Description
Re: 30-08-2024
Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live seldom appears on lists of the greatest live albums of all time. Amid an age where it seems every hidden or overlooked gem has already been rediscovered, this 1977 set remains a well-kept secret — a record filled with virtuoso performances, tremendous chemistry, high-wire improvisations, and explosive jazz-rock combinations. No wonder many listeners who came upon the effort in the late ‘70s admit to wearing out multiple copies and standing in awe of its powers. Wait ’til they hear this version.
Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g LP of Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live presents this collaborative tour de force in audiophile quality for the first time. Clear, detailed, and dynamic, the collectible reissue places each of the five fabled instrumentalists — Beck, Hammer, drummer Tony “Thunder” Smith, bassist Fernando Saunders, violinist Steve Kindler — in the positions that mirror where they played onstage during the 1976-77 tour.
Benefitting from the resultant three-dimensional soundstaging and black backgrounds, you’ll not only hear but nearly see Beck center right; Hammer center left; Kindler right; and Smith and Saunders anchoring the middle. The quiet vinyl surfaces further contribute to the sonic realism, immediacy, and energy. Paramount to Beck and Hammer, tonalities are natural and balanced. MoFi’s edition also restores and increases the emotionalism at hand. Concentrate on any passage, and you’ll sense the camaraderie, spirit, and joyfulness shared by the quintet — and communicated to the crowds. These guys love playing together, and it shows.
Tracklist:
- 1. Freeway Jam
- 2. Earth (Still Our Only Home)
- 3. She S a Woman
- 4. Full Moon Boogie
- 5. Darkness/Earth In
- 6. Search of the Sun
- 7. Scatterbrain
- 8. Blue Wind
