Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani

Joseph "Satch" Satriani (born on July 15, 1956, in Westbury, New York, U.S.) is an American guitarist and former guitar instructor. His self-released debut album, Not of This Earth in 1986, opened the way to a world of instrumental rock music in what was then a pop-dominated world. Influenced heavily by Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Satriani often incorporates a warm sound of guitar with a dominant blues and rock tone. Since 1990, he has used his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is widely sold in stores. Satriani also has a signature series amplifier, the Peavey JSX.

In 1988, Satriani was recruited by the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger's first solo tour. Later, in 1994, Satriani was also asked to be a lead guitarist for Deep Purple, which he ultimately turned down due to contract issues. Satriani has also worked with a wide range of guitarists from many styles, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts.

Biography and playing history

Satriani was inspired to play guitar at age 14 after learning of the death of Jimi Hendrix. He reportedly heard the news during a football training session, where he immediately confronted his coach and announced that he was quitting to become a guitarist.

In 1974, Satriani studied music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani's playing. Satriani also began teaching guitar, with his most notable student at the time being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai.

In 1978 Satriani moved to Berkeley, California to pursue a music career. Not long after his arrival he resumed teaching. His most notable California students included Kirk Hammett (Metallica), David Bryson (Counting Crows), Kevin Cadogan (Third Eye Blind), Larry LaLonde (Primus, Possessed), Alex Skolnick (Testament), Rick Hunolt (Exodus), Phil Kettner (Laaz Rockit), Charlie Hunter and Steve Vai.

When his friend and former student Steve Vai gained fame playing with David Lee Roth in 1986, Vai raved about Satriani in several interviews with guitar magazines. In 1987, Satriani's second album Surfing with the Alien produced popular radio hits and was the first all-instrumental release to chart so highly in many years. Satriani also toured Australia and New Zealand with Mick Jagger in support of the Rolling Stones singer's solo album. That same year, he helped produce the EP The Eyes of Horror for the death metal band Possessed.

In 1989, Satriani released the album Flying in a Blue Dream. The album sold well, particularly in Texas. It was heavily promoted by KLBJ-FM in Austin. "One Big Rush" was featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie Say Anything. "The Forgotten Part II" was featured on a Labatt Blue commercial in Canada in 1993. "Big Bad Moon", one of Satriani's few songs with personally sung vocals, was a minor hit in late 1989.

In 1992, Satriani released The Extremist, his most critically acclaimed and commercially successful album to date. Radio stations across the country were quick to pick up on "Summer Song", while "Cryin'", "Friends" and the title track were regional hits.

In late 1993, Satriani joined Deep Purple as a short-term replacement for departed guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during the band's Japanese tour. The concerts were such a success that Satriani was asked to join the band permanently[citation needed], but he declined, having just signed a multi-album solo deal with Sony.

In 1996, he formed G3, a concert tour featuring three instrumental rock guitarists -- originally Satriani, Vai, and Eric Johnson. The G3 tour has continued periodically since its inaugural version, where Satriani and Vai are returning members, featured with a floating third member, including among others Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Fripp, Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, Adrian Legg and Paul Gilbert.

In 1998 Satriani recorded and released Crystal Planet, which went back to a sound more reminiscent of his late '80s work. Planet was followed up with Engines of Creation, one of his more experimental works. During the subsequent tour, a pair of shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco were recorded in December 2000 and released as Live in San Francisco, a two-disc live album and DVD.

Over the next several years, Satriani regularly recorded and released new music, including Strange Beautiful Music in 2002 and Is There Love in Space? in 2004.

In 2006 Satriani recorded and released Super Colossal and Satriani Live!, another two-disc live album and DVD recorded May 3, 2006 at the Grove in Anaheim, CA.

On August 7, 2007 Epic/Legacy Recordings re-released Surfing with the Alien to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release. This was a two-disc set that includes a remastered album and a DVD of a previously never-before-seen live show filmed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988.

Other work

Satriani is also credited on many other albums, including guitar duties on Alice Cooper's 1991 album Hey Stoopid, Spinal Tap's 1992 album Break Like the Wind, Blue Öyster Cult's 1988 album Imaginos, band members Stu Hamm and Gregg Bissonette's solo albums, and many others including countless guitar hero-style albums. Interestingly, he was credited with singing background vocals on the 1986 debut album by Crowded House. In 2003, he played lead guitar on The Yardbirds's CD release Birdland. In 2006 he made appearances on several tracks for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's solo CD/DVD dual disc Gillan's Inn. On Dream Theater's 2007 album, Systematic Chaos, Satriani contributed spoken lyrics to the song "Repentance".

He is also featured in the Christopher Guest film, For Your Consideration, as the guitarist in the band that played for the late-night show.

Technique and influence

Satriani is widely recognized as a technically highly advanced rock guitarist and has been described as a virtuosoHe has mastered many performance techniques on the instrument, including two-handed tapping, sweep-picking, volume swells, harmonics, and extreme whammy bar effects. One of his trademark compositional traits is the use of Pitch Axis Theory, which he applies with a variety of modes.[citation needed] Satriani approaches scales and soloing differently. Instead of practicing his scales in positions, he practices his scales one string at a time. He calls this technique 'linear scales.'[citation needed] During fast passages, Joe favors a technique known as legato (achieved primarily through hammer-ons and pull-offs) which yields smooth and flowing runs. He is also adept at other speed-related techniques such as speed picking (a rapid form of alternate picking) and sweep picking, but uses them relatively rarely.

His success is notable in a genre typically unfriendly to instrumental musicians. Satriani has received 14 Grammy nominations[8] and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide.[9] Many of his fans and friends call him "Satch," short for "Satriani". Other guitarists sometimes refer to him as "Saint Joe"; there are numerous t-shirts to this effect.[citation needed]

Gear

Satriani has endorsed Ibanez's JS Series guitars, and Peavey's JSX amplifier. Both lines were designed specifically as signature products for Satriani. However, Satriani uses a variety of gear. Many of his guitars are made by Ibanez, including the JS1000, and JS1200. These guitars typically feature the DiMarzio PAF Pro (which he used up until 1993 in both the neck and bridge positions), the DiMarzio Fred (which he used in the bridge position from 1993 to present day), and the Mo' Joe and the Paf Joe (which he uses in the bridge and neck positions, respectively, from 2005 to present day). The JS line of guitars is his signature line, and they feature the Edge Pro, which is Ibanez's exclusive tremolo system. Satriani has also been found to use some of the older Edge tremolo systems such as the Original Edge tremolo. The mirrored silver guitar he used on the Live in San Francisco DVD is called Chrome Boy, for obvious reasons. Satriani also uses a number of other JS models such as the JS double neck model, JS700 (seen on the 1995 tour "Joe Satriani", a fixed bridge with P-90 pickups), JS1 (the original JS model), JS2000 (fixed bridge model), a variety of JS100s, JS1000s and JS1200s with custom paint work, and a large amount of prototype JSs.

Satriani has used a wide variety of guitar amps over the years, using Marshall Amplification for his main amplifier up until 2001, and his Peavey signature series amps, the Peavey JSX, thereafter. The JSX began life as a prototype Peavey XXX and developed into the Joe Satriani signature Peavey model, now available for purchase in retail stores. Joe Satriani has used other amplifiers over the years in the studio, however. Those include the Peavey 5150 (used to record the song 'Crystal Planet'), Cornford, and the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ (used to record the song 'Flying in a Blue Dream'), amongst others.

His effects pedals include the Vox wah, Dunlop Cry Baby wah, RMC Wizard Wah, BOSS DS-1, BOSS CH-1, BOSS CE-2, BOSS DD-2 and a standard BOSS DD-3 (used together to emulate reverb effects), BOSS BF-3, BOSS OC-2, Barber Burn Drive Unit, Fulltone Deja Vibe, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, and Electro-Harmonix POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator), the latter being featured prominently on the title cut to his 2006 Super Colossal.

Satriani has also partnered recently with Planet Waves to create a signature line of guitar picks and guitar straps featuring his sketch art.

Although Satriani endorses the JSX, he has also used many different amps in the studio when recording, including the Peavey Classic. He is also known to have used Marshall heads and cabinets, including live, prior to his Peavey endorsement. Most recently Satriani used the JSX head through a Palmer Speaker Simulator. Joe Satriani has also released a Class-A 5-watt tube amp called the "Mini Colossal".

Recurring themes

Satriani's work frequently makes references to various science fiction stories and/or ideas. "Surfing with the Alien", "Back to Shalla-Bal" and "The Power Cosmic 2000" refer to the comic book character Silver Surfer, while "Ice 9" refers to the secret government ice weapon in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. "Borg Sex" is a reference to Star Trek, which features a homogeneous cybernetic race known as the Borg. Additionally, his albums and songs often have other-worldly titles, such as Not of this Earth, Crystal Planet, Is There Love in Space?, and Engines of Creation.

On the album Super Colossal the song titled "Crowd Chant" was originally called "Party on the Enterprise". "Party on the Enterprise" featured sampled sounds from the Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek TV show. But as Satriani explained in a podcast, legal issues regarding the samples could not be resolved and he was unable to get permission to use them. Satriani then removed the sounds from the song and called it "Crowd Chant."

"Redshift Riders", another song on the Super Colossal album, is "...based on the idea that in the future, when people can travel throughout space, they will theoretically take advantage of the cosmological redshift effect so they can be swung around large planetary objects and get across [the] universe a lot faster than normal," Satriani said in a podcast about the song.