Studio and session guitarist Joe Beck earned recognition through his work supporting vocalist Esther Phillips on hits for Kudu during the 1970s, yet his broader recording résumé also encompassed contributions alongside Miles Davis, James Brown, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra, and Gil Evans. In the 1980s he issued a sequence of solid fusion and pop-jazz albums on DMP while achieving a major success via his 1975 CTI collaboration with Dave Sanborn. Into the 1990s and afterward his discography continued with releases such as the 1991 album Relaxin', the 1997 set Alto, and the 2000 joint project Polarity alongside Jimmy Bruno. Throughout most of the first decade of the new millennium Beck remained active on multiple labels, among them several Whaling City Sound titles that included 2002’s Just Friends, 2007’s Tri07, 2008’s Coincidence (a duet recording with John Abercrombie), and 2009’s Golden Earrings. That final project paired Beck with singer Laura Theodore on material originally associated with singer Peggy Lee and marked the guitarist’s last recording; soon after its completion he received a lung-cancer diagnosis and succumbed to the illness in July 2008 at age 62.
