Having been employed as a sideman by everyone from
Miles Davis,
Joe Farrell, and
Gene Ammons to
James Brown,
Esther Phillips, and
Gloria Gaynor,
Joe Beck has an impressive résumé when it comes to supporting others. But his output as a leader has been erratic. The guitarist's own catalog is much smaller than it should be, and he hasn't lived up to his full potential as a soloist. One of the decent CDs that
Beck recorded in the '90s was
Finger Painting, a fusion/post-bop effort boasting
Bill Evans (not the famous pianist) on tenor and soprano sax,
Mark Egan on electric bass, and
Danny Gottlieb on drums. Except for a bluesy interpretation of
Gershwin's "Summertime,"
Beck sticks to his own compositions, which range from the funky,
Wes Montgomery-ish "Blues Doctor" and the edgy "Red Eye" to the moody "Texas Ann" and the pensive "What Would I Do Without You?"
Finger Painting, which
Egan produced, isn't a gem, but it has enough going for it to make you wish that
Beck had recorded as a leader more often over the years. ~ Alex Henderson