Joe Satriani Live In San Francisco CD

Personnel: Joe Satriani (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Eric Caudieux (guitar, keyboards); Stu Hamm (bass); Jeff Campitelli (drums).
Recorded live in San Francisco, California in December 2000.
"Always With Me, Always With You" was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Personnel: Joe Satriani (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Eric Caudieux (guitar, keyboards); Jeff Campitelli (drums).
Audio Mixer: Mike Fraser.
Editor: Eric Caudieux.
Photographer: Neil Zlozower.
Booked into San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium and slated to film three songs for the venue's Live! at the Fillmore TV show, Joe Satriani decided to take the opportunity to record and film his show for a double CD and DVD. The audio version, clocking in at close to two-and-a-half hours, serves to create a thorough introduction to an artist who, up to this point, had not released a real compilation. The album presents concert recordings of material first heard on Satriani's previous studio releases: one from Not of This Earth (1986), four from Surfing With the Alien (1987), one from Dreaming #11 (1988), four from Flying in a Blue Dream (1989), two from The Extremist (1992), two from Time Machine (1993), one from Joe Satriani (1995), six from Crystal Planet (1998), and three from Engines of Creation (2000). The guitarist varies the pace, combining up-tempo hard rock tracks with more melodic medium-tempo numbers and even some lovely ballads. His vibrato-heavy, sustain-drenched playing remains consistent and identifiable no matter what the context, but despite his reputation as a high-speed riff technician his work can be surprisingly lyrical at times. His band -- bass, drums, and a keyboard player who sometimes picks up a rhythm guitar -- provides letter-perfect support, and Satriani draws considerable energy from an enraptured audience, making this an ideal sampler of the guitarist's work. Anyone who thinks of hard rock guitar playing as only one part of a complete musical palette, or who looks for more of a dynamic range in an instrumentalist, is likely to suffer from flagging attention before the two discs are over. But lovers of rock guitar in the Jimi Hendrix tradition will love this one as much as the fans in attendance did. ~ William Ruhlmann
For the two-disc LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO, Joe Satriani takes a career-spanning tour of a back catalog dating back to his full-length 1986 debut NOT OF THIS EARTH. Aided and abetted by a trio of longtime supporting musicians led by fellow virtuoso and bassist extraordinaire Stu Hamm, Satch soars on longtime favorites like the furiously intense "One Big Rush," ludicrously speedy "Surfing With The Alien," and swaggering neo-funk of "Satch Boogie." Belying a reputation for fleet-fingered histrionics, Satriani uses this live outing to trade in some speed for a degree of tonal and stylistic nuance. Among the best examples are the heartfelt "Until We Say Goodbye" with its wealth of crying guitar and pathos-laced phrasing, the quasi-waltz that is "Always With Me, Always With You," and delicate closer "Rubina," peppered with sweet chords and swirling synths.
Hamm's contributions are equally worthy, whether the pair of solos he tosses into the midst of the relentless "Raspberry Jam" or the poignant "Bass Solo" with its clever quote of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Although the lengthy set occasionally borders on the fringes of sameness, the twists and turns of Satch's dazzling fretboard heroics serve as an effective stimulant.

2 Cds