Max Middleton

Max Middleton is best known as the pianist in the second, most successful version of <a href="spotify:artist:0AD4odMWVQ2wUSlgxOB5Rl">Jeff Beck Group</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a> was trained as a classical pianist but also possessed a strong affinity for jazz, and had played in a band called Flare with Trinidad-born bassist Clive Chaman. His hook up with <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a> came about in the spring of 1971, while the guitarist was rehearsing the lineup of his reconstituted band (including Chaman) and decided that he needed a pianist. At 20, <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a> was one of the youngest players on the early-'70s blues-rock scene, and his youth, coupled with his devotion to jazz, quickly made him a mainstay of <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a>'s group -- his jazz piano was one of the more successful new elements introduced on the Rough and Ready album, and on the next LP, Jeff Beck Group, <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a> also wrote an outstanding instrumental track entitled "Definitely Maybe." <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a> was also the only member to make the jump from the second version of <a href="spotify:artist:0AD4odMWVQ2wUSlgxOB5Rl">Jeff Beck Group</a> to the third, which was really the prototypal <a href="spotify:artist:5IjFZHS2iHNl5pMwLzDySP">Beck, Bogert & Appice</a>, but he left before that trio had gotten far into their short-lived hook up. He passed through a group called <a href="spotify:artist:1cNfD0wVetbHjuDsosNCQO">Gonzales</a> before rejoining <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a> in 1974 -- with other core members of <a href="spotify:artist:1cNfD0wVetbHjuDsosNCQO">Gonzales</a> soon to follow -- to collaborate with the guitarist on the instrumental Blow By Blow album, which became the top-selling LP of <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a>'s whole career, reaching number four on the American charts. <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a> also played clavinette on the Wired album that followed, after which he parted company with the guitarist.

In the wake of his work with <a href="spotify:artist:0AD4odMWVQ2wUSlgxOB5Rl">Jeff Beck</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a>'s career fairly exploded, and he became ever busier as the 1970s wore on -- he passed through membership in <a href="spotify:artist:5hFfL5hDD0Pb4wMIzZCd1R">the Hummingbirds</a>, alongside his fellow <a href="spotify:artist:0AD4odMWVQ2wUSlgxOB5Rl">Jeff Beck Group</a>/Flare alumni Bob Tench and Clive Chaman, and did session work with everyone from Pete Brown to <a href="spotify:artist:1aSxMhuvixZ8h9dK9jIDwL">Kate Bush</a>, and he played extensively with <a href="spotify:artist:5KEG7G8LDYlHgFDqZyEEs2">Chris Rea</a> throughout the 1980s and 1990s. <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a>'s most familiar contributions to popular music, however, remain his work with <a href="spotify:artist:0AD4odMWVQ2wUSlgxOB5Rl">Jeff Beck</a>. Beyond his actual playing, <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a> has described the pianist as his most significant collaborator during the most commercially successful period of his career; <a href="spotify:artist:7KygebVvltzvrQxNnukuFT">Middleton</a>'s fluency in jazz chords forced the blues-rock guitar virtuoso to extend himself and his music in new and unexpected directions. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi