The year was 1977 In New York City and I was in junior high attending the prestigious St David’s catholic school on 89th Street between Madison & 5th right around the corner from the Guggenheim Museum. As a side note the Guggenheim Museum staged an epic place where we used to have after school fights. When you heard ‘meet you in front of the Guggenheim’ during class, you knew it was going down amongst the Catholic boys! Back to Jeff Beck, a kid in my class during lunch said to me I should buy this album called Jeff Beck Live with Jan Hammer. I was like, “uhhh? Jeff who live where with where?” So, I had him write it down on a napkin or on the back of my tie, which ever was closer at the time. After school I went directly to the Record Hunter on 2nd Avenue right across my apartment between 85th & 86th Streets and bought the album.
When I got to my room, which was coated with 70’s rock posters on every wall, I placed the needle on the record on my cheap Fischer stereo and out broke the intro to Freeway Jam with celestial horn sounds from Jan Hammer and the most enriching guitar tones I have ever heard in my young rocker live! When the song really got cookin’ I was completely blown away, thinking man I didn’t know you could do that on guitar and even more amazing was it is all instrumental. Yes, to say this song changed my musical life forever is an understatement. To this day, when I listen to Freeway Jam it takes me back to my early teen days growing up in NYC on the Upper East Side.
You can learn more about Jeff Beck here:
Image Credit: Egghead06 on Wikipedia
About the Curator: Brian Tarquin
Multi Emmy Award winning Brian Tarquin is an established top rate composer/guitarist. He has won 3 Emmy's for “Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series” and has been nominated for an Emmy 6 times. In 2019 Tarquin received a Global Music Gold Award for his release Orlando In Heaven for “Best Album.” Three years in a row (2016-2019) Tarquin received “Best Album of the Year” nominations from the Independent Music Awards for his releases: Guitars for Wounded Warriors, Orlando in Heaven, and Guitars for Veterans. On which, Tarquin shows his guitar prowess alongside such world-class shredders as: Steve Morse, Larry Coryell, Billy Sheehan, Bumblefoot (Guns N’ Roses), Reb Beach (Whitesnake), Chuck Loeb (FourPlay) to name a few. In 2006 SESAC honored him with the Network Television Performance Award. Tarquin has graced the Top Billboard Charts with such commercial releases as: This is Acid Jazz, Vol. 2, Sweet Emotions, and Bossa Brava: Caliente on Instinct Records, followed by several solo jazz albums, which charted Top 10 at Smooth Jazz Radio R&R and Gavin charts. Brian has appeared on 38 releases, selling over 140,000 records in his career.