The one musician who became Jeff Beck’s hero: “I became obsessed”
The late Jeff Beck was a man who never failed to delight with the extent of his guitar-playing skill. A true virtuoso, whether it be his early years in The Yardbirds or as a solo artist, his distinctive finger-picking style inspired countless budding musicians.
Forming the definitive six-string trio with frenemies Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page during London’s ‘Swinging Sixties’, even in his early career, Beck stood out from the crowd. From featuring on the pioneering piece of psychedelia ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago’ with The Yardbirds to writing the instrumental ‘Beck’s Bolero’ with the future Led Zeppelin man, before the decade was out, the guitarist had a list of stellar achievements to his name.
Moments such as these stood him in good stead for the rest of his career, and after this exciting formative period, Beck would deliver a host of classic moments widely regarded as some of the best in rock. There’s no surprise, then, that Pink Floyd guitar wizard David Gilmour names him as his favourite guitarist of all time.
Unlike many of his peers, Beck never appeared content to settle into a single sound. Each phase of his career felt like a recalibration, a restless pursuit of tones and textures that had not yet been fully explored. That refusal to stand still became one of his defining traits, elevating him beyond mere technical mastery into the realm of genuine innovation.
As Jeff Beck’s dextrous style is the stuff of legend, it makes sense that he drew on a wide range of musicians to establish it. From Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix, over the years, he delivered glowing accounts about a host of musicians, all of whom went some way in helping him marry disparate genres so seamlessly.
When speaking to The Express in 2014, Beck listed his six favourite albums of all time, and it was here that he revealed the name of the artist he deems his musical “hero”. He named Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer, Jan Hammer as the one who inspired him most. Notably, Hammer made his name as the keyboardist in the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s. He and Beck also collaborated on numerous occasions, with the 1977 effort Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live, captured during a live tour.
Beck’s revelation came by way of him naming Hammer’s 1975 album, The First Seven Days, as one of his favourites of all time. A fascinating record, it features no guitars. The record jacket even states: “For those concerned: there is no guitar on this album.” Instead, Hammer uses synthesisers extensively, creating guitar-sounding parts on the electronic instrument, an innovative creative decision for the time.
For Beck, that blurring of instrumental boundaries was not a novelty but a revelation. It reinforced his belief that expression mattered more than orthodoxy, that a note’s emotional weight carried greater importance than the tool used to produce it. Hammer’s approach validated Beck’s own instinct to treat the guitar less as a traditional rock instrument and more as a limitless voice.
“The music on this is so graphic,” Beck said. “Jan became my hero when he was in John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was playing bendy notes with a keyboard so it sounded like a guitar and I became obsessed with how he did it.”
