Born in Philadelphia, Beck moved to Manhattan in his teens, playing six nights a week in a trio setting, which gave him an opportunity to meet various people working in the thriving New York music scene.

An important detail about Joe from Miles Davis' Wikipedia page regarding his compilation album 'Circle in the Round': "The title track, "Circle in the Round," is the first studio recording in which he departed from the acoustic quintet, marking the inception of his "electric" period.

In 2000, he collaborated with guitarist Jimmy Bruno on Polarity, which extensively featured Beck's alto guitar,[1] and in 2008 on Coincidence with John Abercrombie.

[1] Beck worked as a sideman or session guitarist with a wide variety of well-known jazz, rock, and fusion musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Howard Roberts, Tommy Tedesco, Larry Coryell, John Abercrombie, Tom Scott, Jeremy Steig, and Gábor Szabó.

Over the years, Joe was signed to contracts with Columbia, Polydor, Verve, Gryphon, CTI, and MGM Records.

[8] The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored Beck five times with its Most Valuable Player Award.

[7] Beck's first wife, Sigi, was a model and later married an internationally renowned economist, Dr. Zoran Hodjera.

To fill out the sound he wanted to present—bass lines, harmony, and melody—in a duo setting, he developed what he called the "alto guitar".

This began as a standard, full-body, electric jazz guitar with a unique stringing pattern and reentrant tuning.

The reason the guitar is a patented invention is that this pickup is split so that the bass strings have their own output.

[18] BECK-6 Specifications[19] With Gene Ammons With Gato Barbieri With James Brown With Joe Farrell With Jay Leonhart With Mike Mainieri With Jimmy Scott With Don Sebesky With others