The band that could balance and enhance his strengths as a soloist was with the group he formed after leaving the Yardbirds. Rod Stewart and Ron Wood had enough presence and confidence to hold their own ground, and the music they made together was often as cohesive as it was exciting. 

 Although Beck-Ola features a couple of amusingly energized Elvis covers (“Jailhouse Rock” and “All Shook Up”), the group’s attempts to add a heavier edge to its sound only succeed in making the music more lugubrious.  

 After losing Stewart and Wood to the Faces, Beck’s next group opted for a funkier approach, built around jazz-oriented keyboardist Max Middleton and David Clayton-Thomas imitator Bob Tench. It wasn’t an ideal match.  

 Pushing the band’s mannerisms to the point of self-parody, after the departure of Wood and Stewart for the Faces. 

 Beck then tried the power-trio approach, but the results, as embodied by Beck, Bogert & Appice, aren’t much better, offering all the self-indulgence of Cream but none of the focus or pop appeal.  

 By rights, Beck’s next attempt at reinvention–this time as a fusion jazz star–ought to have been just as disastrous as the previous three, but thanks to producer George Martin, the all-instrumental Blow by Blow is one of Beck’s most listenable and consistent albums. 

 With Wired, Beck leaps into the deep end, abandoning all his bandmates except Middleton to work with Mahavishnu Orchestra alumni Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden. Beck plays gamely, but it’s really Hammer’s album, since his synth solos are what ultimately galvanize the group. 

 Jeff Beck With the Jan Hammer Group Live would seem a natural outgrowth from this collaboration, but the actual results are a mess, with Beck getting by on feedback and flash while Hammer’s group tries to hold the music together.  

 There and Back returns Beck to the studio with a more sympathetic set of collaborators (Hammer, drummer Simon Phillips, keyboardist Tony Hymas), but still goes nowhere.  

 Astonishingly, Beck’s next album, Flash, was a pop outing with Wet Willie alumnus Jimmy Hall singing on most tracks. Thanks to producers Nile Rodgers and Arthur Baker, it’s consistent and accessible, but sparked only when Beck reunited with Rod Stewart for a version of “People Get Ready.” 

 Bored, Beck went back to fusion and the empty acrobatics of Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop, but that didn’t last.  

 Although not quite a career summation, the box set includes Beck’s first recordings (with the Tridents), a good sampling of his Yardbirds material, and a smattering of arcana.  

 His next album, Crazy Legs, was a tribute to Gene Vincent & the Bluecaps guitarist Cliff Gallup that found Beck playing in classic rockabilly style with the Big Town Playboys. 

 The soundtrack album Frankie’s House found him working in a enough different styles (R&B, New Age, semimetal) to show off his versatility, but without enough focus for the music to make much of an impression.  

 Partly live and partly studio-concocted, Who Else! had its moments, but never quite gelled.  

 You Had It Coming offered a more cohesive approach, particularly in its interplay with guitarist Jennifer Batten (the first real fretboard sparring partner Beck has had since the Yardbirds) and in its approach to such roots material as the blues standard “Rollin’ and Tumblin’.”  

 Jeff more fully embraced the studio-based aesthetic, pairing Beck with only one or two musicians for most tracks. Not only does he recapture the improvisational abandon of Wired, he actually takes the music a step forward.  

 Official Bootleg captures a single-show performances, from the Greek Theater in L.A. It finds Beck laying into material new and old, sounding near the top of his game.  

 Ronnie Scott is a great live document captured at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Austin.