Joe Satriani CD

Personnel: Joe Satriani (vocals, guitar, dobro, slide guitar, lap steel, harmonica, bass); Andy Fairweather Low (guitar); Eric Valentine (piano, keyboards, bass, percussion); Nathan East, Matt Bissonette (bass); Manu Katche, Jeff Campitelli, Ethan Johns (drums); Greg Bissonette (percussion).
Engineers: Steve Holroyd (tracks 1-3, 5, 8-9, 12); Steve Holroyd, John Cuniberti, Eric Valentine (track 4); John Cuniberti, Eric Valentine (track 6); Steve Holroyd, John Cuniberti (tracks 7, 10); John Cuniberti (track 11).
All songs written by Joe Satriani.
"(You're) My World" was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Joe Satriani's self-titled, seventh adventure bursts with a new level of maturity and musicianship. The first thing that hits you is a fat, warm guitar tone wallowing in an enormous groove, but the overall sound is different from the Satch we're used to. JOE SATRIANI is much more direct, more raw and more effective. It is as though he has been stripped of any superfluous trimmings and wayward effects so that the beautiful guitar within his soul can shine clearly.
This lucidity reveals a gifted and consistent songwriter, sublimely talented guitarist, versatile improviser and a kickin' band--strengths that allow Satriani to express himself ever so eloguently, evoking emotions on a universal level. The opener, "Cool #9," is a funky, polyrhythmic scorcher on which Satriani grows a stratospheric guitar solo out of a few well-placed succinct phrases. That's just the first of the burning rock to be found on JOE SATRIANI, most of it propelled by the tremendous drumming of Manu Katche.
Satriani also pours much of his ferocious red energy into the blues. There are four genuine blues offerings here, showcasing Joe on slide guitar, Joe on harp, Joe on dobro and Joe on vocals. Occasionally adding the touch of rhythm guitar master Andy Fairweather Low, Satriani plays the blues with spine-warming emotion, milking buckets of feeling out of his strings to feed sweet melodies.
A guitar virtuoso and genius of instrumental composition, Joe Satriani explores deeper waters with a haunting yet richly entailed work of stripped-down blues-rock and improvisational jazz. This record, self-titled as Joe Satriani, puts the guitar wizard into a streaming new light of musical impression, as his efforts point toward a sincere evolutionary progression in composition and arrangement. With a collective of the most witty, crafty, and enticing musicians in jazz and blues, Satriani blends soaring, scintillating scale passages with pulsating, engaging melodic lines. With the help of his main group during these sessions -- Andy Fairweather Low on rhythm guitar, Nathan East on bass, and Manu Katche on drums -- Satriani reaches further into his musical self to bring out soulful grooves and mesmerizing yet catchy riffs, creating a relaxed, yet gripping intensity to these jams. Spontaneous in meter, rhythm, and melody, Satriani never fails to let the listener in on his enchanting and seemingly overabundant sense of creativity. Perhaps the only weakness throughout the majority of the album's 12 tracks is his intention to strip down and use only the effects of his Marshall amps, therefore, sadly diminishing his trademark flair for the highly alluring sonic territory he covered on his critically acclaimed Surfing With the Alien, Flying in a Blue Dream, and Time Machine. Still, with all due respect, his plethora of extremely gifted backup musicians sincerely adds a diverse range of textures and colors, bringing out a much-needed live feel to an otherwise bland album of blues-oriented jazz-rock. Perhaps the highlight of the record in the punch and volume of the progressive-oriented blues jam, "Killer Bee Bop" is a tune drenched with well-placed percussion and racing guitar lines. Because he is not afraid to seek the darker and once-unapproachable territories of guitar rock to find vibrant and refreshingly new sounds,Entertainment Weekly (10/13/95, p.78) - "...this is Satriani's gutsiest and most plainspoken effort yet, echoing Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but with his own inimitable urgency. His roots are showing, in the best way."
- Rating: A-
Q (12/95, p.155) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...this is an artifact brimming with unexpected delights...Satriani seems to be paying homage to an earlier era where melody took precedence over technique..."
Musician (1/96, p.87) - "...a straight-ahead instrumental rock album....There's a real bite to much of this music, and Satriani's got a leaner tone to match. The glossy, airbrushed leads...are largely gone; in the few spots where they do appear...they take on a new air of menace..."