared for the blitzkrieg of Hammerhead. Finally, a Jeff Beck original [there aren’t very many] that has a recognizable melody and crushes your skull at the same time. Once the fire-breathing guitar work of Hammerhead dies down, Never Alone goes the subtle route. Beck’s guitar grabs your attention without demanding it. With that troika of songs to being the album, I wondered what else Jeff Beck had up his sleeve.
There are two things wrong with Emotion & Commotion, and they are the songs that feature British soul singer Joss Stone [I Put a Spell On You, There’s No Other Me]. I’ve never been a fan of hers, and her presence on this album hasn’t done anything to change my opinion. This is what the “skip” button on the iPod button was invented for. Irish songstress Imelda May puts in an appearance on Lilac Wine. I don’t normally want to hear Jeff Beck with a vocalist, but with Imelda May I make an exception. She was first brought to my attention when she and Jeff Beck did a Les Paul/Mary Ford tribute at the Grammies with a fantastic rendition of How High the Moon. I thought they made a great combination and hoped they would work together again [wish granted!]. Their combo works here again. Beck’s decision to record a version of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma was another stroke of genius. Emotion & Commotion ends with a wonderful of reading of Elegy For Dunkirk from the movie Atonement. Beck teams with opera singer Olivia Safe for the finale. This pairing is a magical stroke. Sometimes one cannot tell where Olivia Safe voice ends and where Jeff Beck’s voice (his guitar) begins. This song is what the “repeat” button was invented for.
Emotion & Commotion is his best since Blow By Blow [and it’s got a cool cover, too]. Once he gets the tribute to Les Paul out of his system, I hope he makes one more record (and only one more so he doesn’t get stale) similar to this one. Who knows – we might get to hear that version of Mahler s Symphony No. 5. [Please?]
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